J. /If  .2,1, 

LIBRARY  OF  THE  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 

PRINCETON,  N.  J. 


Purchased  by  the 
Mrs.   Robert  Lenox  Kennedy  Church  History  Fund. 


Division.jQ./\.../ / « 
Section.UJ.-2--0 

V,  / 


i 


/^a^A^fia^dr/      ' 


HISTORY 


JAN  14  1921 


OF    THE 


OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH 

(G^irD  &fyuttt)) 

BOSTON 

1669  —  1884 

HAMILTON   ANDREWS    HILL 

IN  TWO   VOLUMES 
VOLUME    I. 


BOSTON  AND  NEW  YORK 

HOUGHTON,  MIFFLIN  AND  COMPANY 

C&e  EtoeraiUe  Press,  Cambrtlig;?,  Jlaes. 

1890 


Copyright,  1889, 
By  HAMILTON  ANDREWS  HILL. 

All  rights  reserved. 


The  Riverside  Press,  Cambridge,  Mass.,  U.  S.  A. 
Electrotyped  and  Printed  by  H.  O.  Houghton  &  Company. 


"For  well  she  keeps  her  ancient  stock, 
The  stubborn  strength  of  Pilgrim  Rock ; 
And  still  maintains,  with  milder  laws, 
And  clearer  light,  the  Good  Old  Cause/" 


PREFACE. 


SIXTY  years  ago  the  Rev.  Dr.  Wisner  preached  four  sermons 
on  the  History  of  the  Old  South  Church  in  Boston. 
These  sermons  were  published,  with  a  series  of  notes  which 
turned  to  the  best  account  all  the  information  relating  to  the 
church  then  accessible.  In  1883  an  Historical  Catalogue  was 
printed,  containing  a  list  of  the  members  from  1669  to  1882, 
together  with  the  names  of  those  who  had  owned  the  covenant. 
At  the  annual  meeting  of  the  society  in  1884  the  preparation 
and  publication  of  a  more  complete  history  were  determined 
upon,  and,  soon  after,  the  present  work  was  undertaken. 

The  author's  plan  at  the  beginning  was  to  print  in  full  the 
records  of  the  church  and  society  down  to  a  recent  date,  and  all 
the  more  important  papers  which  had  been  preserved,  with 
sketches  of  the  ministers,  officers,  and  members,  so  far  as  mate- 
rial could  be  found  for  this  purpose,  and,  as  a  setting  to  the  whole, 
and  in  order  to  its  better  understanding,  to  make  mention  of 
the  principal  events,  secular  as  well  as  religious,  which  the 
church  had  witnessed,  and  to  recall,  to  some  extent,  the  circum- 
stances in  the  midst  of  which  its  members  had  lived  and  la- 
bored. It  soon  became  apparent,  however,  that  so  far  as  related 
to  the  records,  if  the  work  were  to  be  compressed  within  rea- 
sonable limits,  it  would  be  necessary  either  to  give  only  an 
abstract  of  them  for  the  entire  period  of  the  church's  history, 
or  to  print  them  in  full  for  a  portion  of  the  time.  The  author 
decided  upon  the  latter  course,  and  those  with  whom  he  con- 
sulted concurred  in  the  decision.  Accordingly,  the  records  are 
given  in  full  for  about  a  century  and  a  half,  or  down  to  and 
including  the  ordination,  in  182 1,  of  the  Rev.  Benjamin  B. 
Wisner,  while  only  the  more  noteworthy  events  of  his  pastorate, 
and  of  the  pastorates  of  Dr.  Blagden  and  Dr.  Manning,  have 


VI  PREFACE. 

been  dwelt  upon.  The  history  closes  with  the  installation  in 
1884  of  the  present  minister,  the  Rev.  George  A.  Gordon. 

After  the  first  part  of  the  history  had  been  written,  the 
attention  of  the  author  was  called,  during  a  visit  in  New  Haven, 
by  Professor  Franklin  Bowditch  Dexter,  to  an  old  manuscript  in 
the  library  of  Yale  University  relating  to  the  Old  South  Church. 
Upon  an  examination  of  this  manuscript  it  was  found  to  be  an 
account,  prepared  by  a  committee  of  the  church  in  1693  or 
1694,  of  the  circumstances  which  led  to  the  formation  of  the 
church  and  of  its  early  experiences.  This  long-forgotten  docu- 
ment, to  which  we  have  given  the  name  of  the  Third  Church 
Narrative,  was  so  much  more  complete  than  the  record  books 
of  the  church,  and  contained  so  much  that  seemed  interesting 
and  important,  that  the  rewriting  of  the  first  two  or  three  chap- 
ters became  necessary.  Professor  Dexter  superintended  the 
copying  of  the  Narrative,  and  has  taken  a  most  kind  interest  in 
its  publication.  This  document,  with  the  diaries  of  John  Hull, 
Samuel  Sewall,  and  Joseph  Sewall,  throws  much  light  on  the 
history  of  the  church  and  its  membership  for  nearly  a  hundred 
years.  In  the  transcription  of  the  records  and  other  papers,  as 
the  aim  of  the  work  is  historical  rather  than  antiquarian,  the 
original  spelling  has  been  followed  for  the  most  part,  but  not  the 
old-time  abbreviations,  which  too  often  perplex  the  reader  of 
the  present  day  and  obscure  the  meaning  of  the  documents. 

To  any  one  engaged  in  historical  investigation  it  is  a  great 
privilege  to  have  access  to  such  libraries  as  those  of  the  New 
England  Historic  Genealogical  Society,  the  Massachusetts  His- 
torical Society,  and  the  Boston  Athenaeum,  and  to  the  Congre- 
gational Library,  the  Boston  Public  Library,  the  University  Li- 
brary, Cambridge,  and  the  Seminary  Library,  Andover.  This 
has  been  the  privilege  of  the  author,  and  he  hereby  expresses 
his  appreciation  of  the  courtesy  which  has  been  extended  to 
him  in  his  frequent  use  of  these  rich  depositaries.  He  desires 
to  make  special  acknowledgments  to  his  honored  and  much  es- 
teemed friend,  Mr.  John  Ward  Dean  of  the  Historic  Genealogi- 
cal Society,  whose  advice  and  assistance  from  time  to  time  have 
been  most  valuable.     Important  suggestions  and  aid,  also,  have 


PREFACE.  VH 

been  received  from  the  Hon.  Peter  Thacher,  Professor  Edward 
E.  Salisbury,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Samuel  E.  Herrick,  Mr.  George 
Lamb,  Mr.  Samuel  Sewall,  Dr.  Samuel  Abbott  Green,  the  Rev. 
Edward  G.  Porter,  Dr.  George  Frederick  Bigelow,  and  Mr. 
Samuel  Johnson.  To  the  chairman  (Mr.  Joseph  H.  Gray)  and 
members  of  the  standing  committee  of  the  Old  South  Society, 
the  author  returns  his  thanks  for  their  hearty  and  appreciative 
cooperation. 

To  this  list  it  was  intended  to  add  the  name  of  the  Rev. 
Henry  W.  Foote,  the  beloved  minister  of  King's  Chapel,  but  he 
has  been  called  away  from  the  associations  of  earth  to  join  the 
generations  of  the  redeemed  in  heaven. 

The  etchings  of  Old  Washington  Street  and  Old  Milk  Street, 
which  appear  as  the  frontispieces  of  these  volumes,  follow  two 
very  interesting  pictures  owned  by  Mr.  Abbott  Lawrence,  and 
painted  probably  between  the  years  1830  and  1840.  Mr.  Law- 
rence cordially  allowed  the  pictures  to  be  drawn  for  this  work, 
and  took  much  pains  personally  that  the  best  result  might  be 
secured.  Dr.  Fitch  Edward  Oliver,  also,  afforded  every  facility 
for  copying  the  portrait  by  Copley  of  his  ancestor,  Lieutenant- 
Governor  Oliver,  and  Messrs.  Ticknor  and  Company  gave  their 
ready  permission  to  take  drawings  from  the  Memorial  History  of 
Boston  of  the  mansion  houses  of  Edward  Bromfield  and  William 
Phillips.  The  Bibliography  appended  to  the  second  volume  has 
been  compiled  by  Mr.  Appleton  P.  C.  Griffin  of  the  Boston 
Public  Library. 

There  never,  perhaps,  has  been  a  better  understanding  of  the 
fathers  of  New  England,  or  more  clear  and  just  discrimination 
in  reference  to  them  and  their  work,  than  now  prevails.  Their 
descendants  are  beginning  to  judge  them  not  so  much  by  what 
was  external,  incidental,  and  accessory  in  their  lives,  as  by  their 
character,  their  principles,  and  their  purposes,  and,  also,  by  what 
they  accomplished.  Even  the  Puritan  theology,  in  its  spirit 
and  essence,  is  beginning  to  be  understood  more  intelligently, 
and  estimated  more  fairly,  under  the  influence  of  the  intellectual 
and  spiritual  quickening  which  has  come,  of  late,  to  the  Congre- 
gational and   other  churches    of    New   England.      The   annals 


Vlll  PRE  FA  CE. 

contained  in  these  volumes  have  been  collated  and  edited  with 
some  appreciation  of  the  earnest  lives  and  faithful  labors  which 
they  serve  to  illustrate,  and  with  the  highest  admiration  for 
them.  On  the  part  of  those  who  shall  read  the  record,  may 
there  be  at  the  least  as  much  appreciation  of  these  lives  and 
labors,  and  as  hearty  a  sympathy  with  them. 

Boston,  October  10,  1889. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER   I. 

1669. 

INTRODUCTORY. — THE   SEPARATION   FROM   THE   FIRST  CHURCH. 

PAGES 

New  England  Congregationalism.  —  The  First  Church.  —  Death  of  Mr.  Nor- 
ton and  Mr.  Wilson.  —  The  Proper  Subjects  of  Baptism. — The  Synod  of 
1662.  —  The  Rev.  Jonathan  Mitchell.  —  The  Third  Church  Narrative. — The 
Minority  in  the  First  Church.  —  The  First  Church  asks  the  New  Haven 
Church  to  release  Mr.  Davenport.  —  Reasons  of  Dissent  signed  by  Thirty 
Brethren.  —  Letter  from  Mr.  Davenport  to  the  First  Church.  —  Letter  from 
the  New  Haven  Church.  —  A  Second  Letter  from  Mr.  Davenport.  —  Mr. 
Davenport  comes  to  Boston.  —  The  First  Church  calls  a  Council.  —  Result 
of  Council.  — The  Dissenting  Brethren  request  a  Dismission.  —  Mr.  Daven- 
port formally  called. —  A  Letter  from  the  New  Haven  Church  concealed. 

—  A  Church  Meeting.  —  The  New  Haven  Letter  as  read  and  as  written. 

—  Dismission  of  the  Minority  refused. —  Four  Churches  advised  with. — 
Further  Advice  sought.  —  Mr.  Davenport  ordained,  —  Charges  against  the 
Dissenting  Brethren.  —  Letter  from  the  Rev.  Nicholas  Street.  —  The  Dea- 
cons called  to  Account  and  dismissed  from  Office.  —  Memorial  of  the  Dis- 
senting Brethren  to  the  Governor  and  Council. — A  Church  Meeting  in 
the  Town  House.  —  A  Second  Council  called  by  the  Minority.  —  Letter 
from  John  Allin  and  John  Eliot.  —  Further  Charges  against  the  Minority.  — 
The  Case  stated  to  the  Second  Council.  —  The  Council's  Letters  to  the  Elders 
of  the  First  Church  and  their  Replies.  —  The  Council's  Letter  to  the  First 
Church.  —  Result  of  Council. —  Letter  from  the  Rev.  John  Allin.  —  Letter 
from  the  Dissenting  Brethren.  —  Their  Third  Declaration  to  the  First 
Church.  — Approbation  of  Six  Magistrates.  —  The  Governor  and  Others  pro- 
test.—  The  First  Church  protests.  —  The  Third  Church  constituted. — Mr. 
Davenport's  Statement.  —  The  Testimony  of  many  Ministers.  —  A  Fast  Day 
appointed 1-89 

CHAPTER   II. 
1669-1671. 

THE   DISPUTE  BECOMES  A   POLITICAL  QUESTION. 

John  Hull's  Diary.  —  Extracts  from  the  Records  of  the  Salem  Church. — Mr. 
Davenport's  Election  Sermon.  —  Differences  in  the  General  Court.  —  Memo- 
rial from  Hadleyand  Northampton.  —  A  Joint  Committee  appointed.  —  Two 
Reports.  —  Communication  from  the  Magistrates.  —  A  Paper  from  the  Dep- 
uties. —  Another  Paper  from  the  Deputies.  —  A  Letter  from  the  Deputy- 
Governor. —  A  Day  of  Humiliation  appointed.  —  An  Election.  —  The  House 
of  Deputies  changed. —  Memorial  of  Fifteen  Clergymen.  —  Report  on  the 
Memorial.  —  Seventeen  Deputies  dissent 90-112 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  III. 

1669-1674. 

ORGANIZATION. 

The  Founders  of  the  Third  Church. —  Mrs.  Norton.  —  The  Rev.  Thomas 
Thacher.  —  Covenant  of  the  Third  Church. — Opposition  to  the  Erection  of 
a  Meeting-House.  —  Land  given  by  Mrs.  Norton. — Governor  Winthrop's 
Estate,  the  Green.  —  Mrs.  Norton's  First  Deed. —  The  First  Church  and  the 
Green,  1639.  —  Meeting-House  completed.  —  Call  for  a  Meeting  of  the  Coun- 
cil.—  Judgment  of  the  Council.  —  Meeting  of  the  Selectmen. — Petition  to 
the  Governor  and  Council.  —  Action  of  the  Council ;  its  Letter  to  the  Elders 
of  the  First  Church.  —  Church  Officers  chosen.  —  Mr.  Hull's  Mission  to 
England.  —  Letter  Testimonial  to  Ministers  and  Brethren  in  England.  —  Mr. 
Thacher's  Dismission  from  the  Church  in  Charlestown. — Letters-Missive. — 
Reply  of  the  First  Church.  —  Mr.  Thacher's  Ordination.  —  Request  of  the 
Women  for  Dismission  from  the  First  Church. — Death  of  Mr.  Davenport. 

—  Refusal  to  dismiss  the  Women.  —  A  Second  Request.  —  Perplexities  of 
the  Women.  — A  Letter  to  the  First  Church.  —  An  Essay  for  Accommoda- 
tion.—  The  Attitude  of  the  First  Church.  —  An  Appeal  to  the  First  Church 
for  Peace.  —  Its  Reply.  —  Letter  from  the  Church  in  Plymouth.  —  The  Rev. 
Leonard  Hoar. —  Called  to  the  Presidency  of  Harvard  College. —  His  Ad- 
ministration.—  His  Resignation  and  Death. —  A  Vote  of  the  Church. — 
Death  of  Governor  Bellingham.  —  His  Will.  —  Mr.  Oakes's  Election  Ser- 
mon. —  The  Extreme  Men  rebuked.  —  Another  Appeal  for  Peace.  —  Reply 
of  the  First  Church.  —  Fast-Day  Sermon  by  Mr.  Thacher.  —  Request  of  the 
Women  for  Admission  to  the  Third  Church.  — Judgment  of  the  Ministers  in 
their  Favor 113-204 

CHAPTER   IV. 

1675-16S3. 

philip's  war.  —  the  Quakers.  —  reconciliation. 

A  Brief  Period  of  Quiet.  —  Philip's  Intrigues.  —  Attack  on  Swanzey. — Cen- 
tral Massachusetts  desolated.  —  Soldiers  in  Philip's  War.  —  Mrs.  Rowland- 
son.  —  A  Letter  from  Mr.  Thacher  to  his  Son  in  London.  —  Samuel  Sewall. 

—  Mrs.  Norton's  Second  Deed.  —  The  Quakers.  —  Margaret  Brewster.  — 
Mrs.  Norton's  Death.  —  Her  Will.  —  Her  Estate.  —  The  Rev.  Samuel  Wil- 
lard  installed. — Mr.  Thacher's  Last  Sermon.  —  His  Death.  —  The  Rev. 
Peter  Thacher. —The  Reforming  Synod.  —  The  Confession  of  1680.  —  A 
Large  Accession  to  the  Membership.  —  Death  of  Mr.  Shepard  of  Charles- 
town.  —  The  Ordination  of  his  Son  as  his  Successor.  —  Simon  Bradstreet.  — 
Letter  from  the  Church  in  Andover. —  Renewal  of  the  Covenant. — Death  • 
of  Edward  Raynsford  and  Thomas  Savage.  —  Reconciliation  between  the 
First  and  Third  Churches.  —  Death  of  John  Hull 205-248 

CHAPTER  V. 

1 683- 1 696. 

THE   INTER-CHARTER   PERIOD.  —  WITCHCRAFT. 

Edward  Randolph. —  The  Charter  threatened. —  A  Public  Fast.  —  Regulation 
of  Seats. — Ordination  of  a  Deacon.  —  A  Council  at  Maiden.  —  The  Rev. 
John  Bailey.  —  The  Rev.  Charles  Morton.  —  The  Anglican  Hierarchy.  —  The 
Rev.  Robert  Ratcliffe.  —  The  Charter  vacated.  —  Letter  from  John  Eliot.  — 


CONTENTS.  XI 

Arrival  of  Sir  Edmund  Andros.  —  The  South  Meeting-House  seized.  — 
Death  and  Funeral  of  Lady  Andros.  —  An  Exciting  Interview  with  the  Gov- 
ernor. —  A  Declarative  Deed.  —  Edward  Lilley's  Funeral.  —  The  Revolution 
of  1689.  —  Simon  Bradstreet.  —  The  Woeful  Decade.  —  Peter  Sergeant.— 
The  Province  House.  —  Council  at  Lynn.  —  Witchcraft  in  New  England.  —  A 
Special  Court  constituted.  —  Trial  of  John  Alden.  —  Mr.  Willard's  Attitude. 

—  Judge  Sewall's  Penitence. —  His  Public  Confession. —  Death  of  Jacob 
Eliot.  —  A  Subscription  for  Mr.  Willard.  —  Council  at  Salem  Village.  —  The 
Rev.  Benjamin  Wadsworth.  —  Church  gathered  at  Lexington.  —  The  Rev. 
William  Brattle 249-300 

CHAPTER  VI. 

1 696- 1 707. 

A    PROGRESSIVE    MOVEMENT.  —  THE   PRESIDENCY   OF   HARVARD   COLLEGE. 

Death  of  the  Rev.  John  Bailey.  —  A  Church  Meeting  at  Judge  Sewall's.  — 
Mr.  Willard  asks  for  a  Colleague.  —  The  Rev.  Simon  Bradstreet  and  the 
Rev.  Ebenezer  Pemberton.  —  The  Latter  chosen.  —  Cases  of  Church  Disci- 
pline. —  Roger  Judd  and  Others.  —  A  Party  of  Progress.  —  President  Math- 
er's Attack  on  the  Tutors  at  Cambridge.  —  New  Church  formed  by  Thomas 
Brattle  and  Others.  —  Its  Manifesto.  —  The  Rev.  Benjamin  Colman.  —  Fast 
at  the  New  Church.  —  Mr.  Pemberton  called. —  His  Ordination. — Judge 
Sewall's  Tract  on  Slavery.  —  Sickness  of  Mr.  Willard.  —  Death  of  Deacon 
Frary.  —  The  Artillery  Company.  —  The  Mather  Controversy.  —  Resignation 
of  President  Mather.  —  Mr.  Willard  chosen  Vice-President  of  the  College.  — 
Mr.  Willard's  Influence.  —  A  Sabbath  at  Brattle  Street.  —  Death  of  Robert 
Gibbs  and  Nathaniel  Oliver.  —  A  Second  Parsonage  to  be  built.  —  The  Ob- 
servance of  the  Lord's  Supper.  —  Baptism  of  Benjamin  Franklin.  —  His 
Father,  Josiah  Franklin. —  The  Proposals  of  1705.  —  John  Wise  on  the 
Rights  of  the  Churches.  —  Jonathan  Belcher.  —  Death  of  Mr.  Willard.  — 
Funeral  Sermon  by  Mr.  Pemberton.  —  Mr.  Willard's  "  Body  of  Divinity  "  301-340 

CHAPTER  VII. 

1707-1717. 

CHURCH   WORK   AND  GROWTH. 

Fast  at  the  South  Church.  —  The  Rev.  John  Leverett.  —  Mr.  Pemberton  and 
the  Mathers.  —  James  or  St.  James  ?  —  The  New  Parsonage  completed. — 
Judge  Sewall  and  his  Minister.  —  The  Fire  of  171 1.  —  Meeting-House  of  the 
First  Church  burnt.  —  The  Church  invited  to  worship  with  the  South 
Church.  —  Death  of  John  Walley.  —  Mr.  Joseph  Sewall  called  to  the  South 
Church.  —  He  accepts.  —  Arrangements  for  the  Ordination.  —  The  Ministers' 
May  Meeting.  —  Episcopal  Parishes  organized. —  Primitive  Congregational- 
ism. —  Mr.  Sewall  ordained.  —  The  Rev.  Joseph  Stevens.  —  Death  of  Peter 
Sergeant.  —  Sickness  and  Scarcity  in  the  Town.  —  The  New  North  Church 
gathered.  —  The  Rev.  John  Webb.  —  Ministers'  Meeting  at  Mr.  Pemberton's. 

—  John  Wise's  Second  Book.  —  The  Rev.  Thomas  Bridge.  —  The  Rev.  Wil- 
liam Cooper.  —  Loss  of  the  Amity.  —  David  Jeffries.  —  Death  of  Mr.  Pem- 
berton and  Mr.  Brattle.  —  Mr.  Colman's  Funeral  Sermon.  —  A  Great  Snow 
Storm 341-382 


Xll  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

1717-1730. 

THE  BEGINNING   OF  A  LONG   CO-PASTORATE. 

Confession  of  Nathaniel  Oliver.  —  The  Rev.  Thomas  Prince.  —  His  Travels.  — 
A  Subscription  for  Mr.  Sewall.  —  Death  of  Judge  Sewall's  Wife.  —  Death  of 
Andrew  Belcher  and  Wait  Still  Winthrop.  —  The  Rev.  Thomas  Foxcroft.  — 
Mr.  Prince  called  to  the  South  Church.  —  A  New  Precentor.  —  Mr.  Prince's 
Ordination.  —  His  First  Sermon  as  Pastor. —  The  New  South  Church. — 
The  Rev.  Samuel  Checkley. — Two  Deacons  chosen.  —  Marriage  of  Judge 
Sewall  and  Mr.  Prince.  — Votes  of  the  Church.  — Council  at  the  New  North 
Church.  —  The  Rev.  Peter  Thacher  of  Weymouth.  —  The  New  Brick  Church 
gathered.  —  Enlargement  of  the  South  Meeting-House  proposed.  —  Increase 
Mather  preaches  before  the  Ministers.  —  The  Small-Pox.  —  Judge  Sewall's 
Third  Marriage.  — A  Council  at  Watertown.  —  Days  of  Fasting  with  Prayer. 

—  Death  of  Increase  Mather.  —  A  Council  at  South  Braintree.  —  A  Sabbath 
at  the  New  Brick.  —  Death  of  President  Leverett.  —  Mr.  Sewall  called  to 
Harvard  College.  —  The  Rev.  Charles  Chauncy.  —  Depreciation  of  the  Cur- 
rency.—  Collections  for  Benevolent  Purposes. — The  Earthquake  of  1727.  — 
Death  of  Cotton  Mather.  —  Proposal  to  build  a  New  Meeting-House.  —  Pro- 
test from  Judge  Sewall.  —  A  Building  Committee  chosen.  —  The  First  Duel 
in  Boston.  —  Arrival  of  Governor  Burnet.  —  Terms  of  Membership.  —  Leg- 
acy of  Mrs.  Mills.  —  Hospitality  of  the  First  Church.  —  The  Gift  of  Timo- 
thy Cunningham.  —  The  Old  Meeting-House  taken  down.  —  Death  of  Judge 
Sewall 383"44S 

CHAPTER  IX. 

THE   NEW   MEETING-HOUSE.  —  COLLECTIONS   FOR  CHARITABLE   USES. 

Tenure  of  Pew  Property.  —  First  Services  in  the  New  House.  —  Description 
of  the  Building.  —  Arrival  of  Governor  Belcher.  —  The  Governor's  Pew.  — 
The  New  Bell.  —  Death  of  Daniel  Oliver.  —  Collections  for  Charitable  and 
Pious  Uses.  —  Hollis  Street  Church.  —  Jonathan  Simpson. — Ordination  of 
Missionaries.  —  Dr.  Sewall's  Sermon.  —  Death  of  Edward  Bromfield.  —  A 
Day  of  Fasting  and  Prayer.  —  The  First  Church  in  Salem.  —  Sentence  of 
Non-Communion.  —  Death  of  George  Bethune  and  Thomas  Fitch.  —  Confer- 
ence with  Indian  Chiefs  at  Deerfield.  — Death  of  Mrs.  Belcher.  — The  New 

England  Chronology.  —  Death  of   President  Wadsworth Public  Reading 

of  the  Scriptures.  —  The  West  Church.  —  Death  of  the  Rev.  Nathaniel  Wil- 
liams. —  The  New  Brick  Church.  —  The  South  Kingston  Lands.  —  Death  of 
Samuel  Checkley. — Thomas  Hubbard. — A  Charitable  Fund.  —  Organized 
Benevolence.  —  Ordination  at  Newport 446-499 

CHAPTER   X. 

1 740-1 744. 

MR.  WHITEFIELD'S   FIRST  VISIT.  —  THE   REVIVAL   PERIOD. 

The  Rev.  George  Whitefield.  —  Mr.  Prince's  Retrospect.  —  Times  of  Religious 
Awakening.  —  Mr.  Whitefield's  Arrival.  —  First  Sermon  at  Brattle  Street.  — 
Visit  to  Cambridge.  —  He  preaches  the  Lecture.  —  Journey  to  the  Eastward. 

—  His  Return  to  Boston.  —  His  Impressions  of  the  Town.  —  His  Departure. 

—  Mr.  Whitefield  and  the  Governor.  —  Dr.  Sewall  preaches  before  the  Gen- 
eral Court.  —  The  Rev.  Gilbert  Tennent.  —  A  Large  Ingathering.  —  Governor 


CONTENTS.  xiii 

Belcher  superseded.  —  Governor  Shirley. — The  Rev.  Eleazar  Wheelock. — 
Division  in  the  Second  Church.  —  The  Rev.  James  Davenport. — The  An- 
nual Convention,  1743.  —  Testimony  against  Mr.  Whitefield. — A  Second 
Convention.  —  Counter  -  Testimony.  —  A  Separatist  Church.  —  Nathaniel 
Wardell  admonished  and  suspended.  —  A  Letter  to  the  Separatists.  —  Church 
Troubles  in  Newbury.  —  A  Second  Letter  to  the  Separatists.  —  A  Letter 
from  Deborah  Prince 500-549 

CHAPTER  XL 

1744-1749- 

MR.   WHITEFIELD'S   SECOND  VISIT.  —  THE   FRENCH   WARS. — THE  SEPARATISTS. 

Mr.  Whitefield  lands  at  York.  —  Communion  Service  at  Brattle  Street. — Dis- 
cussions and  Divisions. — Action  at  Cambridge.  —  The  Various  Testimonies. 
—  Mr.  Whitefield  and  Dr.  Chauncy.  —  Great  Popularity  of  the  Former.  —  The 
Expedition  against  Louisburg.  —  William  Pepperrell. —  Richard  Gridley. — 
The  Capture  of  Louisburg.  —  Death  of  Thomas  Cushing.  —  The  Rev.  Sam- 
uel Cooper.  —  A  Thanksgiving  Sermon. —  The  Destruction  of  the  French 
Fleet.  —  Mr.  Prince's  Prayer,  and  his  Thanksgiving  Sermon,  "  The  Salva- 
tions of  God  in  1746."  — The  Rev.  Jonathan  Mayhew.  —  Death  of  Dr.  Col- 
man. —  The  Rev.  Samuel  Checkley.  —  Election  of  Seaters.  —  The  Church 
in  Ipswich.  —  Nathaniel  Wardell  excommunicated.  —  A  Second  Separatist 
Church. — The  Rev.  Andrew  Croswell.  —  Protest  of  the  South  Church. — 
Reply  from  Mr.  Croswell.  —  A  Council  at  Medfield.  —  The  Drought  of 
1749 550-602 


LIST   OF    ILLUSTRATIONS. 


PAGE 

Old  Washington  Street  {Etched by  Sidney  L.  Smith)         .       Frontispiece 

Porch  in  Boylston  Street i 

Joshua  Scottow's  Certificate 12 

Old  Charlestown 89 

John  Norton's  House,  Ipswich 90 

Portrait  of  Edward  Rawson 95 

Negative  Vote  on  the  Report  of  1671 11 1 

Door  from  Mr.  Norton's  House,  Ipswich 112 

Milton  Clevedon  Church,  Somerset 113 

Portrait  of  Thomas  Thacher 123 

Signature  of  John  Davenport  and  Others 159 

Essay  for  Accommodation,  1670 174 

Leonard  Hoar  to  Simon  Bradstreet 184 

Vote  relating  to  Leonard  Hoar 189 

Signatures  of  the  Women,  1674 202 

Memorial  Tablets 205 

Portrait  of  Thomas  Savage 208 

Cup  given  by  Hezekiah  Usher 212 

Receipts  under  Mrs.  Norton's  Will 224 

Portrait  of  Samuel  Willard 226 

Letter  from  the  Church  at  Andover 239 

Action  of  the  First  Church,  1682 244 

Tomb  of  Peter  Thacher,  Salisbury 248 

Province  House 249 

Portrait  of  Simon  Bradstreet 279 

Portrait  of  Samuel  Sewall 292 

Carved  Vane  from  the  Province  House 300 

Record  of  Benjamin  Franklin's  Baptism 330 

Signature  of  Josiah  Franklin 345 

Ground  Plan  of  Parsonage  House 347 

Baptismal  Basin  given  by  Mrs.  Saltonstall 358 

Portrait  of  Joseph  Sewall 366 

Portrait  of  Ebenezer  Pemberton 379 

Old  Gravestones,  Old  South  Porch 382 

Sacramental  Silver       383 

Portrait  of  Thomas  Prince 390 

Flagon  given  by  Samuel  Sewall 442 

Memorial  Tablet  to  Samuel  Sewall 445 

Old  South  Tower,  Washington  Street 446 

Portrait  of  Jonathan  Belcher 454 

Corner  Stone,  Milk  Street 499 

Edward  Bromfield's  Mansion 55° 

Old  Doorway,  Milk  Street 602 


CHAPTER    I. 


1669. 


INTRODUCTORY. 


THE    SEPARATION    FROM   THE    FIRST    CHURCH. 


THE  history  of  the  several  Congregational  churches  in  New 
England  is  the  history  of  New  England  Congregationalism. 
These  churches  are  not  constituent  parts  of  a  compact  and 
comprehensive  ecclesiastical  organization.  John  Cotton,  in  his 
"Keyes  of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven,"  insists  that  each  single 
congregation  "is  endowed  with  a  charter  to  be  a  body-politic  to 
Christ."  There  is  no  Congregational  Church  in  the  United 
States,  in  the  sense  in  which  there  is  a  Presbyterian  or  a  Prot- 
estant Episcopal  Church.  Should  there  ever  be  such  a  Church, 
there  will  be  no  longer  Congregational  churches.  It  is  true, 
there  is  a  fellowship  or  sisterhood  of  churches  ;  but  those  who 
have  entered  it  have  done  so  without  any  surrender  of   their 


2  HISTORY  OF   THE    OLD   SOUTH   CHURCH. 

individuality  or  individual  rights,  and  they  continue  in  it  as 
peers.  The  Cambridge  Platform  says  :  "  Although  churches  be 
distinct,  and  therefore  may  not  be  confounded  one  with  another, 
and  equal,  and  therefore  have  not  dominion  one  over  another ; 
yet  all  the  churches  ought  to  preserve  church  communion  one 
with  another,  because  they  are  all  united  unto  Christ,  not  only 
as  a  mystical  but  as  a  political  head,  whence  is  derived  a  com- 
munion suitable  thereunto."  The  enduring  basis  of  this  com- 
munion is  not  an  inflexible  uniformity  or  absolute  sameness  in 
relation  to  all  questions  of  faith  and  polity,  but  a  spirit  of  har- 
mony, the  result  of  Christian  sympathy,  confidence,  and  charity.1 

To  understand  New  England  Congregationalism,  therefore, 
we  must  know  what  has  been  "professed  and  practised"  in  the 
churches  of  New  England,2  and,  so  far  as  possible,  in  each  of 
them.  Every  historic  church  is  a  source  of  supply,  from  which 
information  of  value  may  be  communicated,  and  its  records  and 
traditions  should  in  some  way  be  made  available  for  the  pur- 
pose of  adding  to  our  knowledge  on  the  general  subject. 

The  history  of  the  Third  Church  of  Christ  in  Boston  —  the 


i  "A  company  of  conscientious  Chris- 
tians, fleeing  from  an  oppressive  hie- 
rarchy because  it  hinders  the  development 
of  pure  Christianity,  making  the  wilder- 
ness their  home  because  it  affords  them 
'  freedom  to  worship  God,'  selecting  their 
own  religious  teachers  by  popular  vote, 
and  these  teachers  taking  the  Bible  as 
their  '  professed,  perpetual,  and  only  di- 
rectory '  in  the  administration  of  their 
affairs,  —  such  a  company  commence  their 
career  in  this  secluded  spot,  free  from  all 
other  restraint  than  that  which  Christ, 
their  acknowledged  sovereign,  imposes.  In 
these  untrammelled  circumstances,  each 
body  of  believers  assumes  its  own  inde- 
pendent form,  —  a  form  which,  owing  to 
a  similarity  of  sentiment  and  condition, 
will  be  very  likely  to  have  a  sameness  in 
its  essential  features,  with  considerable 
variety  in  its  minor  details.  At  length 
they  come  together,  not  to  enact  a  code 
of  ecclesiastical  laws,  not  even  to  con- 
struct an  original  system  of  church  polity, 
but  simply  to  compare  notes  and  usages, 
and  commit  to  writing  that  system  which 
had  already  sprung  up  into  use  among 
them,  and  thus  make  '  a  declaration  of 
the  church  order  wherein  the  good  hand 


of  God  had  moulded  them.'  The  decla- 
ration thus  made  was  the  Cambridge 
Platform,  which  has  ever  since  been  re- 
garded as  the  ground-plan  of  New  Eng- 
land Congregationalism."  —  A  Historical 
Sketch  of  the  Congregational  Churches 
in  Massachusetts  from  1620  to  /8j8,  by 
Joseph  S.  Clark,  D.  D.,  p.  40. 

2  John  Higginson  and  William  Hub- 
bard, in  a  Testimony  added  to  John  Wise's 
Vindication  of  the  Governme?it  of  New 
England  Churches,  say :  "  It  was  a  joy 
unto  us,  to  see  and  read  a  book  which 
the  reverend  president  of  our  college 
[Increase  Mather]  lately  published,  under 
the  title  of  'The  order  of  the  gospel 
professed  and  practised  by  the  churches 
of  Christ  in  New  England : '  A  book 
most  highly  needful,  and  useful,  and  sea- 
sonable. .  .  .  But  we  must  herewithal 
testify,  that  in  that  worthy  book,  there  is 
nothing  obtruded  upon  the  churches,  but 
what  they  who  were  here,  capable  of 
observing  what  was  done  sixty  years  ago, 
do  know  to  have  been  professed  and  prac- 
tised in  the  churches  of  New  England ; 
(except  in  one  or  two)  then  and  ever 
since,  until  of  late,  some  who  were  not 
then  born  have  suggested  otherwise." 


INTR  OD  UCTOR  Y.  3 

Old  South  —  covers  a  period  of  more  than  two  centuries.  The 
history  of  its  membership  goes  back  to  the  emigration  under 
John  Winthrop  and  to  the  Mayflower.  Thus  allied,  at  the 
beginning,  to  the  first  Puritans  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay,  and 
also  to  the  first  Pilgrims  of  the  Old  Colony,  it  has  drawn  its 
inspiration,  more  perhaps  than  almost  any  other  church,  freely 
and  indifferently  both  from  Salem  and  from  Plymouth.  It  has 
always  endeavored  to  uphold  the  fellowship  of  the  churches, 
while  it  has  maintained  with  equal  persistency  its  own  individ- 
uality and  independence.  Born  in  the  midst  of  conflict,  and  as 
the  result  of  conflict,  it  has  had  a  conspicuous  part,  during  the 
more  than  two  hundred  years  of  its  existence,  in  all  the  contro- 
versies through  which  the  churches  of  its  order  have  passed, 
and  in  all  the  social  and  political  struggles  which  have  touched 
more  or  less  closely  the  religious  life  of  New  England.  It  has 
had  a  share,  also,  in  the  privileges  of  Christian  service,  which,  in 
new  and  varied  forms,  have  presented  themselves  to  each  suc- 
ceeding generation  in  the  same  period,  as  well  as  in  the  abun- 
dant blessings  with  which  this  service  has  been  crowned.  From 
the  nature  of  the  case,  therefore,  its  history  and  that  of  its  mem- 
bership must  be  a  history,  in  part,  of  the  sister  churches  by 
which  it  has  been  surrounded,  and  with  which  it  has  been  asso- 
ciated in  the  Christian  walk  and  in  Christian  work. 

For  twenty  years  —  from  1630  to  1650  —  the  First  Church 
was  the  only  church  in  Boston  ;  and  for  nearly  twenty  years 
longer  it  shared  with  the  Second  Church  the  responsibility  of 
maintaining  and  representing  the  established  faith  and  polity 
in  the  chief  town  of  the  Massachusetts  Colony.  The  Second 
Church  was  gathered,  June  5,  1650,  with  the  cordial  concurrence 
of  the  First,  for  the  purpose  of  meeting  the  religious  necessities 
of  the  increasing  population.1     Unhappily,  the  formation  of  the 

1  In  his  Life  of  the  Rev.  John  Cotton,  ship  of  our  common  Lord.     Now,  it  has 

Cotton  Mather  says  :  "  The  gathering  of  pleased   the   Lord   so    to   order  it,  that 

the   second   church  in  Boston,  was  evi-  many  years  after  his  decease,  that  self- 

dently  very   much  to   the   disadvantage  denial  of  his  holy  servant  has  turned  unto 

of  Mr.  Cotton,  in  many  of  his  interests,  some  account,  in  the  opportunities  which 

But  he  was  a  John,  who  reckoned  his  joy  that  very  church  has  given  unto  his  chil- 

fulfilled  in  this,  that  in  his  own  decrease  dren,  to  glorify  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  in 

the   interests  of   the    Lord  Jesus  Christ  the  conduct  of  it :  his  son-in-law  has  been 

would  increase  ;    and  therefore,  with  an  for  more  than  thrice  ten  years,  and  his 

exemplary  self-denial,  divesting   himself  grandson    for   more    than    twice    seven 

of  all  carnal  respects,  he  set  himself  to  years,  the  ministers  of  the  gospel,  in  that 

encourage  the  foundation  of  that  church,  very  church,  accommodated  with  happy 

out  of  respect  unto  the  service  and  wor-  opportunities  to  serve  their  generation." 


4  HISTORY  OF   THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

Third  Church  *  was  the  result  of  dissension  and  division  in  the 
First,  and  of  a  secession  from  its  membership  which  it  strenu- 
ously resisted,  and  for  many  years  refused  to  forgive. 

The  death  of  the  Rev.  John  Norton  in  1663,  and  of  the  Rev. 
John  Wilson  in  1667,  left  the  First  Church  without  either  pastor 
or  teacher.2  To  find  worthy  successors  to  such  ministers  as 
John  Wilson,  John  Cotton,  and  John  Norton  was  not  an  easy 
task.  These  were  no  ordinary  men.  Exceptionally  endowed 
by  nature,  carefully  trained  amid  the  elevating  and  quickening 
influences  then  dominant  in  the  University  of  Cambridge,  and 
thoroughly  consecrated  to  the  work  of  the  ministry,  they  had 
become  eminent  as  clergymen  of  the  Church  of  England. 
Driven  from  that  Church  and  from  their  native  land  because 
of  their  refusal  to  conform  to  a  ritual  which  their  consciences 
condemned,  they  received  a  warm  welcome  on  their  arrival  in 
New  England,  and  they  had  a  large  share  in  moulding  the  polit- 
ical no  less  than  the  religious  institutions  of  the  infant  state. 
Mr.  Wilson's  ministry  covered  a  period  of  thirty-seven  years, 
going  back  to  the  first  settlement  of  the  town  and  to  the  gather- 
ing of  the  church.  He  was  the  honored  friend  and  counsellor 
of  Winthrop  and  Dudley,  and,  later,  he  was  held  in  the  highest 
reverence  and  love  by  the  younger  generation.  As  he  had  been 
sole  minister  since  the  death  of  Mr.  Norton,  there  was  now  a 
double  vacancy  to  be  filled.  In  1663  the  church  sent  a  call  to 
one  of  the  most  distinguished  Puritan  ministers  of  the  day,  the 
Rev.  Dr.  John  Owen,  of  London.  The  Governor,  John  Endicott, 
in  concurrence  with  the  General  Court,  seconded  the  call  in  a 

1  The  First  Baptist  Church,  organized  exhortation,  and  therein  to  administer  a 

in  1665,  was  the  third  Christian  church  word  of  wisdom;  the  teacher  is  to  attend 

gathered  in  Boston,  but  not  being  of  the  to  doctrine,  and  therein  to  administer  a 

established  order,  it  was  not  recognized  word  of  knowledge ;  and  either  of  them 

as  such.     In  designating  the  Old  South  to  administer  the  seals  of  that  covenant 

as  the  Third  Church,  we   only  use   the  unto  the  dispensation  whereof  they  are 

historical  name  which  has  come  down  to  alike  called."      "  All  this,"  says  Dr.  Jo- 

us,  and  do  not  intend  any  disrespect  to  seph  S.  Clark,  in  his  Historical  Sketch, 

our  Baptist  friends.  "  appears  to  us  like  a  distinction  without 

-  "A  church  fully  furnished  had  a  pas-  a  difference.     Practically,  these  two  offi- 

tor  and  a  teacher,  whose  duty  it  was  to  cers  were  colleague  pastors,  as  we  should 

preach  and  administer  the  ordinances ;  the  now  call  them." 

distinctive  function  of  the  former  being  The  Independent  Society  that  after- 
private  and  public  exhortation,  of  the  ward  worshipped  in  Silver  Street  Chapel, 
latter  doctrinal  and  scriptural  explana-  London,  had  at  one  time  as  its  teacher 
tion."  —  Palfrey's  History  of  New  Eng-  the  Rev.  Philip  Nye,  and  as  its  pastor  the 
land,  vol.  ii.  p.  $j.  Rev.  John  Loder.  — Wilson's  Hist,  and 

According  to  the  Cambridge  Platform,  Antiq.  of  the  Dissenting  Churches,  vol.  iii. 

"  The  pastor's  special  work  is  to  attend  to  p.  69. 


THE   PULPIT  OF   THE  FIRST  CHURCH.  5 

strong  appeal,  October  20,  1663  ;a  and  the  correspondence  be- 
tween leading  men  here  in  church  and  state  and  Dr.  Owen,  on 
the  subject  of  his  removal  to  Massachusetts,  continued  through 
three  or  four  years.  He  at  length  decided,  reluctantly,  that 
it  was  his  duty  to  remain  in  England.  It  was  not  until  the 
autumn  of  1667  that  two  men  were  found  who  were  qualified  to 
become  the  "  teaching  officers  "  of  the  First  Church,  and  who 
were  prepared  to  assume  the  responsibilities.  These  were  the 
Rev.  John  Davenport,  of  New  Haven,  and  the  Rev.  James  Allen. 
They  had  both  been  educated  at  Oxford,  and  had  been  minis- 
ters of  the  Established  Church,  in  which  they  had  suffered  per- 
secution for  conscience'  sake.  Mr.  Allen  is  said  to  have  been 
ejected  from  his  living  by  the  Act  of  Uniformity  which  went 
into  effect  on  Saint  Bartholomew's  Day,  1662,  but  this  could 
have  been  only  by  anticipation,  as  he  arrived  in  Boston  in  the 
month  of  June  in  that  year.  He  was  then  thirty  years  of  age, 
and  some  of  "  the  great  church,"  we  are  told,  were  anxious  to 
secure  his  services  at  once  as  an  assistant  to  Mr.  Wilson  and 
Mr.  Norton,  "  the  Lord  having  given  him  large  room  in  the 
hearts  of  the  people."  Others  were  not  then  prepared  to  unite 
in  calling  him,  but  he  became  a  member  of  the  church  and  occa- 
sionally preached  in  its  pulpit.  It  does  not  appear  that  there 
was  any  opposition  to  his  settlement  in  1667. 

Mr.  Davenport  at  this  time  was  about  seventy  years  of  age.2 

1  "In  consequence  of  this  pressing  Dr.  Owen  was  dean  of  Christ  Church, 
invitation,  Dr.  Owen  was  induced,  in  the  Oxford,  from  1651  to  1659,  and  vice- 
year  1665,  to  prepare  for  a  voyage  to  chancellor  of  the  university.  Increase 
Boston,  but  was  prevented  from  his  Mather  speaks  of  his  being  invited  to 
design,  first  by  the  plague  and  fire  of  succeed  the  other  famous  Johns,  who 
London,  which  took  place  in  the  follow-  had  been  burning  and  shining  lights  in 
ing  year ;  and  next  by  the  king's  decla-  that  which  was  the  first  candlestick  set 
ration  of  indulgence  to  the  Dissenters,  up  in  this  populous  town,  and  of  his  being 
which  opened  to  him  a  prospect  of  diverted  by  a  special  providence.  See 
greater  usefulness  by  remaining  in  Great  Preface  to  Cotton  Mather's  Johannes  in 
Britain.     In  an  interview,  also,  with  the  Eremo. 

king  himself,  by  his  majesty's  special  2  Mr.  Davenport  was  born  in  Coven- 
request,  at  which  they  discoursed  together  try,  in  1597,  and  his  father  was  at  one 
about  two  hours,  he  received  such  assur-  time  mayor  of  that  city.  He  was  edu- 
ances  of  royal  favor  and  respect  as  led  cated  at  Brazen-Nose  College,  Oxford, 
him  to  lay  aside  all  purposes  of  quitting  and  was  vicar  of  St.  Stephen's,  Coleman 
the  country.  Besides  his  kind  profes-  Street,  London,  from  1624  to  1633.  He 
sions,  the  king  gave  him  a  thousand  fled  to  Holland  to  escape  from  the  perse- 
guineas  to  distribute  among  those  who  cution  of  Laud,  then  Bishop  of  London, 
had  suffered  most  by  the  late  severities."  Theophilus  Eaton  also  was  born  in  Cov- 
—  Coll.  Mass.  Hist.  Society,  vol.  ii.  2d  entry,  and  was  one  of  Mr.  Davenport's 
series,  p.  266.  parishioners  in  London. 


6  HISTORY  OF   THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

With  Theophilus  Eaton  and  others,  he  had  founded  the  New 
Haven  Colony  ;  he  had  filled  an  important  place  in  the  direction 
of  its  affairs,  and  for  nearly  thirty  years  he  had  been  minister 
of  its  First  Church.  He  had  all  the  qualifications  of  learning, 
reputation,  experience,  and  Christian  character  essential  for  the 
position  to  which  he  was  invited ;  but  on  the  part  of  an  influ- 
ential minority  in  the  church  there  were  objections  to  his  com- 
ing which  could  not  be  met  or  satisfied.  He  was  thought  to  be 
too  old;  and  this  consideration  was  to  be  speedily  justified,  for 
he  lived  only  fifteen  months  after  his  installation  in  Boston. 
Another  and  more  serious  objection  was,  that  upon  the  question 
of  the  baptismal  covenant,  by  which  the  churches  of  New  Eng- 
land were  then  greatly  exercised  and  sharply  divided,  he  main- 
tained opinions  directly  opposed  to  those  which  had  prevailed 
among  the  members  of  the  church  to  which  he  was  called,  and 
which  had  been  held  by  its  late  ministers.  To  settle  him  as 
their  pastor  was  felt  by  the  minority  to  be  altogether  at  variance 
with  the  attitude  held  by  the  church  on  what  was  regarded  at 
the  time  as  a  very  important  issue. 

In  order  to  a  proper  understanding  of  this  question,  diver- 
gence of  opinion  upon  which  had  so  much  to  do  with  the  for- 
mation of  the  Third  Church,  we  present  the  following  clear 
and  condensed  statement  from  the  pen  of  the  Rev.  Daniel  T. 
Fiske,  D.  D.,  of  Newburyport : x  — 

"  The  early  Puritan  fathers  held  most  strenuously,  in  opposition  to 
the  views  prevalent  in  their  day  through  a  large  part  of  the  Christian 
world,  that  only  regenerated  persons  should  be  admitted  to  full  com- 
munion and  all  the  privileges  of  the  church.  They  also  attached 
great  importance  to  household  baptism,  and  held  that  the  children  of 
believers,  as  included  in  the  covenant  of  their  parents,  were  in  a  qual- 
ified sense  members  of  the  church ;  such  children  were  regarded  as 
under  the  watch  and  discipline  of  the  church,  and  were  often  dismissed 
with  their  parents  from  one  church  to  another.  Most  of  the  early  set- 
tlers were  church  members  in  full,  and,  as  a  matter  of  course,  had  their 
children  baptized.  But  many  of  those  children,  on  reaching  mature 
age  and  becoming  heads  of  families,  did  not  feel  prepared  to  own  their 
baptismal  covenant,  and  come  into  the  full  communion  and  fellowship 
of  the  church,  and  so  could  not  have  the  ordinance  of  baptism  ad- 
ministered to  their  children.  This  was  the  occasion  of  much  grief  to 
the  godly  grandparents.  As  Cotton  Mather  observes,  '  The  good  old 
generation  could  not,  without  many  uncomfortable  apprehensions, 
behold  their  offspring  excluded  from  the  baptism  of  Christianity,  and 
1  Contributions  to  the  Eccles.  Hist,  of  Essex  County,  Mass.,  pp.  271,  272. 


HOUSEHOLD   BAPTISM.  7 

from  the  ecclesiastical  inspection  that  is  to  accompany  that  baptism  ; 
indeed,  it  was  to  leave  their  offspring  under  the  shepherdly  government 
of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  and  his  ordinances  that  they  had  brought 
their  lambs  into  this  wilderness.' 

"  What  shall  be  done  ?  Shall  they,  on  the  one  hand,  make  '  no 
ecclesiastical  difference '  between  their  children,  who  have  been  bap- 
tized and  educated  in  the  church,  and  '  pagans,  who  might  happen  to 
hear  the  word  of  God  in  their  assemblies '  ?  This,  they  think,  will  be 
'  quickly  to  abandon  the  biggest  part  of  the  country  to  heathenism.' 
Or  shall  they,  on  the  other  hand,  with  the  English  Episcopalians  and 
Scotch  Presbyterians,  lower  the  terms  of  communion,  so  that  all  who 
have  been  baptized,  and  are  outwardly  moral,  though  unregenerated, 
may  be  admitted  to  all  the  privileges  of  the  church  ?  This,  they  fear, 
will  bring  into  the  church  a  '  worldly  part  of  mankind,  and  so  work 
mischief.'  In  this  dilemma  they  found  themselves.  To  solve  the 
difficulty,  at  the  motion  of  certain  ministers  in  Connecticut,  a  council 
or  synod  of  ministers  was  convened  at  Boston,  in  1657  ;  and  in  1662, 
another  and  larger  synod  was  convened  at  the  same  place,  composed 
of  ministers  and  messengers  of  the  churches.1  Substantially  the  same 
result  was  reached  by  both  synods  in  regard  to  baptism,  namely, 
'  Church  members  who  were  admitted  in  minority,'  that  is,  who  were 
baptized  in  childhood,  '  understanding  the  doctrine  of  faith,  and 
publicly  professing  their  assent  thereto,  not  scandalous  in  life,  and 
solemnly  owning  the  covenant  before  the  church,  wherein  they  give  up 
themselves  and  their  children  to  the  Lord,  and  subject  themselves  to 
the  government  of  Ghrist  in  the  church,  their  children  are  to  be 
baptized.' 2  .  .  . 

"  At  first  it  [this  result]  met  with   extensive  and  strenuous  oppo- 

1  [Two  questions  were  submitted  for  thereof."  —  Magnolia  (Book  V.),  vol.  ii. 

the   consideration    of    the   synod.      One  p.  301.] 

was,  Who  are  the  subjects  of  baptism  ?  2  [The   decision   of    the  synod  was : 

This  was  "  the   grand   question."      The  1.  They  that,  according  to  Scripture,  are 

other   was,   Whether,    according   to   the  members   of  the  visible  church  are   the 

word  of  God,  there  ought  to  be  a  conso-  subjects  of  baptism.     2.  The  members  of 

ciation  of  churches,  and  what  should  be  the  visible   church,  according   to    Scrip- 

the   manner  of   it  ?     The  synod  defined  ture,  are  confederate  visible  believers,  in 

consociationism  as  the  equivalent  of  the  particular  churches,  and  their  infant  seed, 

communion   of    churches,    and   then,    of  /'.  e.,   children   in   minority,   whose   next 

course,  gave  its  approbation  to  it.    "  Com-  parents,  one   or  both,  are   in   covenant, 

munion  of   churches  being  commanded,  3.  The  infant  seed  of  confederate  visible 

and  consociation  being  but  an  agreement  believers  are  members  of  the  same  church 

to  practise  it,  this  must  needs  be  a  duty  with  their  parents,  and  when  grown  up 

also."     "There   has    constantly  been  in  are  personally  under  the  watch,  discipline, 

these  churches  a  possession  of  commu-  and    government    of     that    church.      4. 

nion,  in  giving  the  right  hand  of  fellow-  These  adult  persons  are  not  therefore  to 

ship   in  the  gathering   of   churches,  and  be  admitted   to  full  communion  merely 

ordination  of  elders  ;  which  importeth  a  because  they  are  and  continue  members, 

consociation,  and  obligeth  to  the  practice  without  such  further  qualifications  as  the 


8  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

sition,  but  gradually  gained  ground,  and  at  length  was  almost  univer- 
sally adopted  by  the  New  England  churches.  It  has  often  been  said 
that  its  adoption  was  due  to  political  quite  as  much  as  to  religious 
considerations.  By  a  law  passed  in  1631,  the  elective  franchise  was 
limited  to  members  of  the  church,  and  the  half-way  covenant  scheme, 
it  is  alleged,  was  devised  to  enable  those  who  were  not  communicants 
to  exercise  the  rights  of  freemen.  This  view  is  put  forth  by  scores  of 
writers,  and  yet,  so  far  as  I  can  discover,  it  is  unsupported  by  facts. 

"  1.  This  reason  does  not  appear  in  the  discussions  which  the  new 
measure  called  forth.  Cotton  Mather  gives  a  summary  of  the  argu- 
ments advanced  on  both  sides,  but  makes  no  allusion  to  this. 

"  2.  There  is  no  evidence  that  persons  admitted  to  this  half-way 
membership  in  the  church  were  thereby  invested  with  any  of  those 
civil  rights  from  which  non-church-membership  had  excluded  them. 
They  were  not  entitled  to  vote,  even  in  ecclesiastical  affairs,  and  hence 
we  infer  that  they  were  not  entitled  to  vote  in  civil  affairs,  and  so 
were  as  much  as  ever  disfranchised  by  the  law  of  163 1. 

"3.  The  law  of  163 1  was,  by  royal  order,  repealed  in  1664,  or  so 
far  modified  that  any  person  obtaining  from  a  minister  a  certificate 
that  he  was  a  man  of  orthodox  principles  and  good  morals  could  be 
admitted  to  the  rights  of  freemen,  even  though  not  a  member  of  the 
church  at  all. 

"4.  The  whole  controversy  on  the  subject  originated  in  the  Con- 
necticut Colony,  where  there  never  was  any  law  which,  like  that  in  the 
Massachusetts  Bay  Colony,  restricted  the  right  of  suffrage  to  church 
members. 

"  These  facts,  I  think,  show  conclusively  that  the  motive  which  led 
to  the  adoption  of  the  half-way  covenant  was  not  a  political  one.  The 
originators  and  promoters  of  the  new  scheme  were  evidently  actuated 
by  purely  religious  considerations.  And  it  would  have  been  compar- 
atively harmless  in  practice,  if  its  original  form  and  spirit  had  been 
retained.  But  it  underwent  various  changes,  all  of  which  lowered  it, 
and  increased  its  mischievous  tendencies." 

We  think  it  will  appear,  as  we  proceed,  that  the  original  form 
and  spirit  of  this  new  scheme  were  retained  in  the  Third 
Church,  and  that  as  practised  there  it  was,  to  say  the  least, 
harmless. 

word   of   God   requireth   thereunto.      5.  Christ  in  the  church,  their  children  are  to 

Church  members  who  were  admitted  in  be  baptized.     Two  other  articles  related 

minority,  understanding  the   doctrine  of  to  children  who  had  been  hindered  from 

faith,  and  publicly  professing  their  assent  baptism  by  the  death  of  parents,  or  some 

thereto,  not  scandalous  in  life,  and  sol-  other  providence,  and  to  the  baptism  of 

emnly  owning   the   covenant  before  the  children  whose  parents  had  moved  away 

church,  wherein  they  give  up  themselves  from   the   churches    in  which  they  held, 

and  their  children  to  the  Lord,  and  sub-  their  membership. — Magnalia  (Book  V.), 

ject   themselves    to   the   government   of  vol.  ii.  p.  279.] 


THE   SYNOD    OF  1662.  9 

The  Rev.  Jonathan  Mitchell,  of  Cambridge,  was  one  of  the 
authors  of  the  Result  of  the  synod  of  1662,  and  he  has  been 
called  "the  father  of  the  half-way  covenant."  Some  of  his 
words  also  first  suggested  the  name.  "  We  make  account,"  said 
he,  "that  if  we  keep  baptism  within  the  non-excommunicable, 
and  the  Lord's  Supper  within  the  compass  of  those  that  have 
(unto  charity)  somewhat  of  the  power  of  godliness,  or  grace  in 
exercise,  we  shall  be  near  about  the  right  middle-way  of  church 
reformation."  This  middle-way  has  ever  since  been  known  as 
the  half-way  covenant. 

Mr.  Mitchell  preached  the  election  sermon  in  1667.  He  took 
for  his  text  Neh.  ii.  10:  "When  Sanballat  the  Horonite,  and 
Tobiah  the  servant,  the  Ammonite,  heard  of  it,  it  grieved  them 
exceedingly  that  there  was  come  a  man  to  seek  the  welfare  of 
the  children  of  Israel."  In  the  course  of  his  sermon  upon  this 
suggestive  text,  he  laid  down  the  following  principles  for  ad- 
mission to  the  privileges  of  baptism  and  the  Lord's  Supper  : 
"  To  leave  the  children  of  non-scandalous  orthodox  Christians 
unbaptized,  will,  I  doubt  not,  be  one  day  found  a  thing  dis- 
pleasing unto  Jesus  Christ.  But  on  the  other  hand,  to  baptize 
in  such  a  lax  and  licentious  way,  as  serves  to  dress  men  in  the 
livery,  without  bearing  the  yoke  of  Christ,  to  have  his  name 
upon  them  with  rejection  of  his  government,  will  not  suit  either 
the  principles  of  reformation  or  the  rules  of  Scripture.  So 
though  rigid  severity  in  admissions  to  the  Lord's  Table  is  to  be 
avoided,  yet  to  be  lax  and  slight  therein,  to  admit  all  sorts  to 
full  communion,  or  upon  very  slight  qualifications,  is  against 
the  principles  and  interest  of  reformation."  1 

There  was  a  minority,  small  in  number,  but  highly  respectable 
in  character  and  learning,  which  dissented  from  the  position 
taken  by  the  synod  on  the  question  of  baptism.  It  included 
such  men  as  the  Rev.  Charles  Chauncy,  President  of  Harvard 
College,2  the  Rev.  John  Mayo,  and  the  Rev.  Increase  Mather. 
President  Chauncy  and  Mr.  Mather  published  their  views,  but 
the  latter  came  over  afterward  to  the  side  of  the  majority,  con- 

1  John  Hull,  recording  Mr.  Mitchell's  Felt's  Eccles.  Hist,  of  New  England,  vol. 

death  "9th  5th  mo.,  1668,"  speaks  of  him  ii.  pp.  416,  417. 

as  "  the   chief   remaining    pillar   of    our  2  President  Chauncy  was  not  so  set  in 

ministry."  his  opinions  that  he  could  not  take  part 

Increase  Mather  writes  :  "That  blessed  in   the   installation  of  Mr.  Thacher,  the 

man,    concerning   whom    I    may  say,  as  first  minister  of  the  Third  Church.     His 

sometime  Beza  concerning  Calvin,  now  grandson    and    great-grandson,   both   of 

Mitchell  is  dead,  life  is  less  sweet,  and  whom  bore  his  name,  became  members 

death  will    be   less    bitter  unto    me."  —  of  this  church  in  the  next  century. 


IO 


HISTORY  OF   THE   OLD   SOUTH   CHURCH. 


vinced,  in  part,  by  the  arguments  of  Mr.  Mitchell,  and  influenced, 
also,  by  his  venerable  father,  the  minister  of  Dorchester.1 

In  this  controversy,  Mr.  Davenport,  of  New  Haven,  was  not 
only  on  the  opposite  side  from  that  on  which  Mr.  Wilson  and 
Mr.  Norton  had  stood,  but  he  was  the  leading  champion  on  that 
side  ;  according  to  Cotton  Mather,  he  was  "the  greatest  of  the 
anti-synodists."2  It  was  inevitable,  therefore,  that  when  it  was 
proposed  to  invite  him  to  the  vacant  pastorate  in  the  First 
Church  there  should  be  serious  opposition,  and  that  when  this 
purpose  was  persisted    in  two  parties  should  find  themselves 


1  In  view  of  the  controversy  which 
prevailed  with  regard  to  the  formation  of 
the  Third  Church,  and  its  favor  for  the 
half-way  covenant,  and  the  opposition  of 
the  members  of  the  First  Church  and 
others  to  it,  Increase  Mather  wrote,  May 
i,  1 67 1,  his  preface  to  the  following 
work :  The  First  Principles  of  New 
England,  concerning  the  subject  of  Bap- 
tism and  Communion  of  Churches,  col- 
lected partly  out  of  the  printed  books, 
but  chiefly  out  of  the  original  manu- 
scripts of  the  first  and  chief  Fathers  in 
the  New  England  Churches,  with  the 
judgment  of  certain  learned  divines  of 
the  Congregational  way  in  England,  con- 
cerning the  said  questions.  The  author 
says  that  his  design  is  to  "  commend  a 
few  things  to  the  serious  and  Christian 
consideration  of  the  anti- synodalian 
brethren,"  and  that  he  was  formerly  of 
their  persuasion.  He  observes  that  some 
who  dissented  from  the  late  synod  de- 
cided for  the  enlargement  of  baptism ; 
the  minority  of  that  body  thought  the 
rest  of  it  had  apostatized  ;  his  father, 
Richard  Mather,  gave  his  dying  counsel 
to  him,  that  he  should  endeavor  to  have 
children  brought  under  the  government 
of  the  church,  and  when  grown  up,  to 
have  baptism  for  their  children.  —  Felt's 
Eccles.  Hist.,  vol.  ii.  p.  478. 

"  My  father,"  says  Mather,  "  when  he 
was  leaving  the  world,  did  commend  it 
as  his  dying  counsel  to  me,  that  I  should 
endeavour  the  good  of  the  rising  gener- 
ation in  this  country,  and  in  special,  that 
they  might  be  brought  under  the  govern- 
ment of  Christ  in  his  church,  and  when 
grown  up  and  qualified,  as  in  the  late 
Synod  book  expressed,  have  baptism  for 


their  children.  What  impression  those 
words;  since  they  were  the  words  of  a 
father,  and  of  such  a  father,  and  dying 
words  also,  have  had  upon  my  heart,  is 
known  to  the  Father  of  Spirits,  who  only 
searcheth  hearts,  and  converseth  with  the 
souls  of  men,  nor  am  I  able  to  utter  it." 

2  Cotton  Mather  tells  us  that  Mr. 
Davenport  held  views  (as  he  himself  did) 
in  reference  to  the  fulfilment  of  prophecy 
such  as  are  now  called  millenarian.  "  In 
the  earliest  of  the  primitive  times,  the 
faithful  did  in  a  literal  sense,  believe  the 
second  coming  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
and  the  rising  and  reigning  of  the  saints 
with  him,  a  thousand  years  before  the 
rest  of  the  dead  live  again :  a  doctrine, 
which  however  some  of  later  years  have 
counted  it  heretical ;  yet,  in  the  days  of 
Irenaeus,  was  questioned  by  none  but 
such  as  were  counted  hereticks.  .  .  .  But 
here  was  the  special  favour  of  heaven,  to 
our  Davenport,  that  so  many  years  ago, 
when  in  both  Englands  the  true  notion  of 
the  Chiliad,  was  hardly  apprehended  by 
as  many  divines  of  note,  as  there  are 
mouths  of  Nilus,  yet  this  worthy  man 
clearly  saw  into  it,  and  both  preached 
and  wrote  those  very  things,  about  the 
future  state,  and  coming  of  the  Lord,  the 
calling  of  the  Jews,  and  the  first  and 
second  resurrection  of  the  dead,  which 
do  now  of  late  years  get  more  ground 
against  the  opposition  of  the  otherwise 
minded,  and  find  a  kinder  entertainment 
among  them  that  search  the  Scriptures. 
.  .  .  Even,  then,  so  long  ago  it  was,  that 
he  asserted,  A  personal,  visible,  powerful 
and  glorious  coming  of  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  unto  judgment,  long  before  the 
end  of  the  world." 


THE    THIRD    CHURCH  NARRATIVE.  II 

arrayed  against  each  other.  The  majority,  however,  was  in  his 
favor,  and  they  carried  their  purpose,  as,  from  their  point  of  view, 
certainly,  it  was  right  that  they  should.  They  were  not  to  blame 
for  insisting  upon  having  their  own  way  ;  nor  is  there  any  evi- 
dence that  the  minority,  "the  dissenting  brethren,"  as  they  came 
to  be  called,  opposed  them  in  this  in  any  spirit  of  faction. 
Before  final  action  was  taken,  but  when  it  was  foreseen  what 
this  would  be,  the  brethren  of  the  minority,  as  will  appear  pres- 
ently, proposed  to  submit  the  question  in  dispute  to  a  mutual 
council ;  and  after  the  call  had  been  given,  they  begged  permis- 
sion to  withdraw  and  to  organize  another  church,  for  which  there 
was  ample  room  in  the  growing  town.1 

As  the  discussion  proceeded,  another  objection  arose  to  the 
settlement  of  Mr.  Davenport  over  the  First  Church.  This  had 
reference  to  the  methods  employed  to  detach  him  from  his  New 
Haven  pastorate  and  bring  him  to  Boston ;  and  it  soon  came 
to  overshadow,  in  its  importance  and  seriousness,  all  questions 
growing  out  of  the  synodical  controversy.2  We  have  hints  as 
to  what  these  methods  were  in  the  various  histories  of  the  time, 
but  we  find  them  fully  set  forth,  with  many  other  interesting 
particulars,  in  a  Narrative  prepared  under  the  authority  of  the 
new  church,  and  compiled  from  the  original  documents  then 
extant,  which,  so  far  as  we  know,  has  never  been  printed  until 
now. 

"  The  Third  Church,"  we  are  told,  "  after  great  travell  and 
trouble  being  furnished  and  supplyed  with  officers  and  ordi- 
nances, did  agree  that  there  should  be  a  narrative  of  the  whole 
progress  of  their  proceedings,  drawn  up  and  kept  among  the 
Churches  Records  for  Posterity."  This  compilation  was  not 
made  immediately,  but  in  169 1,  probably,  a  committee,  consist- 
ing of  Samuel  Sewall,  Jacob  Eliot,  Theophilus  Frary,  and  Joshua 
Scottow,  drew  up  a  statement  of  what  took  place  during  the 
years  1667  to  1674.     A  copy  of  this  document,  authenticated 

1  Dr.  Abiel  Holmes,  following  George  generally,  in  connection  with  the  forma- 
Chalmers,  says  that  in  1673  the  town  of  tion  of  the  old  South  Church.  Thomas 
Boston  is  supposed  to  have  contained  Pemberton,  descended  from  one  of  the 
fifteen  hundred  families  ;  but  Dr.  Palfrey  founders,  in  his  Description  of  Boston, 
regards  this  estimate  as  altogether  too  published  in  1794,  speaks  of  the  brethren 
high.  —  History  of  New  England,  vol.  iii.  who  separated  from  the  First  Church  as 
P-  36-  being   dissatisfied    "  on   account   of    the 

2  At  the  end  of  the  next  century,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Davenport's  leaving  his  church 
question  of  the  half-way  covenant  had  at  New  Haven  for  a  settlement  here."  — 
dropped  out   of   the  thought  of  people  Mass.  Hist.  Collections,  vol.  iii.  p.  258. 


12 


HISTORY  OF   THE   OLD   SOUTH   CHURCH. 


^  if 


f|1i 


WhIlU 


by  Joshua  Scottow,1  has  been  preserved 
in  the  library  of  Yale  University,  and  we 
shall  make  free  use  of  it  in  this  history.2 
The  first  leaf  of  the  MS.,  which  for  con- 
venience of  reference  we  shall  call  the 
Third  Church  Narrative,  is  missing,  and 
the  account  opens  in  the  autumn  of  1667, 
in  the  midst  of  the  proceedings  of  a  meet- 
ing of  the  First  Church,  presided  over  by 
James  Penn,  ruling  elder,  a*t  which  "the 
dissenting   brethren  "  sought  opportunity 

1  Mr.  Scottow's  certificate  may  be  found  at  the  close 
of  the  Narrative,  in  the  third  chapter.  We  present  a 
facsimile  of  it  on  this  page. 

2  How  this  MS.  found  its  way  to  New  Haven  we 
have  no  means  of  knowing.  President  Stiles  records 
in  his  (MS.)  diary  :  "  Nov.  14,  1770.  Read  a  long  MS. 
Account  of  the  Removal  of  Mr.  Davenport  from  New 
Haven  in  166S  to  the  first  Chh  in  Boston,  upon  the 
Death  of  Mr.  Wilson;  &  the  Councills  &  Gathering 
the  third  Chh  in  Boston." 

In  the  winter  of  18S5-86,  the  attention  of  the  author 
was  called  to  this  Narrative  in  New  Haven  by  Professor 
Franklin  Bowditch  Dexter,  who  not  only  gave  permis- 
sion for  copying  it,  but  carefully  compared  the  copy, 
when  made,  with  the  original.  Professor  Dexter,  writ- 
ing under  date  of  Aug.  14,  1886,  says :  "  As  you  will 
see  from  a  notice  at  the  end,  the  transcript  was  not 
probably  made  by  any  of  the  church  members,  but  by 
hired  writers.  There  are  two  very  different  hands  em- 
ployed, —  perhaps  three,  —  and  I  can  trace  no  convin- 
cing similarity  to  any  of  the  written  autographs  of  the 
founders.  The  brief  certificate  near  the  end,  purporting 
to  be  by  Joshua  Scottow,  I  believe  is  wholly  in  his  hand ; 
the  date  is  uncertain,  —  whether  1693  or  1691."  This 
valuable  MS.  adds  greatly  to  our  knowledge  of  the 
early  history  of  the  Third  Church.  It  must  have  been 
prepared  in  duplicate.  Dr.  Wisner  says  :  "Among  the 
papers  of  the  Old  South  Church  I  have  found  two 
leaves,  paged  148,  149,  154,  155,  of  some  manuscript 
volume,  on  which  is  written  what  appears  to  be  parts  of 
the  reply  of  the  church  in  New  Haven  to  this  third 
letter  from  the  church  in  Boston.  On  the  top  of  the 
last  page  is  written  '  D.  Dismission.'  A  portion  of  it 
purports  to  be  a  quotation  of  the  most  material  part 
of  the  first  letter  from  the  church  in  New  Haven." 
Dr.  Wisner  then  quotes  the  fragment  of  the  letter 
signed  by  Nicholas  Street,  and  dated  "12.  8°.  68," 
which  we  shall  be  able  to  give  in  full.  —  History  of  the 
Old  South  Church  in  Boston,  in  Four  Sermons,  1830,  pp. 
74,  75- 


THE  REQUEST  OF  THE  DISSENTERS.  13 

to  state  their  reasons  for  opposing  the  call  to  Mr.  Davenport, 
but  in  vain. 

DISSENTERS    REQUEST. 

.  .  .  office  in  this  Church  they  supposed  they  had  good  reasons  against 
it,  and  desired  before  they  proceeded  to  vote  they  would  heare  what 
they  had  further  to  say,  the  Elder  and  Brethren  answer[ed]  they  de- 
sired not  to  heare  their  reasons,  and  proceeded  to  vote,  some  of  the 
Brethren  dissent[ing]  then  desired  the  Elder  that  he  would  at  least 
be  pleased  to  take  notice  of  the  number  of  the  persons  soe  minded, 
and  that  without  offence  they  might  give  in  their  names  and  reasons 
nex[t]  Church  meeting,  he  Answered  they  might  against  the  next 
Church  meeting  give  [in]  their  names,  together  with  the  reasons  of 
their  dissent  if  they  pleased  in  writ[ing].  And  soe  the  major  parte 
went  on  (in  a  full  concurrence)  to  vote  letters  to  be  writ[ten]  persons 
to  Draw  them  up,  and  Messengers  to  goe  with  them  to  New  Haven. 

The  Church  mett  againe  and  found  the  Brethren  since  called  dis- 
senting Brethren  presenting  [the]  Elder  with  a  writting 
containing  their  humble  request  that  they  would  not  [ 
hastily  proceed,  and  after  reading  of  it,  Pathetically  intreated  that  the 
Church  would  harken  to  the  request  of  their  Brethren,  which  writing 
is  here  inserted. 

HUMBLE    REQUEST   OF   THE    DISSENTING    BRETHREN. 

Honoured,  Reverend,  and  Beloved  Brethren 

When  we  consider  how  long  the  Good  hand  of  the  Lord  hath  bin 
extend [ed  to]  this  Congregation,  in  the  mercifull  injoyment  of  all  his 
holy  appointments  [in]  peace,  through  the  vigilance  and  dextrous 
guidance  of  those  (never  to  be  forgotten)  renowned  labourers  that  the 
Lord  of  the  harvest  was  pleased  to  set  in  th[is]  parte  of  his  vineyard, 
the  remembrance  of  whome,  their  faithfull  pious  and  profita[ble] 
labours  for  winning  of  soules  to  Christ,  and  stablishing  our  heartes 
in  the  fait[h]  and  order  of  the  Gospell  should  never  be  forgotten, 
according  to  Heb :  13 :  8.  it  is  the  great  greife  of  our  hearts,  to  thinke 
that  after  their  departure  Satan  doth  take  advantage  against  us, 
through  our  watchlessnes  soe  as  to  threaten  the  disturbing]  if  not 
totall  bereaving  us  of  our  future  peaceable  Communion  in  the  thing[s] 
of  God,  unles  the  ffather  of  mercies,  open  the  eyes  of  the  Congre- 
gation, really  [to]  see  our  impending  evill,  and  by  a  timous  and  unani- 
mous application  of  our  sel[ves]  to  a  regular  observance  of  the  rule  to 
and  with  one  another,  to  Counter  worke  the  enemy ;  Deare  Brethren 
it  is  our  ffurther  trouble  that  we  cannot  see  our  way  cleare  [to]  so  act 
with  yourselves  in  what  you  have  proposed,  and  seene  cause  to 
proceed  in  [with]out  us,  wee  humbly  desire  you  not  to  interprett  it 
to  be  willfullnes  in  [us].  We  doe  as  before  the  Lord  profess  the  con- 
trary, but  a  Religious  tye  of  Con[s]cience  that  is  upon  us,  to  attend 


14  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

our  Duty  in  waiting  the  answer  of  him  wh[o]  is  soe  much  desired. 
We  therefore  desire  you  to  put  on  charity,  and  not  to  thinke  of  us,  nor 
act  otherwise  towards  us  than  become  Brethren,  as  we  [  ]  desire 
to  carry  it  to  you ;  And  if  we  cannot  all  speake  the  same  thing  [ 
judging  yourselves  to  exceed  us  in  number,  yett  shew  the  spirit  of 
Christ  Jes[us]  in  a  patient  bearing  with  us  and  regular  indeavour 
of  our  convictions  [if]  we  erre  in  not  acting  with  you,  we  trust  through 
grace  we  sh[all]  attend  your  ffull  indeavours  that  way,  that  soe  if  it  be 
possible  we  ma[y]  be  of  one  heart  and  mind  in  the  Lord,  whereby 
they  that  seek  an  advantage  [over]  us,  and  would  rejoice  in  our.divi- 
sion  may  be  disappointed,  we  therefore  beseech  [you]  to  surcease  that 
prosecution  of  your  votes  till  we  may  have  opportunity  for  [a]  free  and 
full  consultacion  togither  with  yourselves  of  what  may  most  con- 
duce to]  the  glory  of  god,  the  wellfare  not  only  of  this  Church  but 
of  all  the  Churches  he[re]   and  elswhere,  and  if   upon  a  deliberate 

,  )6  consideracon  of   things  we  cannot     We  hereby  declare 

ourselves  ready  and  willing  and  oblige  ourselves  to  ac- 
quiesce in  the  advice  of  a  Councill  of  Elders  and  Messengers  of 
Churches  mutually  to  be  chosen,  we  shall  add  no  more  but  that  of  the 
Apostle  2  :  Phill  :  2  :  3  : 

subscribed  by  the  dissenting  Brethren  28  :  (7)  1667. 

Notwithstanding  this  our  petition  or  addresse  some  of  the  Brethren 
desired  they  might  not  be  hindered  in  the  work  they  were  met  about 
and  that  the  Elder  would  attend  to  the  work  of  the  day,  although  the 
Elder  did  affectionately  with  teares  in  his  eyes  desire  that  the  motion 
of  the  dissenters  might  be  harkened  unto,  but  he  could  not  prevaile 
being  overruled  to  read  the  letters  agreed  to  be  sent  unto  Newhaven 
Church  and  Mr.  Davenport  a  coppy  whereof  followeth.1 

The  church  of  Christ  at  Boston  to  the  church  of  Christ  at  New- 
haven  wisheth  all  grace  and  peace  may  bee  multiplyed. 

Reverend  and  beloved  in  our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ,  wee 
„        „.     .      know  vou  cannot  butt  have  heard  of  the  dispensations  of 

Boston  Churches  J  L 

letter  [to]  Mr.       the  Lord  in  his   afflicting  of  us.  by  his  righteous  bereav- 

Davenports  .  i  • 

[church]  at  mgs  of  those  pretious  instruments  who  sometimes  were 

as  stars  in  his  right  hand,  and  officers,  having  the  over- 
sight of  us  in  the  Lord,  under  whom,  and  their  Administration  of  his 
ordinances,  wee  had  greatt  delight  refreshing  and  aedification  through 
his  rich  grace,  butt  nott  soe  improoving  under  enlargements,  we  are 
streightned,  and  breaches  have  beene  made  upon  us  one  after  another, 
and  that  which  adds  to  our  affliction  before  wee  could  obtaine  a 
repayre  of  the  first  (notwithstanding  our  endeavours)  a  second  hath 
overtaken  us,  whereby  we  are  made  to  sitt  sollitary,  which  our  con- 
dition we  are  providentially  led  to  present  unto  you,  hoping  to  find 

1  [We  have  corrected  the  copy  of  this  draft,  now  in  the  possession  of  the  Mass. 
letter  by  what  appears  to  be  the  original     Hist.  Society.] 


LETTER    TO    THE   NEW  HAVEN  CHURCH.  1 5 

that  Christian  sympathy  and  fellow  feeling  with  us,  that  your  pure 
minds  will  bee  ready  to  contribute  to  our  assistance  thereby  forward- 
ing the  work  of  the  Lord  amongst  us,  by  your  willing  resigning  to  the 
will  of  the  Lord  your  sometimes  settled  pastor  the  Reverend  Mr. 
Davenport,  though  now  as  wee  understand  providentially  loosned  from 
those  engagements  hee  sometimes  were  under  to  and  with  you,  unto 
whome  wee  have  sent  as  to  yourselves,  by  our  beloved  Brethren  Mr. 
Ed.  Tyng,  C[apt.]  James  Olliver  and  L[ieut.]  Richard  Cooke  whome 
wee  desire  you  to  receive  in  the  Lord  and  to  give  creditt  to  in  this 
matter ;  and  although  the  call  of  the  Church  is  nott  soe  unanimous  as 
were  to  bee  desired,  yett  itt  it  is  soe  full  free  and  large,  that  wee  ac- 
compt  it  our  duty  to  make  this  Essay  by  our  Brethren  and  letters,  that 
thereby  wee  may  have  discovery  of  the  mind  of  the  Lord  in  the  case, 
hoping  that  the  houre  of  temptation  passing  over  our  Brethren  nott  so 
minded  with  us,  they  will  nott  onely  acquiesce,  butt  rejoyce  in  the 
accomplishment  of  the  will  of  the  Lord,  when  they  shall  see  his  work 
to  prosper  among  us  though  by  an  instrument  they  did  nott  so  eye  with 
their  Brethren  :  wee  cannott  butt  be  under  a  good  degree  of  sence  how 
exercising  itt  must  needs  bee  for  you  to  part  with  soe  Reverend  a 
person  as  the  Reverend  Mr.  Davenport  is,  who  is  so  richly  furnished, 
that  wheresoever  hee  is  or  shall  bee  disposed,  hee  may  bee  as  a  pol- 
ished shaft  in  the  hand  of  Christ  coming  in  the  fullness  of  the  bless- 
ing of  the  gospell  :  yett  resignations  in  the  most  desirable  blessings 
circumstanced  with  the  highest  grounded  expectations,  have  beene 
testimonyes  of  loves  sincerity  to  him  that  gives,  and  to  and  for  whome 
wee  ought  to  part  with  all  when  hee  calls  thereto  :  itt  was  enough  to 
make  free  to  send,  when  by  him  itt  was  said  the  Lord  hath  neede,  that 
itt  is  so  in  this  case  wee  speak  as  wee  beleive  the  Lord  hath  need 
of  Mr.  Jno.  Davenport  att  Boston,  and  that  you  may  so  beleive  and 
accordingly  doe,  wee  pray  the  mover  of  all  hearts  to  work  you  up 
togither  that  you  may  say  wee  have  a  little  sister  and  shee  hath  no 
breasts,  and  what  shall  wee  doe  for  our  sister  in  the  day  when  shee 
shall  be  spoken  for,  and  wee  further  pray  that  you  and  wee  may  in  all 
conditions  tryalls  changes  bee  so  managed  in  our  day,  that  when  our 
Lord  shall  come,  wee  may  bee  so  watching  and  doing  that  wee  may 
bee  counted  worthy  to  enter  into  his  joy  through  the  meritts  of  him 
that  hath  purchased  us  to  be  a  peculiar  [people]  to  himselfe,  zealous 
of  good  workes,  unto  whom  with  the  ffather  and  the  eternall  spirit 
the  onely  one  and  true  good  bee  glory  for  ever,  in  whome  we  remaine. 
yours  in  the  highest  and  best  bond 
28  :  (7)  Boston.  J.  P.1  in  the  name  of  the  Brethren.2 

1  [James  Penn,  ruling  elder  in  the  First  "  In  the  last  Letter  our  church  re- 
Church,  Boston,  from  1650  to  1671.]  ceived  from  Rev.  Dr.  Owen  it  is  [    ]  he 

2  [On  the  back  of  the  paper  with  which  had  such  a  valedictorie  speach  to  our 
we  have  compared  this  letter  we  find  reverend  Pastor  Wilson  that  iff  the  wise 
what  we  suppose  to  have  been  a  post-  orderer  of  all  things  should  soe  design 
script,  as  follows  :  —  that  he  should  not  see  him  in  this  world 


l6  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

At  the  same  time  we  presented  them  with  the  reasons  of  our  dissent, 
Reasons  of  intreating  they  might  have  bin  read  before   they  voted 

dissent.  their  letters,  but  could   not  prevaile  untill   their  letters 

were  read  and  voted : 

Reasons  of  our  dissent  from  calling  of  Reverend  Mr.  Davenport 
unto  office  relation  with  us  and  subscribed  by  30  Brethren  were  as 
followeth. 

REASONS    OF    DISSENT. 

i.ly  ffrom  the  state  of  the  Church  he  stands  now  an  officer  unto, 

which  is  a  state  of  peace   and  amity  wherein  they  have 

lived  without  the  least  breach  unto  us  knowne,  [which] 

hereby  may  be  broken  to  the  occasion  of  the  hazard  of  the  ruine  or 

rent  both  of  Church  and  towne. 

2.1y  from  the  state  of  the  person  called  who  as  it  hath  bin  reported 
by  some  of  our  Brethren  looketh  at  himself  as  free  from  the  Church 
but  by  what  doth  appeare  hath  not  bin  dismissed  from  them,  whose 
temptation  may  hereby  be  heightned  to  dessert  his  flock  without  any 
cause  that  ever  we  heard  of  uhlesse  alteration  of  civill  government 
which  hath  not  put  any  impositions  upon  them  nor  abridged  their 
Church  liberties.1 

3iy  from  the  persons  calling  whose  acting  as  we  humbly  conceive 
hath  bin  sudden  and  not  soe  suitable  unto  the  order  of  the  Gospell 
and  discipline  which  we  all  profess  as  a  matter  of  such  high  concern- 
ment might  require.     Gall:  5.  13: 

1:  in  respect  that  free  debate  in  matters  of  such  import  was  not 
without  reflexion  upon  the  dissenters. 

2.  in  respect  where  as  it  was  agreed  that  what  was  to  be  voted 
should  be  written,  yet  that  all  votes  did  passe  and  none  were  written. 

yet  att  that  great  Assembling  there  would  which  had  so  acted.  There  was  another 
be  A  glad  meeting.  And  he  earnestly  particular  which  brought  the  leading  men, 
desired  our  church  would  not  hinder  such  as  Leverett,  to  like  him  more  than 
themselves  from  Enjoyment  of  Able  they  had  disliked  him  for  what  he  wrote 
Teachers  for  soe  unworthy  a  one  as  against  the  half-way  covenant.  This  was 
himselfe  who  was  hindered  yet  withall  the  decided  and  strong  encouragement 
Promised  that  he  would  take  the  first  which  he  gave  the  authorities  of  Massa- 
opertunity  that  the  Providence  off  god  chusetts  to  deny  the  offensive  claims  of 
should  offer  to  him  off  coming  unto  us  the  royal  commissioners,  and  to  hold  out 
wher  in  he  might  but  Rationally  hope  to  in  their  independent  attitude.  In  ad- 
have  the  free  exercise  of  his  ministry  dition,  he  and  his  Boston  friends  seem 
when  he  should  come."]  to  have  so  far  tolerated  each  other  in 
1  ["  There  was  one  point,"  on  the  part  their  different  views  of  such  a  covenant 
of  Mr.  Davenport,  "which  made  it  de-  as  not  to  disturb  their  friendly  cobper- 
sirable  for  him  to  change  the  location  of  ation  in  other  respects."  —  Felt's  Eccles. 
his  ministry.  This  was  his  strong  dis-  History,  vol.  ii.  p.  421. 
approbation  of  the  policy  adopted  by  Mr.  Davenport  declined  a  call  from  the 
Connecticut  to  compel  the  union  of  the  Second  Church  to  become  its  minister  at 
New  Haven  colony  with  them,  and  his  the  time  of  its  formation.  The  Rev. 
aversion  to  live   under  the  government  John  Mayo  was  settled  over  it  in  1655.] 


POSITION  OF  THE  DISSENTERS.  1J 

3.  in  that  the  dissenters  though  soe  considerable  a  number  appeared 
declaring  ourselves  ready  to  render  our  reasons  before  the  vote  was 
passed,  yet  soe  violently  was  it  carryed  on  by  our  brethren  manifest- 
ing that  they  desired  to  heare  none,  we  suppose  that  [in]  a  civill 
Assembly  the  like  would  not  have  bin  done,  much  lesse  ought  our 
brethren  soe  to  have  acted,  who  in  diverse  Church  administrations  of 
far  lesse  concerne  than  this  of  dreadfull  obligation  to  office,  and  when 
pressed  by  lesse  than  the  7th  part  of  ourselves,  yet  the  body  of  the 
Church  rather  than  to  act  unto  their  greivances  hath  desisted  there- 
from. 

4  in  that  when  we  desired  an  orderly  councill  our  motion  was  not 
complyed  with  but  they  proceeded  unto  action. 

5  that  the  Reverend  Mr.  Allin  hath  bin  acknowledged  by  our 
Brethren  the  voters  as  unmeet  to  lead  and  rule  our  congregation 
alone,  and  therfore  another  must  be  first  voted  to  guide  and  rule  him, 
which  we  conceive  may  tend  unto  the  confirmation  of  Prelacy,  and 
we  see  not  but  that  it  may  be  contrary  to  that  of  the  Apostle,  who 
requireth  a  sufficiency  in  the  Ruler  to  Rule  well. 

6  in  that  some  of  the  cheif  voters  saw  not  ground  to  admit  Mr. 
Thatcher  to  be  a  member  of  our  body  for  deserting  his  flock  [at 
Weymouth]  although  they  were  supplyed  with  another  officer,  amicably 
parted  with  him,  and  had  recommended  him  to  our  communion,  yet 
now  as  we  conceive  incourage  that  in  one  which  they  condemne  in 
another. 

4  [1.]  from  the  state  of  the  dissenters  who  lay  under  an  awfull  ingage- 
ment  to  maintaine  the  travelling  truth  relating  to  duty  unto  the  children 
of  the  Church  and  Heb :  13  :  8  :  to  remember  those  who  have  spoken 
the  word  of  the  Lord  unto  us,  which  now  we  should  forgit  pluck- 
ing downe  what  they  have  built  and  in  stead  of  following  their  faith, 
should  now  divert  from  it,  and  cease  to  consider  the  end  of  their 
conversation  Jesus  Christ  the  same  yesterd[ay]  and  to  day  the  same 
forever  : 

2  we  should  walk  contrary  to  Rev  :  3  :  3  :  not  holding  fast  what  we 
have  received  Coll  12:6:  nor  should  we  as  we  have  received  Christ 
Jesus  the  Lord  soe  walk  in  him,  it  having  bin  a  received  and  pro- 
fessed truth,  by  the  body  of  our  Church  having  voted  it  in  the  affirma- 
tive, and  that  after  much  patience  with  and  candour  towards  those 
otherwise  minded  diverse  daies  having  bin  spent  in  inquiring  about 
this  great  Generation  truth  which  (since  hath  bin  confirmed  by  the 
Synod)  full  liberty  also  being  granted  unto  those  (who  scrupled)  to 
propose  their  questions  and  were  answered  with  such  Publique  satis- 
faction ;  that  those  few  who  remained  unsatisfied  promised  to  sitt 
downe,  and  leave  the  Body  to  act,  excepting  one  or  two ;  accordingly 
there  was  an  entrance  upon  the  worke,  But  the  Lord  lay  not  to  the 
charge    of   those   that    hindered    the   progress    therein ;    which   with 


1 8  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

great  blessing  and  success  hath  bin  and  is  practiced  in  neighboring 
Churches  : 

Thirdly  our  Churches  double  experience  of  her  widdow  hood,  and 
the  difficulty  of  meat  supply,  causeth  us  in  prudence  to  conceive,  a 
person  of  soe  great  an  age  not  soe  suitable  to  that  end. 

4-ly  and  lastly  in  that  we  take  ourselves  regularly  bound  by  an 
unanimous  consent  of  the  Church,  further  to  waite  the  determinate 
answer  of  the  Reverend  Dr.  Owen  which  [were  then  by  an  ordinary1] 
disapointement  of  providence  and  hath  bin  hether  to  retarded. 

The  Reasons  were  then  read  and  no  answer  was  made  unto  them  for 
9  months  time  (onely  mr.  Stodder  said  they  were  irregular,  irrationall 
and  he  was  ready  to  say  ungodly)  but  after  9  months  in  the  Publique 
a  paper  was  read  which  the  Elder  said  was  an  answer  to  the  Reasons, 
the  dissenters  desired  to  know  whether  it  was  from  him  [self  or]  the 
Church,  he  said  from  the  Church,  then  up  stood  mr.  Ed :  Ting  an 
honourd  Brother  of  the  Church  and  said  he  doubted  the  Elder  might 
not  say  the  Church,  for  he  knew  not  that  he  had  ever  heard  them 
read  before ;  the  dissenters  desired  a  coppy,  the  Elder  said  he  would 
give  no  coppy ;  neither  was  it  any  more  than  once  read  at  that  or 
any  other  time  untill  the  councill  sate  and  then  it  was  read. 

After  the  Lord  brought  in  Ships  from  England  and  they  could  heare 
of  no  letters  from  Dr.  Owen  many  of  them  together  went  to  the  Elder 
to  solicite  and  intreate  for  a  Church  meeting  freely  to  consider  and 
debate  about  any  persons  meet  to  be  called  to  office  in  the  Church 
but  the  Elder  totally  refused  to  grant  any. 

Mr.  Davenport  wrote  to  the  Church  where  in  he  saith  he  considered 

the  clearnes  and  strength  of  the  call  of  christ  by  the  Church 

and  that  they  may  take  notice  and  be  assured  of  his  strong 

inclination  to  obey  this  call,  and  hoped  to  be  with  them  before  winter. 

COPPY    OF    MR.    DAVENPORT    FIRST    LETTER    TO    THE    CHURCH  :    8   (8)   67. 

Honourable  Reverend  and  dearly  beloved  in  our  Lord  Jesus 

The  hast  of  your  Honoured  Messengers  to  returne  unto  you,  com- 
pelled! me  to  be  more  briefe  than  other  wise  I  should  have  bin,  Let  it 
please  you  to  accept  many  harty  thankes  for  this  reall  expression 
of  your  love  in  your  invitation  of  me  to  such  a  service,  as  I  accont  the 
minnistration  of  the  Gospel  in  your  Church  to  be,  both  in  respect  of 
those  eminent  lights,  which  have  formerly  shined  in  that  Golden 
Candlestick,  and  in  reference  to  the  Generall  Influences  from  thence 
through  out  the  Country,  In  which  respects  I  am  apt  to  be  dis- 
couraged from  such  an  undertaking,  being  —  conscious  to  my  selfe 
of  my  nothingness  in  myselfe,  yett  when  I  consider  the  clearnes  and 
strength  of  the  call  of  Christ,  by  you  unto  worthless  me,  to  come  and 
helpe  you  in  such  atime  of  your  streights,  I  finde  myselfe  incouraged 

1  [These  words  are  erased  in  the  MS.] 


LETTERS  FROM  NEW  HAVEN.  1 9 

to  beleive  that  his  power  will  be  glorified  in  my  weaknes ;  and  his 
grace  in  my  unworthynes  where  upon  I  wholy  cast  myselfe,  and  rely 
through  the  helpe  of  his  spirit,  waiting  upon  God  in  Christ  to  manifest 
his  will,  and  my  way  soe  clearly  to  myselfe  and  to  his  people,  that  we 
might  be  brought  into  a  full  acquiescence  therein  and  obedience  there 
unto,  In  order  here  unto  this  Church  being  assembled  on  the  7th  day 
of  this  month  I  read  your  letters  one  directed  to  them  and  the  other 
sent  to  me,  and  having  some  thing  touching  two  things  to  be  con- 
sidered in  a  call  of  God,  viz:  that  it  be  from  such  a  place,  2ly  to 
such  a  place ;  And  cleared  my  call  from  them  by  some  arguments 
which  were  of  force  with  me  (and  it  appeares)  that  one  of  them  was 
confessed  by  the  ablest  among  themselves  to  be  unanswerable  :  And 
for  clearing  my  call  to  you,  the  letters  read  before  them  were  in  my 
apprehensions  sufficient ;  The  conclusion  was  that  the  matter  under 
debate  was  looked  upon,  and  that  Justly  soe  weighty,  as  that  a  day  for 
extreaordinary  humbling  of  ourselves  to  seek  the  face  of  God  and 
guidance  by  his  spirit,  before  the  question  be  Issued :  should  be  set 
apart  the  weeke  following,  and  on  the  day  after  they  would  Consult 
and  conclude  with  Gods  helpe,  After  that  you  will  receive  from  them 
their  full  answer,  In  meane  time  you  may  be  pleased  to  take  notice 
and  to  be  assured  of  my  strong  inclynation  to  obey  this  call,  which 
seemeth  to  me  to  be  a  call  of  Jesus  Christ  the  Lord,  your  Lord  and 
our,  And  accordingly  I  hope  to  be  with  you  this  winter  with  the  con- 
sent of  this  Church  if  God  permit,  by  the  first  opportunity  after  the 
fast  is  over  in  reference  to  all  the  premises,  I  humbly  and  earnestly 
begg  the  helpe  of  your  fervent  prayers  and  rest  in  Jesus  Christ  » 

yours  engaged  to  serve  you  in  my  worke 
where  unto  Jesus  christ  shall  call  me 
Jo  :  Davenport  :  Sen  : 

THE  CHURCH  OF  NEW  HAVEN  LETTER  IN  ANSWER  TO  THE  BRETHRENS 
LETTER  RETURNED  BY  CAPTAIN  CLARKE. 

Directed  to  Elder  Pen. 
Reverend  Sir 

we  received  your  letter  Dated  the  28  :   7  mo  :  67  subscribed  with 
your  name  and  with  the  consent  of  the  Brethren,  your- 
selfe  and  the    Brethren    in    whose   name   you    writt,   we 
salute  in  the  Lord  with  this  returne.     Your  letter  to  the  Church  was 
read  at  a  Church  meetting  on  the  7th  Instant,  the  Con- 

.  .   ,  &    ,  .'  '  Church  of 

tents  where  of  have  put  sundry  pretious  soules  among  us,    New  havens 
on  a  farr  greater  tryall  and  exercise  than  they  are  able  to 
beare,  unles  supported  by  the  same  hand,  and  power  that  made  and 
doth  uphold  the  world ;  your  loss  of  such  eminent  lights  and  guides, 
which  God  hath  bereaved  you  of  is  also  our  and  all  New  Englands, 
where  of  we  cannot  but  be  deeply  sensible ;  It  hath  bin  and  shall  be 


20  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

our  earnest  prayer  to  the  Lord  of  the  Harvest  to  send  forth  some 
faithfull  labourers  according  to  your  need  in  to  his  harvest  at  Boston ; 
But  your  motion  to  part  with  our  Deare  Pastour,  for  soe  many  Chil- 
dren to  part  with  such  a  father,  who  hath  bin  an  Instrument  in  Gods 
hand,  and  through  his  blessing  on  his  ministry  of  the  conversion 
of  many  soules  amongst  us,  And  of  the  Edification  and  building  up 
of  many  more ;  (you  are  pleased  in  your  letters  thus  to  express  your- 
selves) your  some  time  settled  Pastour  Reverend  mr.  Davenport, 
though  now  as  we  understand  providentially  loosened  from  those 
ingaigments  he  was  sometime  under  to  and  with  you ;  we  doubt  not 
but  by  this  time,  your  Honoured  Messengers  have  informed  you  that 
here  in  you  are  mistaken,  for  when  they  were  present  with  us,  they 
were  both  eye  and  eare  witnes  of  his  Pastourall  officiating  in  Pub- 
lique,  both  in  preaching  the  word  and  in  Administring  the  Lords 
Supper;  (and  though  our  Revrend  Pastour)  hath  some  time  de- 
clared his  apprehention,  concerning  his  liberty  for  to  lay  downe  his 
office  upon  the  Change  of  the  drill  Goverment,  the  report  where  of  may 
be  the  ground  of  that  passage  in  your  letter,  and  we  yeild  it  for  to  be 
true  that  this  hath  bin  his  firme  apprehension,  and  he  hath  foremerly 
expressed  soe  much ;  yett  with  due  Reverence  to  our  Pastours  Judge- 
ment, we  can  not  but  let  you  understand,  that  the  Brethren  have 
unanimously  declare[d]  themselves  to  be  of  a  different  aprehention 
in  this  matter,  we  are  also  the  less  forward  for  to  attend  your  motion 
(from  what  yourselves  express)  that  the  call  of  the  church  were  not  soe 
unanimous  as  were  to  be  desired,  fearefull  we  are  what  his  tender 
spirit  now  in  his  old  age  may  meet  with  all  on  that  account  and  what 
may  be  the  sad  consequence  of  trouble  that  may  arise  in  a  Church 
divided  about  his  call  both  to  him  and  to  yourselves  ;  The  premises 
considered  we  see  no  cause  nor  call  of  God  to  resigne  our  reverend 
Pastour  to  yourselves,  or  to  the  Church  of  Boston,  by  any  immediate 
act  of  ours,  But  such  is  our  tender  respect  to  him  that  we  have  soe 
declared  ourselves  to  his  satisfaction  as  we  hope ;  As  he  is  able  for  to 
give  you  a  more  full  answer  not  only  of  his  owne  minde  but  of  our 
also  in  this  weighty  matter,  as  he  shall  see  cause  (to  whom  wee  refere 
you)  now  the  father  of  lights  grant  that  in  his  light  our  Reverend 
Pastour  may  see  light  for  to  guide  him  in  his  way,  And  the  father 
of  mercy  supply  both  his  and  your  need  according  to  the  riches  of 
Glory  by  Jesus  Christ 

N.  Street  in  the  name  of  the  Church  l 
this  letter  directed  to  Eld  :  Pen.  to  be  communicated.  28  :  8  :  67  : 

1  [The  Rev.  Nicholas  Street  was  or-  with  the  Rev.  William  Hooke  and  as  his 

dained   teacher   of   the   church   in  New  successor,  and  he  was  called  to  be  his  suc- 

Haven,  Nov.  26,  1659.     It  is  not  known  cessor  also  at  New  Haven.     Dr.  Bacon 

in  what  year  he  came  from  England.    He  says:    "Of  the  character  of  Mr.  Street, 

was  settled  for  twenty  years  at  Taunton,  as  of  his  life,  we  know  but  little.     He 

in   the    Plymouth    Colony,    as    associate  appears  to  have  been  a  pious,  judicious, 


MR.   DAVENPORT'S  SECOND  LETTER.  21 


A  SECOND    LETTER    OF    MR.    DAVENPORTS    THAT    CAME    PER    CAPTAINE 

CLARKE. 

Reverend  Sir 

In  my  last  sent  by  your  Honoured  Messengers  (which  I  heare  was 
publiquely  read  before  the  mixt  assemblje)  where  my  humble  desire  is 
that  this  may  be  read  also,  I  declared  my  acceptance  of  the  call  tendred 
to  me  by  the  Church  of  Boston,  in  hope  that  this  Church  of  Newhaven 
would  have  consented  thereunto,  wherein  I  was  strengthned  [by]  your 
approving  my  reason  for  warranting  my  remove  from  hence,  grounded 
upon  i  Timoth  :  5  :  8  :  I  looke  at  your  call  as  the  act  of  the  church  it 
being  consented  there  to  by  the  major  part  by  farr,  for  otherwise 
nothing  shall  pass  as  a  Church  act  if  the  minor  part  dissent,  which  is 
contrary  to  the  scripture  and  to  Reason,  and  constant  aproved  prac- 
tices of  all  publique  societyes,  hence  I  Looke  at  your  calling  of  me  as 
cleare  and  full  on  your  part,  And  accordingly  signifyd  my  hope  and 
purpose  of  coming  to  you,  with  the  consent  of  this  Church  after  we 
had  sought  God  in  an  extraordinary  manner,  for  the  guidance  of  his 
holy  spirit  in  this  weighty  afayer,  this  being  done  the  Brethren  result, 
about  an  Answer  unto  you,  the  result  where  of  you  will  receive  from 
themselves  where  by  you  will  finde  they  decline  giving  a  possitive  answer, 
but  leave  that  to  me,  (where  as  it  is  my  judgment)  that  I  should  be 
puerly  passive  in  a  matter  of  this  Importance  concerning  my  selfe,  that 
I  might  more  clearly  discerne  the  holy  will  and  hand  of  God  appear- 
ing in  the  whole  busines,  But  soe  farr  as  they  doe  answer  it  is  a  re- 
fusall  of  Consent  which  was  a  matter  of  no  small  exercise  to  me,  and 
that  was  increased  partly  by  the  greife  of  the  whole  Church  and 
Towne,  and  of  many  godly  people  in  sundry  townes  aboute  us,  upon 
their  feare  of  my  departure  hence,  and  partly  by  constant  reports,  of, 
not  only  the  dissent,  but  of  the  strong  oposition  of  above  40  Brethren  of 
your  Church  against  my  coming  to  you,  some  of  them  saying  if  I 
should  come  thither,  it  would  be  breaking  of  that  Church,  and 
some  here  fearing  that  would  be  the  breaking  of  this  Church  If  I 
should  remove  hence,  yet  at  our  last  meeting  I  presented  my  desire 
of  making  a  journy  to  Boston  for  this  winter,  and  part  of  the  spring  for 
a  further  triall  for  to  finde  out  the  minde  of  God,  to  my  full  satis- 
faction, promising  for  to  returne  to  them  againe,  in  case  of  my  dissatis- 
faction, And  if  satisfied  yett  not  to  ingage  myselfe  for  office  untill  I 
had  given  them  account  of  the  event  (and  shall  receive  theire  answer) 
{Against  this  they  exprest  themselves  unani?nously)  I  haveing  thus  farr 
proceeded,  considered  the  dificultie  and  hazard  of  winter  voyage  and 

modest  man,"  and  "  no  inferior  preach-  minister  of  the  New  Haven  church,  and 

er."      He   sympathized    with   Mr.   Dav-  so  continued   until   his  death,  April  22, 

enport  in  his  anti-synodical  views,  and  1674.      See    The  Ministry  of  Taunton, 

wrote  in  support  of  them.     After  the  re-  by  the    Rev.   S.  H.  Emery,   vol.   i.   pp. 

moval  of  the  latter  to  Boston  he  was  sole  156-164.] 


22  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

journy,  and  in  hope  for  to  see  the  Church  better  settled  by  that  time, 
I  consent  to  stay  with  them  this  winter,  yett  telling  them  I  must  make 
a  journy  to  Boston  by  the  will  of  God,  before  the  hott  monthes  of  the 
next  summer,  for  the  reason  before  noted  from  the  i  Timoth :  5  :  8  : 
and  all  were  satisfied. 

What  remaines  Honoured  and  Beloved  in  the  Lord  but  that  we  con- 
clude if  this  Counsill  be  of  God  it  shall  stand  if  not  the  will  of  the   1 
Lord  be  done. 

my  fundamentall  Reason  from  the  Church  agrement  with  me  in  our 
first  begining  for  my  being  at  liberty  to  follow  the  call  of  God,  either 
in  any  other  place  or  to  continue  here  is  of  the  same  force  with  me 
now,  as  it  was  two  years  since  when  I  pleaded  with  them  against  my 
goeing  to  Dellaware,  though  while  I  stay  here  I  am  their  Pastour,  and 
doe  accordingly  officiate,  with  them  passed  without  oposition 

It  is  onely  the  will  of  God  that  I  looke  at,  and  wait  for  to  be  clearly 
manifested  to  mee  in  this  weighty  buysines,  being  desirous  for  to  be 
approved  of  him  in  all  my  waies,  and  to  act  in  all  things  to  his  honour. 
I  shall  humbly  crave  leave  to  ad[d]  a  word  or  two  for  your  peace,  the 
Prophet  saith  love  the  truth  and  peace,  truth  and  peace  are  sisters, 
and  will  not  be  separated,  let  the  truth  be  first  regarded  and  minded 
and  your  hearts  be  united  to  the  truth  of  the  gospell  and 
yourselves  for  the  truthes  sake,  It  is  recorded  concerning  Jehoshaphat 
that  the  Lord  was  with  him  because  he  walked  in  the  first  waies  of  his 
ffather  David  2  Chr :  17  :  3 :  soe  will  the  Lord  be  with  you  Honoured 
and  beloved  in  the  Lord  if  you  walk  in  the  first  waies  where  in  you 
walked  according  to  his  Rule  under  that  faithfull  and  blessed  servant 
of  Christ  mr.  John  Cotton ;  But  if  you  fall  into  divissions  amongst 
yourselves,  by  different  principles,  some  striving  for  one  way,  some  for 
another  :  I  feare  I  feare  [sic]  and  forewarne,  that  the  Isshue  will  be  a 
rent  amongst  you,  unto  Gods  great  dishonour,  to  the  corrupting  of  the 
Church  from  the  symplicity  that  is  in  Christ  Jesus,  which  God  in 
mercy  avert ;  and  I  doe  humbly  Beseech  you  in  the  name  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  :  The  Bretheren  that  have  declared  themselves  oposite  to  my 
coming  to  you,  let  nothing  be  done  throug[h]  strife  and  vaine  glory ; 
And  that  theire  be  noe  scisme  amongst  you  for  my  sake,  but  that  you 
be  perfectly  joyned  together  in  the  same  minde,  and  in  the  same  judg- 
ement striveing  together  for  the  faith  of  the  Gospel,  and  for  the  holy 
order  where  in  Christ  hath  appointed  his  Church  for  to  walke,  then 
will  be  given  teaching  officers  according  to  his  owne  heart,  which  shall 
feed  you  with  knowledge  and  understanding,  and  god  will  Bless  theire 
Administration  for  the  spirituall  Good  of  yourselves  and  your  pos- 
terity. The  God  of  patience  and  consolation  graunt  you  for  to  be  like 
minded  one  towards  another  according  to  Jesus  Christ,  that  you  may 
with  one  minde  and  one  mouth  glorify  God,  even  the  father  of  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ.  J  :  D 

28  October  1667. 


MR.  DAVENPORT  COMES   TO  BOSTON.  23 

Att  a  Church  meeting  Some  of  the  Brethren  spake  as  if  they  were 
called  to  deale  severely  with  their  Brethren  dissenting,  citing  Joshu : 
7  :  10.  to  15  up  Joshua  the  accursed  thing  must  be  removed  else  God 
will  not  be  with  them  &c :  Deut :  22  :  1  [  ]  And  if  a  virgine  of 
Issraell  be  defamed  it  is  an  jnnjqu[i]ty  to  be  punished  by  the 
judges  here  is  a  virgin  Church  defamed  &c  :  Rom:  16:  17:  marke 
them  which  cause  divisions  &c  :  Sundry  of  the  Brethren  called  out 
publiquely  to  the  said  dissenting  Brethren  why  doe  yee  not  aske  for 
your  dismission,  others  why  doe  they  not  depart  in  peace  and  fall  upon 
practise  of  what  they  beleive  Robert  Walker  presently  move[d]  to  the 
Elder  in  the  same  publique  meeting  that  he  might  be  dismissed,  the 
Elder  tells  him  this  is  no  [  ]  a  season,  But  be  assured  Brethren 
the  Church  shall  not  be  a  prisson  to  any ;  the  dissenting  Brethren  as 
they  had  often  besought  the  Church  to  take  advice  of  sister  Churches 
soe  now  urge  them  no  longer  to  neglect  it,  it  being  Gods  way  when 
any  church  wants  light  or  peace  ; 

Another  time  some  of  the  Brethren  met  at  the  Governours  and 
press  the  Elder  to  admonish  the  dissenting  Brethren  and  be  cause 
the  Elder  hearkeneth  not,  they  were  much  displeased ; 

2  (3)  68  Mr.  Davenport  cometh  to  Boston  1 

Then  a  Church  meeting  is  called,  and  the  Church  urged  to  make  an 
address  to  Mr.  Dav[enport]  The  dissenters  intreated  them  not  to  pro- 
ceed further  withoout  Councill  the  Church  hearkneth  not  att  all  to 
their  motion,  but  choose  major  Leveritt,  to  goe  in  the  Churchs  name 
to  give  mr.  Davenport  a  fresh  invitation,  he  inquireth  whether  the 
Church  is  agreed,  and  because  not  telleth  them  he  cannot  give  them 
any  answer,  but  waiteth  to  see  the  mind  of  God.  Elder  Pen  further 
considerd,  soe  as  that  he  will  call  no  more  Church  meetings  untill 
either  the  dissenters  consent  unto  Mr.  Davenports  call,  or  the  other 
Brethren  are  willing  to  have  a  Councill.    And  at  a  Church  meeting 

The  dissenting  Brethren  having  liberty  and  incouragement  by  the 
Church  to  goe  unto  and  treat  Mr.  Davenport  they  thankfully  accept 
thereof,  and  upon  their  address  unto  him  he  freely  consents  to  appoint 
them  a  time  which  they  attended,  and  came  about  20  but  when  they 
come  they  find  him  unwilling  to  treat  with  them,  without  the  presence 
of  some  of  the  other  Brethren,  they  tell  him  they  would  not  have  any 
occasion  of  strife  before  him,  at  least  this  being  their  first  opportunity 
with  him,  they  only  desiring  to  informe  him  of  the  true  state  of  mat- 
ters, at  length  he  consents  to  heare  them,  but  desired  to  be  excused 

1  ["  May  2,  166S.     In   the   afternoon  them." — Felt's  Eccles.  Hist.,  vol.    ii.  p. 

John  Davenport  and  wife,  with  his  son  427. 

and  family,  reach  Boston,  and  are  wel-  Daniel    Searle    married   Deliverance, 

corned  by  many  of  the  inhabitants.    They  daughter   of   Edward  Tyng  ;  her   sister, 

are  sheltered  from  a  heavy  shower  by  the  Eunice,  became   the  second  wife  of   the 

coach  of  Mr.  Searle,  sent   out  to   meet  Rev.  Samuel  Willard.] 


24  HISTORY  OF   THE   OLD   SOUTH   CHURCH. 

from  giving  a  present  answer  to  any  thing,  whereunto  they  readily 
consented,  they  proceeded  and  declared  the  whole  case  impartially, 
Mr.  Davenport  according  to  his  liberty  above  maketh  no  answer  to 
any  thing,  the  Brethren  ready  to  take  their  leave  requested  him  to  Com- 
mend than  to  the  Lord  by  prayer  but  himself  not  free  wito  it  they  take 
leave  and  depart. 

About  a  week  after  W  D  and  I  H  1  gave  Mr.  Davenport  a  visit  and 
treated  with  him  of  the  whole  matter  with  loving:  accept- 

16:  (5)68.  b  f 

ance  and  respect  and  soe  parted,  but  soone  after  Mr. 
Davenport  without  signifying  any  displeasure  to  any  of  the  dissenters 
upon  a  lecture  day  had  these  expressions  in  his  prayer  before  sermon 
in  the  presence  of  a  great  part  of  the  Countrey  :  viz : 

This  Church  sometimes  famous  for  unity  as  a  Citty  compact  within 
Mr.  D:  expres-  itself,  but  now  there  are  risen  up  a  company  in  opposition 
upon  a'kcmre  to  the  rest,  even  to  the  multitude  of  the  Church  about  the 
day-  choice  of  their   officers,  and  will  not  consent  but  upon 

such  a  Condition  as  neither  Christ  himself,  nor  his  Apostles  gave  any 
warrant  for,  or  the  highest  Councill  in  the  world  can  impose  upon 
any  Minister  of  the  gospell  persisting  therein  peremptorilly,  whither 
it  be  from  errour  in  judgement,  or  whither  it  be  a  designe  it  is  not 
yet  manifest,  but  it  is  evident  Satan  hath  a  great  hand  in  it. 

Where  as  these  Brethren  desired  no  Condition  of  the  Church  before 
their  falling  upon  Election  but  the  liberty  which  Christ  Jesus  had 
purchased  for  all  his  people  viz  liberty  of  a  free  debate,  and  hearing 
of  their  reasons,  or  in  case  of  their  non  agreement  that  the  help 
of  neighbour  churches  might  be  called  in  as  doth  appeare  by  their 
addresse  unto  the  Church  before  they  had  made  any  application  unto 
Mr.  Davenport :  The  dissenting  Brethren  seing  themselves  thus  en- 
gaged against  by  mr.  Davenport  before  the  whole  Country,  without 
any  cause  to  them  known,  began  to  thinke  if  the  Lord  opened  a  doore 
of  departure  from  their  relation  to  the  Church,  they  were  called  to 
imbrace  it,  and  in  conjunction  with  this  Elder  Pen  told  Sundry  of 
them,  two  of  which  especially  who  before  this  prayer  were  in  serious 
thoughts,  that  haveing  frequently  and  publiquely  testified  to  the  truths 
under  labour,  (viz)  the  truth  of  order  relating  to  the  liberty  of  the 
Brotherhood  to  choose  their  owne  officers,  And  that  relating  to  the  relation 
of  the  Children  to  the  Church,  and  the  Churches  duty  to  them,  and  to 
the  ordinance  of  Councills  as  necessary  to  the  well  being  of  these 
Churches,  they  might  sit  downe  silent,  and  the  Lord  they  hoped  would 
accept  their  sincere  desire  for  the  progress  of  truth,  but  said  Elder 
told  them  he  had  put  the  Question  to  mr.  Davenport,  whether  it  would 
not  satisfie  him,  if  the  Brethren  could  be  brought  to  sit  downe  silent ; 
And  he  answered  if  they  did  no  more,  he  could  not  officiate  as  a  Pastour 
to  them. 

1  (Probably  William  Davis  and  John  Hull.] 


THE   FIRST  CHURCH   CALLS  A    COUNCIL.  25 

The  active  Brethren  of  the  major  parte  of  the  Church  had  a  private 
debate  with  the  Elder  relating  to  the  censuring  of  the  dissenters,  for 
their  non  concurrence  with  the  Church  (which  since  some  have  pub- 
likly  bewayled  the  loosing  of  its  opportunity)  but  the  Elder  consented 
not,  theire  way  of  Censure  being  not  cleare  unto  him,  where  upon  a 
Church-meeting  was  called,  and  the  Elder  propounded  to  the  Church 
for  a  Councill,  which  was  good  newes  to  the  dissenters  who  gave 
thankes  to  the  Church  for  it,  where  at  some  of  the  Church  publikly 
declared,  that  it  was  not  at  all  in  favour  to  them,  but  that  they  might 
know  what  to  doe  with  them,  nor  were  they  permitted  any  vote,  nor 
influence  either  in  framing  the  question  to  be  put  to  the  Councill,  nor 
in  nominating  any  one  Church  to  be  sent  unto,  its  end  being  to  take 
advice  in  order  to  Censuring  of  them, — but  God  diverted  it  as  the 
sequell  declareth,  the  question  solely  stated  by  the  major  parte  and 
the  Churches  nominated  and  sent  unto  only  by  them,  was  considered 
and  determined  by  the  Councill  when  they  met,  and  accepted  of  and 
submitted  unto  by  the  dissenting  Brethren 

The  Counsill  then  met  at  Boston,  where  Elder  Pen  and  Major 
Generall  Leverit  by  Church  vote  managed  the  churches  case    .        ,/«,«, 

•'  °  August  6  (6)  68. 

against  the  dissenters    the   churches    narrative  was  read 

and  voted  unto  by  the  Church  the  dissenters  narative  and  preceeding 

reasons  of  dissent  were  also  read,  and  after  a  free  debate  in  the  face 

of  the  Country,  it  pleased  God  to  direct  the  Counsill  to  give  the  advice 

following, 

An  answer  of  the  Messengers  of  the  Churches,  called  by  the  first 
Church  of   Christ  in   Boston    to  give  their  advice    and   Result  of  th 
Councill  according  to  God,  in  reference  to  their  Brethren   first  Councill. 
who  have  dissented  from  the  Church  in  their  present  proceeding  in 
calling  of  teaching  officers 

1.  We  cannot  but  sadly  lament  this  awfull  dispensation  of  God,  in 
depriving  this  eminent  Church  of  Christ,  of  teaching  officers  And  his 
sollemn  ordinances  soe  long  a  time,  and  that  in  parte  by  leaving  the 
Church  to  such  differing  apprehensions,  in  their  endeavours  to  obteyne 
soe  great  a  blessing,  which  we  humbly  desire  the  whole  Church  seri- 
ously and  deeply  to  lay  to  heart. 

2  Yett  with  thankfullnes  to  God  acknowledge  that  good  measure 
of  moderation  and  grace  appearing  in  their  agitations  aboute  the  case, 
together  with  their  affectionate  desires,  and  indeavours  that  have  bin 
used  to  attaine  the  unitie  and  Cconcurrance  of  all  in  this  sollemn 
worke,  there  by  manifesting  that  the  spirit  of  love  and  unity  is  yet 
active  in  the  Church. 

3  It  appeares  to  us  that  not  withstanding  all  endeavours  herein,  As 
on  the  one  side  the  major  parte  of  the  Church  profes  their  clearnes 
and  full  satisfaction  in  their  way,  and  that  they  can  not  condisend  to 


26  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

the  desire  of  their  dissenting  Brethren,  who  profes  that  there  is 
an  awfull  ingagement  upon  them,  and  that  in  a  matter  of  waighty  con- 
cernment where  by  they  cannot  concur  with  their  Brethren  in  their 
choice. 

The  premises  considered  togither  with  the  grounds  of  the  dissention 
more  fully  appearing  in  those  writings  that  have  passed  from  one  to 
another,  and  have  bin  publiquely  read  and  delivered  to  us,  Also  con- 
sidering that  the  Honour  of  our  Deare  Lord  Jesus,  and  of  the  holy 
Institutions,  and  the  edification  of  the  Church  :  of  Christ  is  soe  much 
depending  upon  his  peoples  walking  to  gether  in  Brotherly  love  one 
towards  another,  which  in  this  Case  not  being  attaineable  by  continu- 
ance in  one  Church  Body,  yet  finding  it  to  be  the  prayers  of  the 
Apostle  for  the  Church  of  the  Thessalonians  that  the  Lord  would  give 
them  peace  all  wayes  by  all  meanes,  2  Thess  :  3:  16:,  And  also  it 
being  apparent  that  through  the  blessing  of  God  upon  the  Towne,  the 
Inhabitants  there  of  are  now  soe  numerous  that  the  two  places  of 
their  publique  Assembling  to  worship  God  can  not  entertaine  them,  by 
reason  where  of  many  persons  that  are  not  Conscientious  of  sancti- 
fing  the  Lords  day,  doe  make  it  an  opportunity  of  great  profaneness 
we  doe  judge  meet  to  propound  our  Councill  and  advise  in  the  Case  as 
followeth. 

1.  That  mutuall  greivances  that  have  fallen  out  through  humaine 
frailtie,  and  the  temptations  of  Sathan  in  the  transactions  of  this 
matter  may  now  be  coverd  with  that  love,  that  is  not  easily  provoked, 
that  hopeth  all  things,  beleiveth  all  things,  endureth  all  thinges,  1  Cor : 
13  :  7  :  And  as  the  elect  of  God  holy  and  beloved  to  put  on  bowells 
of  mercy,  kindnes,  humblenes  of  minde,  long  suffering,  forbearing  one 
another,  forgiving  one  another,  even  as  Christ  forgave  you  soe  also  doe 
yee.     Collos :  3:  12:   13:  v. 

2.  In  case  the  dissenting  Brethren  can  not  yett  consent  with  their 
Brethren  in  their  call  of  officers,  nor  sitt  downe  quietly,  and  submitt 
to  the  act  of  the  rest  therein,  That  then  the  Church  upon  their  desire 
to  be  dismissed  from  them  would  give  them  up  to  the  Lord  with  love 
and  prayers,  Recommending  them  to  the  grace  of  God  in  order  to  the 
propagation  of  another  Church,  to  be  sett  up  in  the  Towne  of  Boston 
according  to  the  rule  of  the  Gospell,  yett  soe  that  in  the  meane  time 
they  may  have  Communion  with  this  church,  or  some  other  in  the  ordi- 
nances of  God.  This  issue  of  the  differences  we  conceive  to  be  a  way 
of  peace  Consonant  to  Scripture  example  for  ending  of  strife,  not 
only  in  civill  matters  as  in  the  case  between  Abraham  and  Lott 
Gen :  13  :  7  :  8  :  9  :  But  also  in  a  religious  case,  between  Paul  and 
Barnabas,  that  were  by  the  spirit  seperated,  and  called  to  the  worke  of 
the  Gospel  Acts  :  13  :  2  :  4  :  yett  by  the  only  wise  God  being  left  to  a 
sharp  Contention  aboute  the  choice  of   John  Marke,  they  departed 


THE   ADVICE   OF  THE    COUNCIL.  2 J 

asunder  one  from  another,  Acts:  15:  39:    But  as  to  proceeding  to 
Church  censure  in  such  a  case  as  this  is  we  finde  no  rule  in  Scripture 
Dan  :  Gookin      Rich  :  Mather  Sam  :  Danforth    Wm  Parkes 
Tho  :  Danforth  John  Alline        Ed  :  ffrost  :  Roger  Clap 

Eliaz  :  Lusher   John  Elliot        Jo  :  Hunting        Hop  :  ffoster.1 
Boston  the  8th  Aug:  1668. 

Elder  Pen  upon  reading  the  Councills  advice  by  the  moderatour  be- 
fore the  whole  Assembly,  declared  though  those  Brethren  were  very 
deare  unto  him,  yet  seing  now  it  appeared  to  be  the  will  of  the  Lord, 
he  would  say  with  those  Acts.  21 :  14:  the  will  of  the  Lord  be  done  : 
the  moderatour  of  the  Councill  having  declared  that  it  was  their 
advice  unto  the  Church  to  dismisse  their  Brethren  before  they  pro- 
ceeded to  ordination  of  Mr.  Davenport,  some  of  the  Church  expressed 
they  know  not  whether  the  dissenters  would  not  make  the  Church 
wait  many  yeares,  before  they  declared  their  owning  of  the  advice 
of  the  Councill,  or  desired  their  dismission  (which  the  Brethren 
should  have  otherwise  pawsed  upon  had  they  not  upon  this  occasion 
bin  soe  suddenly  put  upon  it)  upon  occasion  of  which  speech  one  of 
the  Reverend  Councill  declared,  there  needed  no  long  time  for  the 
dissenters  to  suspend  their  owning  of  the  Counsell,  for  they  might  doe 
it  at  present,  and  they  having  bin  formerly  warned  by  Mr.  Davenport 
interceding  to  God  against  them  above  mentioned,  declared  in  the 
presence  of  the  Councill  that  if  the  Church  would  give  them  their 
dismission  they  would  accept  of  it. 

Twenty  nine  of  them  went  with  their  request  unto  Elder  Pen  for 
their  dismission  subscribed  with  their  hands  as  followeth 
desiring  him  to  present  it  to  the  Church. 

ffor  the  Reverend  Elder  and  the  rest  of  our  Honoured  and  Beloved 
Brethren  of  the  Church  of  Christ  at  Boston.  It  having  Coppy  of  their 
pleased  God  soe  to  direct  the  late  Councill  of  the  request- 
Honoured  Reverend  and  beloved  Messengers  of  the  Churches  held 
among  us,  as  that  (upon  the  hearing  of  the  cause  depending  between 
us)  they  give  in  this  advice  as  that  they  judge  according  to  the  word  of 
God,  to  be  best  Conducing  to  the  Desired  issue  of  the  late  and 
unhappy  difference  between  us,  that  upon  our  Desire  the  Church 
would  give  us  up  to  the  Lord  with  their  Love  and  prayers,  recommend- 
ing us  to  the  grace  of  God  in  order  to  the  propagation  of  another 
Church  to  be  sett  up  in  the  Towne  of  Boston  according  to  the  rules  of 

1  [In  the  records  of  the  Roxbury  church,  propagation  of  another  church  in  Bos- 

by  the  Rev.  Samuel  Danforth,  it  is  said :  ton." 

"  166S.  5  mo.  [?  6  mo.]  A  Council  of  4  The  churches  represented  in  thiscoun- 

churches  called  by  the  Elder  and  major  cil  were  those  of   Dorchester,  Dedham, 

part  of  the  church  of  Boston  in  reference  Roxbury,  and  Cambridge.    Mr.  Mitchell, 

to  their  dissenting  brethren.     Their  ad-  minister  of   the  Cambridge  church,  had 

vice  was  to  dismiss  them  in  order  to  the  just  died.] 


28 


HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 


1668, 


the  Gospel,  we  doe  therefore  (though  not  without  a  very  affectionate 
sence  of  the  present  dispensation  of  Divine  Providence  in  this  Day  of 
our  trouble,  as  also  our  owne  unmeetnes  for  soe  great  a  worke)  Tes- 
tifie  our  acquiescing  in  the  decissian  of  the  Councill,  and 
humbly  request  that,  the  advice  may  be  attended,  And 
therefore  that  you  would  pleas  to  grant  us  that  dismission,  which  we 
now  here  by  crave,  who  have  subscribed  our  names  unto  that  Church 
relation,  and  orderly  constitution  which  (through  grace)  we  are  desire- 
ous  ready  to  attend,  And  accordingly  that  our  Deare  relations  who  are 
in  Covenant  with  yourselves  may  pass  forth  with  us,  unto  that  Church 
fellowship  aforesaid ;  thus  praying  that  the  father  of  lights  and 
mercies  may  abide  with  us,  by  the  gracious  presence  of  his  glory 
both  while  wee  are  togither,  and  when  we  shall  be  come  as  two  Bands 
But  still  under  the  same  banner  of  love,  and  may  allso  be  presented] 
at  length  faultless  before  him,  without  spot  or  wrinckle,  or  any  such 
thing  at  his  coming,  we  remaine  your  Dearly  loveing  (And  we  hope  no 
lesse  beloved)  Brethren  in  the  Lord 


Ed  :  Rawson 
Tho  Savage 
John  Hull 
Joshua  Scottow 
Peter  Oliver 
Hez:  Usher 
Robr.  Walker 
Jacob  Elliot 
Jos  Belknap 


Wm.  Dawes 
Theop  :  ffrary 
Jos :  Belcher 
John  Sanford 
John  Allden 
Thomas  Brattle 
John  Tappin 
Edw  :  Alline 
Seth  Perry 
Wm.  Salter1 


James  Pemberton 
Theo  :  Attkinson 
Ed  :  Rainsford 
Peter  Brackitt 
Joseph  Rocke 
Joseph  Davis 
Ben  :  Thirston 
John  Pease 
Benj  Gibbs 


This  (10)  6th  mo.  a  day  being  apointed  by  the  Elder  for  the 
Church  to  meet  in,  And  when  met  told  the  Church  he  had  received  a 
writing  from  the  dissentors  requesting  their  dismission  which  he  would 
read,  And  when  read  sundry  Brethren  desired  the  dissenting  Brethren 
might  be  absent,  who  answered  if  they  desired  their  absence  to  con- 
sider of  their  motion  they  thought  it  reasonable,  But  if  the  Church 
had  busines  to  transact  that  concerned  all  the  Church  they  durst  not 
absent  themselves. 

The  Elder  againe  and  againe  declared  to  them  Itt  was  the  Churches 
Desire  they  would  withdraw,  which  accordingly  they  did,  when  they 
were  departed  some  of  their  wives  continued  in  the  Church  :  some  of 
the  Brethren  spacke  to  the  Elder,  that  they  also  should  depart  as  well 
as  their  husbands,  because  as  they  desired  —  their  owne  dismission  — 

1  [There  are  only  twenty-eight  signa-  from  the  town  at  this  time.     We  do  not 

tures  on  this  paper,  although  it  is  said  find  the  signature  of  Edward  Alline  or  of 

that  twenty-nine  joined  in  the  request  to  John  Pease  on  any  other  paper,  or  in  the 

Elder  Penn.     William  Davis  was  absent  list  of  members.] 


MR.  DAVENPORT  CALLED.  29 

soe  they  desired  their  Relations  might  be  dismist  with  them,  where 
upon  the  sisters  were  desired  by  the  Elder  and  ordered  to  with  draw, 
which  accordinly  they  did.  when  they  were  departed,  jmmediately  two 
of  the  Brethren  were  sent  from  the  Church  to  mr.  Davenport  who 
suddenly  returned,  and  mr.  Davenport  with  them  to  the  meeting 
house,  where  the  Church  was  met,  they  gave  mr.  Davenport  a  call  to 
office,  and  he  gave  account  to  them  that,  the  writing  of  his  letter,  and 
coming  to  Boston  was  not  upon  any  sudden  motion,  But  there  had 
severall  letters  passed  in  order  there  unto  the  yeare  before,  which  the 
dissentors  had  not  heard  of,  since  this  meeting  where  they  were  thus 
secluded,  the  Major  parte  mett  at  the  Governors  house,  and  agreed  to 
send  Messengers  and  letters  to  New  Haven  church,  never 

,       ,  ,.  •   ,        ,  1  •  14  (6.)  1668. 

acquainted  the  dissentors  with  the  second  meeting,  ap- 
ointed  a  fast  and  called  before  them  Deacon  Ransford,  and  Deacon 
Elliot  dealing  with  them  for  their  dissent  after  the[y]  had  transacted 
and  finished  their  letters  for  New  Haven  &c : 

The  19th  of  Aug :  was  apointed  by  the  Church  to  be  a  fast,  day 
to  seeke  Gods  presents  with  their  Messengers  who  were 
gone  with  letters  from  their  Church  to  the  Church  of 
New  haven  for  mr.  Davenports  Dismission,  which  day  accordinly 
was  Celibrated  by  mr.  Davenport  who  in  his  prayer  publiquely  com- 
plained to  God  of  the  sufferings  which  he  here  had  met  with  and  that 
being  Gods  servant  as  Elias  was  left  alone,  and  also  sollemly  apealed 
to  God  that  he  depended  upon  the  advice  of  the  Church  now  sent 
unto,  relating  to  the  owning  of  his  call  to  this  church  of  Boston,  upon 
returne  of  these  Messengers  it  was  by  them  declared,  and  genrally 
beleived  to  be  true  that  the  Church  of  New  haven  had  not  then  sent 
any  answer  to  the  letter  sent  to  them  by  this  church,  but  suspended 
their  answer  concerning  mr.  Davenports  dismission,  untill  they  had 
received  an  answer  from  mr.  Davenport  to  the  letter  which  they  had 
sent  him,  but  this  was  untrue  for  they  brought  a  letter  along  with  them 
which  was  concealed  from  the  Church,  it  never  being  publiquely  read, 
though  the  Church  had  kept  a  sollem  day  as  before  to  seeke  the  Lord 
about  the  same,  and  Mr.  Davenport  he  told  God  depended  upon  its 
advice  but  instead  thereof  it  was  read  (as  the  dissentors  were  informed) 
to  aboute  22  of  the  Church  which  managed  the  whole  as  to  a  conclusion 
with  mr.  Davenport  upon  whose  counsell  he  cast  him  selfe  instead  of 
the  major  parte  of  the  Church,  if  this  letter  had  bin  read  our  trouble 
had  bin  over,  for  the  Churches  of  New  Havens  answer  was  in  the  nega- 
tive and  the  publique  profession  of  many  of  the  active  Brethren  of  the 
major  parte  of  the  Church  and  their  promise  was,  that  if  the  church 
of  New  Haven  did  give  them  one  deniall,  they  would  never  send  more; 
but  they  did  break  this  promise,  in  sevrall  of  these  their  meeting  there 
was  not  the  major  parte  of  the  church  Body  and  their  meetings  were 
in  a  private  house. 


30  HISTORY  OF   THE    OLD   SOUTH   CHURCH. 


COPPY    OF    THE    CONCEALED    LETTER. 

Honoured  Reverend  and  Beloved  the  Church  of  Christ  in  Boston 
Grace  mercy  and  peace  be  multiplyed  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 
Your  letter  by  your  Honoured  Messengers  hath  bin  read  befor  this 
n.  Haven  Church,  a  passage  in  the  beginning  of  it  we  make  bold  to 
whlch^con-  sPea^  a  nttle  to»  vlz  '■  (The  benifit  we  have  of  these  late 
ceaied.  monthes  this   sommer    received    by    your  resigning    your 

Reverend  Pastour  our  Mr.  D  :  to  the  will  of  God  for  the  more  clear 
discovrie  of  his  minde  in  our  motion  to  you  and  him)  Answer :  We 
doe  not  know  that  we  have  soe  done,  either  by  word  written  or  spoken, 
or  by  any  act  of  ours  towards  him  or  you,  but  against  it  we  pleaded  at 
our  last  meeting  we  had  with  our  Pastor,  and  were  not  driven  from  it, 
That  it  was  his  onely  way  to  attend  and  judge  of  a  call  of  God  in  and 
with  the  church,  not  to  goe  to  Boston  for  a  discovrie  of  Gods  mind  in 
this  matter,  —  to  this  we  hold  and  suppose  ever  shall,  In  our  former 
letter  to  yourselves,  we  declared  sufficiently  our  dissent  from  our 
Reverend  Pastors  apprehensions,  about  the  maine  ground  of  his  pleah 
for  his  freedome  from  office,  and  likewise  gave  reasons  why  we  could 
not  consent  to  your  call  of  him  from  us,  therefore  concluded,  we  could 
not  resigne  him  up  to  your  call  of  him  from  us,  And 
therefore  concluded  we  could  not  resigne  him  up  to  you  by 
any  imediate  act  of  ours,  we  are  still  the  same,  we  doe  not  to  this  day 
see  light  to  give  him  up  to  you,  by  any  volantary  act  of  ours  and 
therefore  can  doe  nothing  in  order  to  the  writing  and  sending  such  a 
dismission  (which  would  be  a  voluntary  act)  as  yourselves  and  our 
Reverend  Pastor  hath  sent  for,  we  are  not  ignorant  of,  that  our  re- 
fuseall  may  expose  us  to  blame  and  censure  with  some,  we  can  better 
beare  that  than  God's  displeasure  by  wronging  of  our  consciences, 
we  can  truely  say  it  is  purely  from  principles  of  Conscience,  that  we 
are  withheld  from  acting  according  to  your  desire,  you  may  deeme  it 
our  weaknes,  be  it  soe,  weake  consciences  may  not  be  pressed  and 
urged  too  far:  i  Cor:  8  :  Rom  :   14: 

As  for  the  last  clause  in  our  letter  (but  such  is  our  tender  respect 
unto  him  selfe  that  we  have  soe  declared  ourselves  to  him  as  that  he 
is  able  to  give  you  a  more  full  answer  not  onely  of  his  owne  minde 
but  of  ours  allsoe)  this  passage  doth  onely  speake  our  Due  respects 
unto  our  Reverend  Pastor,  and  doth  show  our  readines  to  yeild  as  far 
as  we  could  to  give  him  satisfaction,  but  no  voluntarines  in  us,  nor  the 
least  approbation  of  the  motion  in  hand,  yet  we  acknowledge  this 
passage  singly  considered  as  separated  from  the  rest,  is  capable  of  a 
strained  interpretation  of  a  vertuall  dismission,  But  yet  we  thinke  it 
had  not  bin  Honourable  to  yourselves,  and  our  Reverend  Pastor  for 
you  to  have  proceeded  upon,  considering  how  fully  we  expressed  our 
dissent  from  your  motion,  and  to  tell  you  the  truth  we  know  not  any 


THE    CONCEALED   LETTER.  3 1 

two  first  or  last,  that  clearly  expressed  their  consent  in  this  matter, 
but  all  as  one  man  have  bin  against  it,  and  one  thing  more  have  we 
to  say,  If  this  passage  had  bin  in  it  selfe  improveable  in  the  way 
and  to  the  end  that  now  is  expressed,  yet  some  passages  between  our 
Reverend  Paster  and  ourselves  (at  a  meeting  before  winter  and  after 
our  letter  to  your  Church  is  a  sufficient  prohibition  to  the  improve- 
ment of  it  in  any  such  way)  doe  make  null,  what  ever  may  be  looked 
at  to  be  of  any  for[ce]  to  such  an  end  in  our  concession,  our  Reverend 
Pastor  was  willing  to  know  the  minde  of  God  in  the  Church,  concern- 
ing his  call  to  Boston  he  bing  unsatisfied  that  the  Chur[ch]  had  left 
it  to  himself,  (a  meeting  was  apointed  and  called  to  that  end)  sundry 
things  were  spoken  by  the  Brethren  against  it,  some  expressed  that  if 
he  left  us  the  —  the  Church  would  be  broken,  this  tooke  with  him,  he 
answered  that  indeed  is  considerable,  and  here  upon  resolved  to  stay 
the  winter,  onely  expressed  his  desire  to  make  a  journy  at  the  spring, 
and  to  stay  the  3  hot  moneths  in  the  summer  for  hi[s]  wives  health 
and  settlement  of  his  son,  where  unto  the  church  freely  consented  — 
we  generally  toke  it,  that  he  intended  onely  a  journy  as  before,  and  to 
the  ends  as  befor[e]  and  we  expressed  in  his  hearing  this  our  sence 
of  his  words  which  he  did  not  gaine  say,  we  gave  him  then  thankes  for 
his  willingnes  to  continue  with  us,  and  the  Teacher  was  called  upon 
to  returne  thankes  to  God  for  bowing  our  Pastors  hearte  to  speake 
soe  fully  to  the  Churches  satisfaction  which  he  did,  and  soe  concluded 
the  meeting  these  passages  are  avouched  and  testified  by  very  many 
and  we  suppose  not  one  can  gainsay,  through  streights  of  time  we 
cannot  inlarge  :  The  Lord  of  the  Harvest  thrust  forth  faithfull  labour- 
ers into  your  fields  and  guide  you  and  all  your  motions  in  your  weighty 
affaires,  committing  you  to  God  and  his  grace,  we  crave  your  prayers  a 
poore  afflicted  Company  and  rest 

your  Brethren  in  Christ  and  fellowship 
in  the  name  and  with  the  unanimous 
Consent  of  the  Church. 
New  haven  :  25.  6  :  1668  N  :  S. 

This  letter  being  kept  from  the  cognisance  of  the  Church  (yea  con- 
siderable time  it  was  before  there  was  any  owning  of  any  such  thing) 
when  it  leaked  out  it  was  acknowledged,  but  renderd  full  of  mistakes 
and  nonsense,  and  therefore  not  fit  to  be  communicated  to  the  Church, 
meanwhile  an  expresse  was  forthwith  sent,  with  a  letter  from  Mr 
Davenport  to  the  Church  of  Newhaven,  whose  purport  may  be  guessed 
by  the  next  letter  which  they  returne  to  the  Church  as  will  appeare  in 
its  place. 

The  dissentors  went  to  the  Elder  for  an  answer  to  theire     ,,„     , , 

1668  4:  (7) 

request  for  dismission  but  could  not,  obtaine  their  desires.  i:  (8> 

Att  last  upon  the  9th  of  October  the  Elder  called  a  church  meet- 


32  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

ing,  the  dissentors  intreated  him  that  they  might  have  their  answer  for 
their  dismission  in  writting,  and  that  they  might  neither  by  their  ab- 
sence give  any  occasion  to  judge  them  sullen,  nor  by  their  presence 
Eider  Pen  ap-  give  offence,  they  appointed  some  to  acquaint  the  Elder 
motion  saying  in  case  ne  should  approve  of  it  they  would  be  at  Cap- 
they  had  better  tame  Davis  house  being  next  doore  to  meetinghouse  1  and 

not  come  but  o  o 

wait-  if  the  Church  did  desire  their  company  they  would  come 

in,  and  if  not  they  would  there  wait  the  Churches  answere,2  accord- 
ingly they  waited  there  the  whole  meeting  time  being  near  night. 

Mr.  Edw.  Tyng,  Elder  Pen,  Captaine  Clark,  Mr.  Belcher  and  Mr. 
Everill  came  to  them,  and  told  them  they  were  sent  by  the  Church  to 
give  them  this  answer.  That  the  Church  did  earnestly  desire  their 
reuniting,  and  allso  that  this  was  not  a  season  for  them  to  move  for 
their  dismission,  n^r  the  Church  to  consider  of  their  motion,  they 
being  then  (as  the  dissentors  supposed  by  reason  of  N.  haven  letters) 
unlikely  to  proceed  unto  Ordination. 

News  came  of  Mr.  Davenports  dismission  from  Newhaven  Church 
22:  (8)  and  upon  the  25.  October  the  Elder  propounded  him  to 

2S'  the  Church  for  admission,  the  dissentors  thought  then  they 

ought  to  urge  againe  for  their  dismission,  and  upon  the  26.  27.  28. 
October  went  in  severall  Companies  in  the  name  of  the  whole,  humbly 
desiring  the  Elder  that  they  might  obtaine  their  dismission,  before 
he  proceeded  to  Call  Mr.  Davenport  forth  for  admission.  Some  of 
them  allso  told  him  they  had  just  offence  against  Mr.  Davenport  for 
his  publique  charge  upon  them  before  the  Countrey,  in  his  prayer  fore- 
mentioned,  and  desired  it  might  be  orderly  removed  before  his  admis- 
sion, the  Elder  promised  the  Deacons  who  were  of  the  dissenting 
Brethren  that  he  would  not  call  Mr.  Davenport  to  be  admitted  before 
there  was  a  meeting  about  it,  but  upon  the  next  sabbath 
day  some  hearing,  that  the  Elder  did  intend  to  call  him 
forth,  they  went  that  noone  unto  him,  and  desired  and  besought  him 
that  the  dissenters  might  be  first  dismissed,  but  what  they  said  was 
not  harkned  unto,  and  Mr.  Davenport  was  admitted  a  member  of  the 
Church  of  Boston  upon  his  pretended  letter  of  dismission,  which  then 
was  read  in  the  face  of  the  Church  but  how  this  contrivance  was 
brought  about,  and  how  much  of  the  originall  letter  was  concealed,  there 
being  onely  an  extract  of  it  drawne  up  as  much  as  might  make  up  a 
pretended  dismission  but  the  substance  of  it  being  left  out,  and  the 
extract  how  it  spake  against  the  intent  of  the  letter  sent  by  the  Church 

1  [According  to  the  Book  of  Posses-  house  on  the  north,  and  the  prison  garden 
sions,  William  Davis's  first  house  and  on  the  west.  The  garden  of  Richard 
lot  were  on  the  south  side  of  what  is  now  Trewsdale  adjoined  Mr.  Davis's  land  on 
State  Street,  part  of  the  site  occupied  by  the  north  in  the  rear.] 
the  Merchants  Exchange.  In  1645,  he  2  [The  words  "  which  was  acceptable 
bought  of  Valentine  Hill  a  house  and  lot  to  the  Elder,"  following  the  word  "  an- 
on the  high  street,  having  the  meeting-  swere,"  are  erased  in  the  MS.] 


THE  ABBREVIATED   LETTER.  33 

of  N  :  haven,  the  comparing  of  them  both  togither  will  demonstrate  : 
and  how  the  providence  of  God  revealed  this  work  of  darknes  the 
sequell  will  declare  though  it  lay  hid  diverse  moneths : 

Coppy  of  the  letter  abbreviated  and  read  to  the  Church  of  Boston 
by  Elder  Pen,  drawne  up  by  Mr.  James  Allin  and  Elder 
Pen,  Mr.  John  Davenport  senr  knowing  and  approving  of  ' '  * 
the  same,  transcribed  and  subscribed  by  his  son  Mr.  Jo :  Davenport 
Junr  and  sealed  by  them,  none  of  the  Church  knowing  of  this  trans- 
action but  these  4,  untill  Mr.  Street  came  downe  next  summer  by  whome 
this  mystery  of  iniquity  then  was  revealed  and  made  manifest. 

Honourd,  Reverend  and  Beloved 

Grace  mercy  and  peace  be  multiplyed  through  Jesus  Christ  our 
Lord.  In  answer  to  a  letter  from  your  Church  subscribed  by  your 
Reverend  Elder  in  the  name  and  with  the  consent  of  the  Brethren 
bearing  date  28  :  7.  67,  we  made  a  returne  as  yourselves  know:,  and 
since  both  yourselves  and  Mr.  Davenport  have  written  to  this  Church 
for  his  dismission,  such  is  our  honorable  respect  to  him,  our  love  to 
peace,  our  desire  of  your  supply,  that  we  shall  goe  as  far  as  we  can 
safely  in  order  to  your  and  his  satisfaction  in  this  matter,  if  this  will 
satisfy  we  are  conten[t]  to  leave  both  yourselves  and  him,  to  make  what 
improvement  you  see  cause  without  any  clog  or  impediment  from  us 
upon  that  Account,  of  the  liberty  mentioned,  in  order  to  his  joyning  to 
your  Church  and  if  he  doth  proceed  with  you  in  order  to  membership 
and  taking  office  in  your  Church  as  he  hath  bin  a  faithfull  Labourer 
in  gods  vineyard  at  N  :  haven  for  many  yeares  to  the  bringing  home 
of  many  soules  to  god  and  building  up  of  many  others,  soe  it  is  and 
shall  be  our  prayer  to  God  to  lengthen  his  life  and  tranquillity  in 
Boston,  to  double  his  spirit  upon  him,  assist  him  in  his  work  and 
make  him  a  blessed  instrument  of  much  good  to  yourselves  and  many 
others,  the  good  Lord  pardon  on  all  hands  what  he  hath  seen  amiss 
in  these  actings  and  motions,  that  no  sinfull  malignancy  may  obstruct 
or  hinder  god's  blessing  upon  Churches  or  Church  administrations, 
as  himself  and  his  son  both  desired,  we  doe  dismisse  unto  your  holy 
fellowship  Mr.  Jo :  Davenport  Junr  Mrs.  Davenport  Elder  and 
younger,  desiring  you  to  receive  them  in  the  Lord  as  becometh  Saints 
and  imploring  Almighty  God  for  his  blessing  upon  them  from  his 
holy  ordinances  in  your  Communion  and  walking  with  you,  the  God 
of  all  grace  supply  all  your  and  our  need  according  to  his  riches 
in  glory  through  Jesus  Christ,  thus  craving  your  prayers  for  us  in  our 
afflicted  condition  we  take  our  leave  and  rest 

Yours  in  the  fellowship  of  the  Gospell. 

N:  haven  :  12  :  (8)  68.  N.  Street. 

In  the  name  and  with  the  consent  of  the  Church 
of  Christ  at  N  :  haven  : 
To  the  Reverend  Elder  of  the  Church  of  Boston  Mr.  James  Pen  &c 


34  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

Mr.  Streets  name  was  written  in  this  letter  with  another  hand  to 
counterfeit  his  handwriting :  and  the  transcript  was  sealed  : 

Coppy  of  the  Original]  letter  sent  from  New  haven  the  words  drawne 
with  a  line  under  them  are  the  Extract  read,  the  rest  being  the  mind  of 
the  Church  declaring  against  his  dismission  left  out  and  concealed 
about  8  moneths  as  the  sequell  doth  declare  fol :  49  :  50. 

Honourd  Reverend  and  Beloved.  Grace  mercy  and  peace  be  multiplyed 
through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  In  answer  to  a  letter  from  your  Church 
subscribed  by  your  Reverend  Elder  in  the  name  and  with  the  consent  of  the 
Brethren  bearing  date  28 :  7 :  6j.  we  made  a  returne  as  yourselves  know 
this  letter  con-  wherein  we  gave  you  to  understand  for  reasons  exprest 
ceaied  8  months     that  we  could  not  approve  of  our  Pastors  grounds  that 

from  the  Church  _  *  L  ° 

and  not  known  had  bin  alledged  for  his  removeall  or  the  Church  of  Bos- 
as  there  appear-  ton  call,  therfore  thus  concluded.  The  premises  con- 
sidered we  see  no  cause  or  call  of  God  to  resigne  our 
Reverend  Pastor  to  yourselves  or  to  the  Church  of  Boston  By  an 
immediate  act  of  ours,  But  such  is  our  tender  respect  to  himselfe,  that 
we  have  soe  declared  ourselves,  unto  him  as  that  he  is 
able  to  give  you  a  more  full  answer  not  onely  of  his  own 
minde,  butt  of  ours  also  in  this  waity  matter  as  he  shall  see  cause,  to 
whome  we  refer  you,  upon  which  latter  passage  you  have  proceeded 
soe  fare,  as  we  understand  by  our  Reverend  Pastors  letter  that  the 
Church  of  Boston  hath  not  onely  given  him  a  call  (as  he  doth  express 
it  in  your  own  words)  renewed  and  confirmed  your  call  of  mr.  Daven- 
port to  be  a  teaching  officer  to  them  and  that  was  done  unanimously 
and  mr.  Davenport  fully  accepted  and  soe  the  matter  is  made  up  :  and 
since  both  yourselves  and  mr.  Davenport  have  written  to  this  Church  for 
his  dismission ;  we  suppose  that  should  have  proceeded  :  A  man  can  not 
have  the  essentials  (which  are  the  Churches  call,  and  the  person  called 
his  acceptance  there  of)  of  a  Church  officer  put  upon  him  in  your 
Church  that  is  not  first  a  member  of  your  Church  soe  that  your  hands 
are  tied  up  by  your  own  act,  It  is  not  for  us  to  dismiss  to  the  Church 
of  Boston  one  that  is  all  ready  called  to  be  a  teaching  officer  to  your 
Church  at  Boston,  and  if  the  match  is  made  up  as  you  say,  what  need 
a  dismission  from  us  to  helpe  make  him  a  member  or  officer  in  your 
church,  but  that  which  doth  most  strike  with  us  is  matter  of  conscience 
though  yourselves  and  our  Reverend  Pastor  are  fully  satisfied  in  these 
No  eviiis  toiler-  m°tions,  yet  the  church  of  Newhaven  is  not  soe,  and 
atedintheCoun-   though  vou  iud°:e  it  the  best  expedient  for  your  releife 

try  by  others,  to       J  J        to  r  J 

which  this  might   and  remedy  of  some  evills  growing  in  the  countrey,  as 

pre\fent  unlesse  .  ,  ,         ,      , 

church  duty  to  also  we  might  doe  the  same,  if  we  had  nothing  before  our 

forercckoned"  eyes  but  his  accomplishments,  and  fitness  for  high  service 

d?eTof  'the  Chi1'  to  God  in  his  Church,  But  being  soe  much  in  the  Darke 

cimrch.  about  his  way  in  leaving  this  Church  and  joyning  to  yours, 

but  we  are  not  without  doubts  and  feares  of   some  uncomfortable 


THE   SUPPRESSED   LETTER.  35 

issue,  there  fore  cannot  clearly  act  in  such  a  way  as  is  expressed  and 
desired,  we  are  of  the  same  mind  as  when  we  returned  an  answer  to 
your  first  letter,  thus  expressing  ourselves,  we  see  no  case,  or  call  of 
God  to  resigne  our  Reverend  Pastor  to  the  Church  of  Boston  by  an 
imediate  act  of  ours,  therefore  not  by  a  formall  dismission  under  our 
hands :  It  is  our  great  greife  and  sore  affliction  that  we  can  not  doe  for 
him  (whome  we  soe  highly  esteem  in  love  for  his  worke  sake  and 
profitable  labours  among  us)  what  is  desired  without  wronge  to  our 
Consciences,  any  thing  that  we  have  or  are,  besides  our  Consciences, 
we  are  ready  to  lay  downe  at  his  feet :  yet  such  is  our  Honorable  respect 
to  him,  our  love  to  peace,  our  Desire  of  your  supply  we  shall  goe  as  fare 
as  we  safely  can  in  order  to  your  and  his  satisfaction  in  this  matter  ; 
having  before  us  our  warrant,  Acts.  21:  14  —  when  he  would  not 
be  perswaded  we  ceased,  saying  the  will  of  the  Lord  be  done,  There- 
fore to  suppresse  what  we  could  say  touching  that  passage  in  our  first 
letter,  whereof  such  hold  have  bin  taken,  and  what  we  have  said  in  our 
last  letter  to  you  of  our  Reverend  Pastors  making  null  the  liberty  be- 
fore granted,  which  we  doubt  not  we  are  able  clearly  to  demonstrate,  yet 
if  this  will  satisfy  (but  not  otherwise)  we  are  content  to  wave  and  bury 
in  silence  and  leave  both  yourselves  and  him  to  make  what  improvement 
you  see  cause  (with  out  any  clogg  or  impedime?it  from  us  upon  that 
Account)  of  the  liberty  before  mentioned  in  order  to  his  joyning  to  your 
Church ;  and  if  he  shall  see  it  in  his  way  soe  to  doe,  following  what 
light  he  hath  from  the  word  of  God  for  his  guidance,  as  we  doubt  not 
he  will  carefully  attend,  though  ourselves  are  in  the  darke  about  these 
motions,  yet  we  shall  lay  a  law  of  silence  upon  our  tongues,  that  in 
our  mouthes  may  be  no  reproofes  nor  repro[a]chfull  speeches  upon 
this  account,  as  judgeing  ourselves  rightly  worthy  of  such  a  bereave- 
ment for  our  great  unprofitablenes,  onely  we  shall  reserve  liberty  to 
defend  ourselves  against  the  tongues  pens  or  speeches  of  any,  by 
whome  we  may  unjustly  suffer  in  this  matter;  if  he  doth  proceed  with 
you  in  order  to  7nembership  and  taking  office  in  your  Church  As  he  hath 
bin  a  faithfull  labourer  in  Gods  vineyard  at  New  haven  for  many  y cares, 
to  the  bringing  hotne  of  many  soulcs  to  God  and  building  up  of  maney 
others,  soe  it  is  and  shall  be  our  prayer  to  God  to  lengthen  his  life,  and 
tranquility  in  Boston  ;  to  double  his  spirit  upon  him,  assist  him  in 
his  worke,  and  make  him  a  blessed  instrument  of  much  Good  both  to 
yourselves  and  many  others.  The  good  Lord  pardon  011  all  hands  what 
he  hath  seen  amisse  in  these  actings,  and  motions  that  no  sinfull  malig- 
nancy may  obstruct  or  hinder  Gods  blessing  upon  persons,  churches  or 
church  administrations ;  here  in  we  have  gone  as  far  as  God  and  Con- 
science doe  permitt  us ;  we  are  come  to  the  utmost  bounds,  and  there 
shall  stop  we  have  forborne  to  say  very  much  of  what  we  could  say, 
where  by  it  may  appeare  to  all  men  that  we  are  for  peace,  and  that  we 
are  not  yea,  and  nay  in  anything,  we  pray  you  that  Brotherly  love  may 


36  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH   CHURCH. 

continue,  if  matters  issue  beyond  and  better  than  our  feares,  it  shall 
be  no  greife  of  heart  to  us,  butt  matter  of  rejoicing  and  of  thanks- 
giving if  there  be  a  procedure  in  your  church  with  mr.  Davenport 
than  as  himself e  and  his  son  have  desired,  we  doe  dismiss  tinto  your  holy 
fellowship  mr.  John  Davenport  Jutir.  mrs.  Davenport  both  Elder  and 
younger,  desiring  you  to  receive  them  in  the  Lord  as  as  becometh  saints, 
and  imploring  the  all  mighty  God  for  his  blessing  upon  them  from  his 
holy  ordinances  in  their  communion  and  walking  with  you  :  The  God  of 
all  grace  supply  all  your  and  our  need,  according  to  his  riches  in  glory  by 
Christ  Jesus  thus  craving  your  prayers  for  us  in  ottr  afflicted  condition 
we  take  our  leave  and  rest  yours  in  the  jfellowship  of  the  Gospel. 
New  haven  the  12th :  (8)  mo  68  Nicolas  Street 

In  the  ?iame  and  with  the  consent  of  the 
Church  of  Christ  in  New  haven 

To  the  Reverend  Elder  of  the  church  of  Boston,  mr.  fames  Pen  to  be  communicated  to 
the  Church  .' 

A  church  metting  was  called,  the  dissentors  acquainted  the  Elder 
they  would  attend  the  Church  pleasure  at  Captaine  Davis 

9  (9)  mo  68.  J  ,11.  •  p  -1      , 

house,  where  after  they  had  bin  some  time  me[tj  they 
sent  for  the  dissenters,  the  Elder  proposed  their  motion  for  dismission 
to  the  church  who  instead  of  granting  it,  did  desire  them  to  become 
one  with  them  and  returne  againe,  yet  proposed  no  one  thing  to  them 
as  a  motion  thereto,  but  their  forgivenes  of  all  past  matters,  the  dis- 
senters professed  their  adherence  to  the  advice  of  the  Reverend  Coun- 
cill,  and  did  humbly  intrea[t]  them  a  dismission,  the  Church  refused, 
professing  they  saw  not  light  to  concur  with  the  Councill,  and  at  the 
same  time  proceeded  to  give  Mr.  Davenport  a  full  and  authorative 
call,  he  being  then  one  of  them,  the  dissenting  Brethren  manifested 

1  [It   was   a  fragment    of   this    letter  following  estimate,  a  very  just  one,  as  it 

which  was  before  Dr.  Wisner  when  he  seems  to  us,  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Street :  — 
wrote    the    notes    to    his     history    (pp.         "  This  fragmentary  production  of  Street 

74,75).      After   copying    it,    he    added:  speaks  volumes  for  him  as  a  man  of  wis- 

"  Then   follows,  on   the   bottom   of  the  dom   and   grace.     He   certainly  showed 

page,    these    notes    in    another     hand :  himself   the   equal   of   his   eminent   col- 

'  The  Elder  labouring  to  convince,  24,  4,  league  in  prudence  and  forethought.  The 

69,   Mr.   James   Allen    [minister   of   the  letter   could   not  well   breathe   a   better 

First  Church]  of  his  iniquity  of  dealing  spirit.      It   reveals   a  man   rid    of    that 

deceitfully  about   the   letter   from   New  petty  jealousy   which    cannot   endure   a 

Haven,  and   in    saying   Mr.    Davenport  rival,    which    covets   not    copartnership, 

was  innocent  in  that  matter,  he  acknowl-  The  extreme  reluctance  of  Street  to  part 

edged  that  Mr.  D.  knew  the  matter  as  with    his    distinguished    associate    indi- 

much  as  he   and  his   unckle,   and   that  cates  an  unfeigned   attachment  towards 

he  had  sinned  in  saying  Mr.  D '  "  him,  and  no  fear  lest  'so  considerable  a 

Mr.  Emery,  in  the  Ministry  of  Taunton  Gideon   as  Mr.  Davenport '   (as    Hooke 

(vol.  i.  p.  164),  with  the  same  fragment  was  pleased  to  style  him)    should  leave 

before  him  which  was  before  Dr.  Wisner  no  room  for  one  of  the  '  lesser  lights '  to 

when  he  wrote,  has  drawn  from  it  the  revolve."] 


FOUR   CHURCHES  ADVISED    WITH.  37 

their  dissent  thereunto,  yet  Mr.  Davenport  dec[la]red  his  acceptance 
of  it  said  that  which  was  the  dissenters  cheif  reason  of  non  comply- 
ance  therein  was  his  Crowne 

The  premises  considered  and  the  Church  preparing  in  order  to  Mr. 
Davenports  ordination  and  the  dissenters  desires  being  as  far  as  they 
knew  their  own  hearts  that  their  motions  might  be  becoming  the 
gospell  they  wrote  as  followeth  to  foure  neighbour  Churches 

Honourd,  Reverend  and  Beloved 

Our  undoubted  expectation  of  a  speedy  ordination  in  the  Church, 
the  remembrance  of  the  Councills  declaration,  whose  advice  was  that 
we  should  have  our  dismission  before  such  ordination,  togither  with 
the  consideration  of  what  may  be  the  sad  consequence,  if  the  said 
advice  be  not  obtayned  before  their  proceeding,  occasion  us  to  give 
you  this  trouble  of  sending  your  former  Messengers  if  it  may  be,  who 
are  already  soe  far  acquainted  with  our  case  as  renders  them  we 
humbly  conceive,  most  meet  to  further  advise  therein,  that  we  may 
neither  be  discouraged  in  the  work  of  God  among  us,  nor  oppressed 
by  our  Brethren,  nor  yet  be  left  for  want  of  advice  to  doe  any  thing 
that  may  have  the  least  evill  savour,  to  these  that  seriously  and 
impartially  consider  both  our  present  and  former  actions  and  con- 
ditions craving  the  help  of  your  prayers.  &c.  The  time  in  which  we 
intreat  your  help  is  upon  23  :  (9)  at  Captaine  Davis  house: 

These  letters  were  directed  to  the  Churches  of  Christ  at  Roxbury : 
Dorchester  Cambridge  and  Dedham. 

On  the  day  appointed  these  met  and  treated  at  Mr.  Davenports 
house   That  as  to  the  dissenters  the    Ordination    might 
passe  without  publique  opposition  they  obtayned  a  prom- 
ise of  Mr.  Davenport,  Mr.  Allin,  and  Elder  Pen  viz : 

In  order  to  healing  of  the  present  differences  between  the  Church 
of  Boston  and  sundry  of  their  Brethren  Refering  to  their  Election  of 
teaching  officers  (it  is  propounded)  that  the  dissent  of  those  Brethren 
being  all  ready  manifest  there  in,  they  observing  the  advice  given  by 
the  Messengers  of  the  Churches  ;  not  to  make  any  further  disturbance 
in  the  Churches  proceeding,  Their  silence  in  the  day  of  ordination 
shall  not  conclude  them,  as  Coactors  with  the  Church  there  in,  and 
that  mutuall  love  and  amity  should  be  maintained  in  walking  together 
untill  the  minde  of  Christ  may  further  appeare  for  direction,  to  any 
other  way ;  the  23  (9)  mo.  68  this  agreement  above  though  it  was  not 
signed  by  mr.  Davenport  and  the  two  other  Gentlemen  yet  it  was  writ 
in  their  presence  read  unto  them  and  by  them  faithfully  promised  that 
it  should  be  made  good  to  the  dissenters  and  to  that  Ende  a  coppy  of 
it  left  with  them  by  the  members  of  the  late  Councill. 

Three  Questions  sent  by :  J  :  A :  [the  Rev.  James  Allen]  to  the  dis- 
senters to  have  their  answer 


38  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

i  Question  In  case  any  words,  have  unadvisedly  fallen  from  any  of 
you  in  publique  or  otherwise  that  are  justly  offencive,  whether  you 
have  bin  ready  to  tender  regular  satisfaction  or  are  willing  soe  to  doe. 

Answer  wherein  any  of  us  singly  or  all  of  us  unitedly  have  given 
any  offence  publiquely  or  privately  in  the  management  of  a  Case  soe 
labouring  among  us,  we  doe  seriously  professe  ourselves  ready  as 
according  to  rule  bound  to  acknowledge  the  same,  as  we  have  cause 
to  reflect  upon  ourselves,  and  indeed  to  be  ashamed  before  the  Lord 
and  his  people,  for  what  hath  bin  humane  in  our  motions,  and  doe 
heartily  beg  pardon  of  the  Lord  and  of  the  Church  for  the  same. 

2.  Question  whither  may  you  not  conceive  to  be  most  for  peace  and 
edification  to  submit  to  the  election  of  the  Reverend  Mr.  Davenport, 
in  case  the  Church  with  at  least  one  of  the  teaching  officers  will  owne 
the  Church  seed,  exercise  Church  watch  and  discipline  to  them  accord- 
ing to  the  late  Synod. 

Answer     To  this  was  answered  in  the  Negative. 

3  :  Question  In  case  your  dismission  be  yet  thought  requisite,  to 
remove  all  jealousies,  all  of  you  would  solemnly  professe  your  cleav- 
ing to  the  present  government  of  this  Collony,  and  in  gathering  into 
another  Church  to  be  carefull  in  admitting  into  the  Church  or  unto 
full  Communion  therein,  such  as  may  be  sutable  to  the  purity,  peace, 
safety,  and  good  of  the  Church  and  Commonwealth. 

Answer  i  :  That  we  doe  all  of  us  solemnly  professe  our  faithfull 
owning  of  and  fixed  cleaving  to  the  present  Government  of  this  Col- 
lony, and  shall  be  ready  upon  all  occasions  to  demonstrate  it,  if  we  have 
given  cause  to  be  suspected  herein  we  are  very  sorry. 

2  :  That  referring  our  gathering  into  another  Church  to  be  carefull 
in  admitting  &c.  we  declare  in  the  name  of  all  our  Brethren  that  we 
intend  no  other  than  the  word  of  god  to  be  the  rule  of  our  motion 
therein,  and  as  made  knowne  to  us  by  the  joint  agreement  of  the 
Elders  and  messengers  of  Churches  in  the  booke  entitled 
the  platforme  of  Church  discipline  and  the  result  of  the 
Synod  1662 

Subscribed  by  severall  Brethren. 

Those  proposals  or  quiries  of  the  dissenting  Brethren  to 

4 :  (10). 

the  Reverend  Elders 
1  Question,  whither  a  Church  which  is  lytigant,  wherein  a  numerous 
partie  (from  conviction)  of  duty  to  god  unto  the  Church  and  them- 
selves, and  from  conscience  of  sincere  love  unto  any  fundamentall  of 
order  in  the  administration  of  any  ordinance  dissenting  from  their 
Brethren  in  the  Election  and  ordination  of  any  person  or  persons 
unto  Church  office,  and  managing  of  their  dissent  without  offence  in  a 
way  of  order  unto  peaceable  issue  on  their  parts  by  the  Councill  and 
advice  of  neighbour  Churches  wherein  they  are  willing  to  acquiesce  : 


FURTHER  ADVICE  SOUGHT.  39 

we  humbly  inquire  whither  such  a  Church  though  affectionately  and 
importunately  sollicited  thereunto  by  their  dissenting  Brethren,  may 
without  breach  of  Communion  within  itself  or  Communion  with  those 
Churches  proceed  unto  such  election  or  ordination. 

2  Question  whither  such  Brethren  who  have  received  any  divine 
truth  in  the  plain  evidence  and  demonstration  of  it  unto  their  con- 
sciences from  the  word  of  God,  and  have  bin  settled  and  established 
in  the  knowledge  and  beleif  of  that  truth,  by  the  sound  doctrine  of 
these  able  and  faithfull  Ministers  whose  ministry  they  have  lived 
under,  and  that  have  had  the  truth  delivered  unto  them  in  the  forme 
of  sound  words  according  to  analogy  of  faith  cleared  from  all  these 
Controversies  which  it  hath  laboured  under  by  the  contention  of 
Brethren  and  commended  unto  them  by  publique  and  solomne  decla- 
ration, as  a  present  truth  unto  these  Churches,  and  allso  that  doe  find 
themselves  obliged  to  professe  and  practise  that  truth,  from  an  awfull 
apprehension  of  that  great  concernment  of  gods  glory  and  the  salva- 
tion of  soules  in  the  sincere  profession  and  practise  thereof  we  humbly 
inquire  whither  such  Brethren  may  or  can  with  peace  of  their  owne 
consciences  and  safety  of  their  owne  soules,  doe,  or  consent  to  the  do- 
ing of  any  thing  which  doth  tend  to  the  hindrance  of  their  profession 
or  practise  of  that  truth  in  that  Church  of  which  they  are,  and  whither 
they  are  not  bound  in  a  way  of  peace  and  order  to  manifest  their 
Contra  dissent,  and  with  love  and  meekness  to  contend  for  the  truth. 

3 :  Question  whither  such  a  part  of  the  Brethren  be  not  bound  in 
duty  unto  the  improvment  of  the  intherest  of  liberty  which  Christ 
hath  betrusted  them  with  all,  for  the  regular  and  orderly  managing 
of  the  affaires  of  his  Church  or  whither  they  may  divest  themselves  of 
that  liberty,  by  a  voluntary  and  designed  secession  or  silenc[e]  or 
whither  they  may  suffer  themselves  to  be  divested  of  that  liberty  by 
their  Brethren  by  a  seclusion  from  Communion  with  them  in  Church 
acts,  or  whither  to  desert  the  intherest  of  liberty  be  not  unfaithfullnes 
and  breach  of  Covenant. 

4.  Question  whither  a  Church  having  secluded  such  Brethren  from 
their  meetings  and  transacted  any  weighty  affaires  of  the  Church  for 
the  most  part  without  them,  soe  as  that  they  doe  not  throughly  un- 
derstand the  ground  of  the  Church  proceedings  therein. 
We  inquire  whither  such  Brethren  can  Act  in  faith  and  in 
a  way  of  order  with  the  Church  or  whither  the  Church  can  require  or 
desire  such  secluded  Brethren  to  concurre  with  them  in  the  issue  of 
that  proceeding  whether  the  Church  may  regularly,  orderly,  and  effec- 
tualy,  call  and  elect  an  officer,  or  officers  in  the  intirim  of  that  suspen- 
sion, and  in  the  absence  of  theire  Brethren  whither  a  parte,  though 
a  major  parte  of  a  Church  may  call  an  officer,  secluding  a  great 
though  a  minor  parte  of  the  Church  from  their  Communion  therein. 

5  Question     Whether  the  Church  hath  power  to  hold  any  member 


40  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH   CHURCH. 

or  members  standing  free  and  cleare  from  offence  in  their  Communion, 
such  member  or  members  desiring  their  dismission  in  a  way  of  order, 
either  to  some  other  church  that  is  orthodox  and  walking  orderly,  or 
to  the  propogation  of  some  other  church  according  to  rules  of  gospel 
order  (espetially)  when  such  dismission  is  by  the  Councill  of  other 
Churches  offered,  and  by  those  Brethren  accepted,  as  a  regular 
expedient,  to  issue  Controversyes  in  a  way  of  love  and  peace,  by  an 
orderly  improvement  of  christian  liberty,  in  such  a  way  of  secession, 
or  whither  such  restraint  of  inofensive  members,  be  not  a  violence 
offered  to  their  Christian  liberty,  and  in  consistent  with  the  freedome  of 
Church  Communion,  and  repugnant  to  the  peace  and  edification  of 
the  Church,  whether  any  Instance  can  be  given  of  such  a  Coercion 
and  exercise  of  Church  power  towards  in  offensive  Brethren 

6  Question  Whether  any  person  can  receive  a  divine  call  from  a 
major  parte  of  a  church  during  the  dissent  of  a  minor  parte,  espetially 
himselfe. being  concerned  as  the  subject  of  the  dissention,  And  deeply 
Censured  the  dissentors,  or  whether  the  church  circumstanced  with 
such,  and  soe  many  difficulties  may  orderly  proceed  unto  election  and 
ordination. 

Boston  :  4 :  10  :  68  :  given  into  the  Elders  of  neighbor  churches  and 
4:  (.068.  signed  by 

Ro.  Walker  in  name  of  the  dissenting  Bretheren  — 

The  Elders  met  at  Boston  at  HV1  to  consider  of  the  foregoing 
queries  presented  to  them  in  the  name  of  the  dissenters 
but  no  answer  returned. 
The  9th  of  (10)  being  the  day  of  ordination  appointed  by  the  Elder 
on  the  saboth  before  he  acquainted  the  Church  with  their 
purpose,   after   prayer   and   blessing   was  over   and   the 
people  going  out  saying  he  had  forgot  to  mention  the  desire  of  send- 
ing to  other  Churches  for  their  messengers  but  no  vote  passed  upon  it, 
yet  the  Churches  were  sent  unto,  one  if  not  two  of  the  Churches  had 
their  letters  before  any  mention  was  made  to  the  Church  of  sending 
letters  :    The  day  of  ordination  being  come  ;  the  Elder  passed  the  vote 
in  the  affirmative,  and  soe  worded  as  it  reached  not  the  dissenters  at  all 
as  will  appeare,  but  were  disinabled  from  expressing  assent  or  dissent : 
(1)  vote  Brethren  this  Church  that  have  formerly  chosen  and  called 
the  Reverend  Mr.  Davenport,  if  you  hold  in  the  same  mind  and  god 
keep  you  in  the  same  mind  to  give  Reverend  Mr.  Davenport  the  call 
to  be  a  teaching  officer,  for  to  be  a  Pastor  over  you,  manifest  it  by 
your  usual  signe  : 2 

1  [Hezekiah    Usher's.      This    was    in  2  ["2ly.  you  in  this  congregation  who 

King  Street,  on  the  north  side,  opposite  are  not  of  this  Church  if  you  have  any 

the    town    house.       The    property    had  just  exception  why  we  should  not  proceed 

formerly    belonged    to    the    Rev.    John  to  the  callinfg]  Mr.  Davinport  to  be  a 

Wilson.]  pastor   to   this   Church   you    have    your 


MR.    DA  VENPORT  IS   ORDAINED.  4 1 

The  vote  reached  onely  those  who  had  given  Mr.  Davenport  a  call 
and  continued  in  the  same  mind  that  he  should  be  a  Pastor  unto 
them,  Mr.  Davenport  being  desired  to  declare  himself  whither  he 
accepted  of  this  call,  thus  expressed  himselfe 

An  outward  call  could  not  satisfy  mee,  if  I  had  not  an  inward  call, 
it  hath  bin  the  greatest  exercise  of  my  soule,  next  to  the  Mr  Davenports 
clearing:  of  my  good  estate  towards  God  in  my  effectual   speech  at  the 

o  J    o  J  day  of  ordraa- 

calling,  this  call  from  New  haven,  and  I  have  desired  the  tion- 
Lord  to  show  mee  his  way,  and  not  leave  mee  to  any  temptation,  but 
lead  mee  in  a  plaine  path  because  of  my  observers,  and  in  this  way  I 
have  waited  for  a  long  time,  for  sundry  months  at  New  haven,  and 
sundry  months  here,  and  soe  continued  untill  I  received  my  dismis- 
sion from  New  haven,  and  joyned  in  membership  here,  and  soe 
to  office  here :  Now  I  look  upon  it  as  a  call  from  the  Church  an 
authoritative  call,  I  being  a  member  with  them,  the  former  I  looked  on 
it  as  an  Invitation,  and  still  kept  mine  ey  on  Christ  to  cleare  his  will 
unto  mee,  which  I  confesse  he  hath  now  done  to  the  full  satisfaction 
of  my  conscience,  I  am  soe  ully  satisfied  in  it,  that  I  can  plead  it  to 
god  in  Christ  in  prayer,  in  the  time  of  any  difficulty  or  danger  what 
ever  difficulty  I  may  be  in.  Thou  Lord  knowest  I  did  not  make  hast 
to  be  a  Pastor  over  this  people,  but  waited  on  thee  to  know  thy  mind, 
and  I  can  plead  this  also  to  all  the  world,  and  am  ready  to  publish 
to  the  world  the  grounds  whereupon  I  see  myselfe  called  by  Christ  to 
this  service,  I  speak  it  the  rather  because  of  some  uncomfortable 
speeches  I  have  heard,  that  put  mee  upon  a  necessity  to  declare  thus 
much  &C.1 

There  was  a  church  meeting  called,  the  dissenters  observed  the 
same  method  that  they  had  done  the  two  former  meetings  Tanua 
and  signified  to  the  Elder  they  would  wait  at  Captaine  >:(")6S[6g]. 
Davis  house  unlesse  the  Church  desired  them  to  come  in  :  when  the 
Church  had  bin  met  about  an  houre  they  sent  for  the  dissenters  in, 
where  when  they  came  and  were  sit  downe  the  Elder  with  great  dis- 
pleasure demanded  of  them  : 

whither  they  did  acknowledge  them  for  a  Church  of  Christ  and 
whither  their  officers  were  true  officers,  and  told  Mr.  Rawson  he 
demanded  the  answer  of  him,  who  answered  they  did  acknowledge 
them  to  be  a  Church  of  Christ  and  their  officers  to  be  true  officers, 
and  desired  to  walk  in  communion  with  them  according  to  the  advice 
of  the  Councill. 

6  :  Another  Church  meeting  called  the  Elder  proposed  that  the  end 

liberty  to  declare  it :  the  like  votes  passed  dained.  The  dissenting  brethren  humbly, 

for  Mr.  James  Allin  to  be  Teacher."  earnestly   and   frequently  entreated    for 

The   above   paragraph  appears  to  be  their   dismission   before   the  ordination, 

erased  in  the  manuscript.]  but  could  not    obtain   it ;    neither  could 

1  [John  Hull  writes  Dec.  9,  1668  :  —  they,  without  much   trouble,  enjoy  com- 

"  Mr.    Davenport    and    Mr.    Allen    or-  munion  at  the  table."] 


42  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

of  it  was  to  remove  all  offences,  and  that  with  unity  of  Spirit  we  might 

sit  downe  at  the  Lords  table,  Captaine  Davis  then  humbly  desired 

satisfaction  of  the  Elder  who   had  said   the    last   meeting   before    a 

great  part  of  the  Town,  and  some  of  the  Countrey,  that 

Seclusion  b  r  _ »  .  ,      , 

owned  by  2         dissenters  were  not  desired  by  the  Church  to  with  draw, 
then  Major  Leverit  and  Deacon  Trusdale  testified  that  the 
dissen[     ]  were  not  willing  to  goe  out,  and  declared  if  there  was  any 
Church  buysines  to  be  done  that  concerned  the  whole  body  it  con- 
cerned them  to  be  present,  though  if  the  Church  desired  their  absence 
whiles  they  considered  of  their  petition  for  their  dismission  they  did 
not  looke  at  it  as  unreasonable,  then  Mr.  Davenport  acknowledged 
that  the  Church  ought  to  have  called  the  dissenters  in  before  they  pro- 
ceeded to  any  act  relating  to  the  calling  of  him  to  office.     Deacon 
Trusdale  complayned  of  [something]  that  was  greivous  to  him  spoken 
by  James  Everill  in  a  former  meeting,  who  said  that  if  the  dissenters 
were  suffered  to  goe  on,  it  would  open  a  doore  to  all  licentiousnes, 
whereas  this  partie  viz  :  James  Everill  was  he  who  publiquely  declared 
formerly  that  if  the  Brethren  would  manifest  themselves  to  be  seekers 
of  the  peace  of  the  Church,  they  should  not  obstruct  the  Churches 
proceedings,  but  quietly  let  them  proceed,  and  fall  themselves  upon 
the  practise  of  what  they  looked  at  themselves  obliged  to  performe 
unto  the  children  of  the  Church,  the  said  deacon  complained  of  a  letter 
which  he  had  heard  was  sent  to  the  Church  from  the  Church  of  New 
Haven  but  was  not  read  to  them  Mr.  Davenport  answerd  him,  it  was 
in  the  power  of  an  Elder  to  forbeare  to  read  a  Churches  letter,  in  case 
it  was  not  for  edification  :  he  reflected  upon  the  Church  of  New  haven 
as  havino-  sent  a  letter  full  of  mistakes,  and  such  as  did  not  concerne 
the  Church  of  Boston  to  answer  but  himself  and  that  he  had  answerd 
that,  which  letter  is  the  concealed  letter  before  mentioned,  and  was 
sent  to  our  Church  but  not  read  unto  them,  and  himself  then  being 
neither  an  officer  nor  member  of  our  Church  was  pleased  to  censure 
the  Church  of  New  haven  by  his  answer  unto  it  this  letter  had  it  bin 
publique[ly]  read  had  put  an  end  to  the  question  about  Mr.  Daven- 
ports call,  being  a  call  for  him  to  returne  unto  his  flock  as  may  appear 
by  said  letter : 

Offer  was  then  made  by  the  Elder  and  Mr.  Davenport  to  the  dis- 
senters if  they  had  anything  against  any  Brother  if  they  would  prove 
their  charge  they  might. 

The  dissenters  by  the  advice  of  the  Councill  being  to  bury  all 
Tanr6:(n).  offences  against  them  before  the  advice,  and  supposing  it 
1668.  [69]  bootlesse  to  speak  of  any  greivances  since  by  way  of  Com- 

plaint against  such  as  were  the  onely  Judges,  told  them  they  desired 
to  let  all  passe,  onely  standing,  under  the  guard  of  the  Councill  they 
wayted  for  their  dismission,  and  that  they  did  desire  to  forgive  forgit 
and  bury  all  things  in  this  late  houre   of  temptation,  that  had  bin 


CHARGES  AGAIXST   THE  DISSENTERS.  43 

greivous  to  them  and  to  Judge  themselves  before  the  Lord  for  their 
owne  miscariages,  and  to  come  in  true  love  to  God,  to  his  ordinances, 
and  to  their  Brethren. 

Then  the  Elder  proposed  if  any  of  the  Church  had  any  thing  to 
yurge  upon  the  dissenters  either  by  word  of  mouth  or  by  writing  they 
might  proceed.  Mr.  Stoddard  made  this  motion  that  the  Church 
might  humble  themselves  before  god  and  renew  their  Covenant  with 
God  and  one  with  another :  Some  of  the  dissenters  told  him  that  to 
come  regularly  to  the  Lords  supper  was  to  renew  their  Covenant  with 
the  Lord  and  one  with  another  :  Mr.  Davenport  looked  over  the 
Pulpit  once  or  twice  to  Mr.  Stoddard,  and  said,  if  there  charge  was 
were  anything  further  by  word  or  writing  to  be  brought  v^SgTutnot 
forth,  let  it  be  attended,  then  Mr.  Stoddard  replyed,  he  brought  forth, 
had  three  morall  evills  to  charge  upon  two  of  the  dissenters. 

Mr.  Thatcher  then  moved,  that  if  any  such  thing  were,  that  they 
would  please  to  mention  them,  being  of  such  a  nature  they  ought  to 
be  removed. 

Mr.  A.  Stoddard *  would  not  presently  mention  either  person  or 
thing  but  because  the  dissenters  had  earnestly  moved  that  they  might 
walke  in  Communion  he  said  if  they  were  soe  desirous  of  Communion 
he  would  say  to  them,  as  the  Prophet  Amos  did,  chapter  4.  4.  5  come  to 
Bethell  and  transgress,  goe  up  to  Gilgall  and  multiply  transgression, 
bring  your  sacrifice  of  thanksgiving  and  offer  them  with  leaven : 

At  length  out  came  his  Charge,  two  morall  Evills  against  Captaine 
Davis  first  he  had  said  the  church  did  not  begin  with  God 

Secondly  that  it  was  not  the  Church   that  wrote  to  New  Haven. 
And  one  morall  evill   against  John   Hull  for  saying  the 
church  had  wrested  their  liberty  from  them,  all  which  he   charge  of  3  s 
said  were  transgressions,  against  the  9th  Commandment.    morra11  evills- 

The  said  dissenters  desired  to  know  whether  this  was  onely  mr. 
Stodders  charge,  or  whether  the    church  did  make  it  their  charge. 
But  neither  Elder  or  any  Brother  would  make  any  answer  though  they 
begged  it  Sundry  times.     It  seemed  to  the  dissenters  by   [o]therwise 
the  managing  of  matters  that  mr.   Davenport,  mr.  Allen,    {^^5^ 
and  mr.  Pen,  mr.  Everill,  Captain  Clark   mr.  Cooke,  and   against  it  and 

'  r  '  Sundry  Breth- 

the  hands  of  many  of  the  Brethren  were  in  this  charge,  ren  desired  mr. 
as  well  as  mr.  Stodder ;  —  Captain  Davis  answerd,  where  beare  the 
as  I  am  charged  with  two  morall  evills  the  one,  that  I  [hjeTfd  de-°re 
should  say  that  the  church  neither  begun  nor  ended  with  cIar[  ] 
God  —  he  desired  to  know  of  that  Brother  whether  that  was  his  whole 
speech  or  parte  of  his  speech  —  Answer  was  replied  he  could  not  tell 
1  [Mr.  Anthony  Stoddard.  He  mar-  Simeon  Stoddard,  an  active  member  of 
ried  as  his  fourth  wife  the  widow  of  one  the  Old  South  in  the  next  century,  were 
of  the  dissenting  brethren,  Thomas  his  sons,  and  Deacon  Charles  Stoddard 
Savage,  who  died  in  16S2.  The  Rev.  of  the  Old  South  was  a  descendant  in 
Solomon  Stoddard,  of  Northampton,  and     the  fifth  generation.] 


44  HISTORY  OF   THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

whether  it  was  the  whole  or  not.  —  Captain  Davis  replyed  if  it,  were 
not  my  whole  speech,  the  speech  was  his  owne  and  not  mine,  if  that 
were  my  whole  speech  I  desire  you  to  prove  it,  and  the 
rather  because  I  am  confident,  no  one  in  the  Congregation 
can  or  will  say  it  was  soe,  It  is  true  there  was  a  time  when  the 
church  was  in  a  strife,  and  I  did  say  upon  that  disorder  that  was 
among  us,  that  I  did  feare  we  had  not  begun  with  god :  at  which  time 
one  of  the  brethren  replyed,  did  we  not  begin  with  prayer  ?  I  then 
answered  my  meaning  was  not,  that  the  Elder  had  not  begun  with 
prayer,  but  apprehended  we  had  not  begun  with  the  rule,  that  is  not 
to  begin  with  God,  this  was  all  that  I  said,  and  therefore  the  charge 
is  unjust,  for  the  second  charge  saying  that  the  Church  did  not  send 
to  New  Haven,  that  remaines  yet  sub  judice :  but  my  speaking  at  that 
time  was  lesse  expedient,  and  better  I  had  forborne, — but  wherein 
I  have  given  any  offence  to  any  in  anything  for  matter  or  manner  I 
am  sorry. 

We  interrupt  the  Narrative  at  this  point,  to  present  a  letter 
written  by  the  Rev.  Nicholas  Street  to  a  correspondent  in  Bos- 
ton, probably  Increase  Mather,  which  throws  much  light  on 
the  meaning  and  object  of  the  letter  from  the  New  Haven 
church  of  October  12,  1668,  suppressed  by  Mr.  Davenport  and 
his  friends  :  — 

Reverend  Sir 

Yours  dated  Nov.  17,  68  I  received  wherein  you  have  ingaged  me 
to  you  by  the  Intelligence  I  have  from  you  of  news  from  England  as 
also  how  matters  are  in  Boston,  no  other  nor  worse  than  I  expected, 
and  it  will  be  a  pity  if  the  fire  kindled  there  doth  not  spread  further 
I  am  not  without  more  sad  apprehensions  and  fears  than  I  am  willing 
to  express.  As  for  the  true  sense  of  our  Letter  sent  to  the  church  of 
Boston  the  Letter  itself  doth  shew,  our  intendment  in  it  is  Playnly 
expressed  without  the  least  obscurity.  The  letter  doth  not  run  in  the 
ordinary  form  of  dismissions,  yet  it  is  (and  so  we  intended  it)  a  dis- 
mission ad  placitum  Reverendi  magistri  Davenport  et  ecclesiae  Bostoni- 
ensis,  if  they  should  see  it  that  way  so  to  improve  it  we  could  not  give 
such  a  dismission  in  form  as  was  desired  without  wrong  to  Conscience, 
which  is  a  tender  thing,  not  being  satisfyed  either  in  Mr.  Davenports  call 
to  the  church  of  Boston  or  grounds  of  his  moving  from  us,  —  that  we  were 
not  satisfyed  we  have  signify ed  so  much  in  our  letter  to  Boston  church, 
The  reasons  and  grounds  of  our  dissatisfaction  we  have  not  layd  before 
them,  —  out  of  our  honourable  respects  to  mr  Davenport  but  have  in  a  pri- 
vate letter  sent  them  to  himself  And  though  we  saw  it  not  our  way  to  give 
him  a  dismission  in  form  for  the  reason  expressed,  yet  after  sundry 
overtures  between  us  and  him,  we  finding  his  Spirit  to  be  so  strongly 


PRIVATE  LETTER  FROM  MR.  STREET  45 

even  unalterably  bent  and  bound  in  spirit  for  Boston,  we  thought  it 
our  way  no  further  to  struggle  with  him,  but  to  leave  him  at  his  liberty 
to  doe  as  God  should  guide  him,  resting  our  warrant  from  Acts  21.  14. 
when  he  would  not  be  perswaded  we  ceased  saying  the  will  of  the 
Lord  be  done.  This  first  narrative  I  suppose  may  be  sufficient  to 
satisfy  understanding  ones  (if  unbiassed)  and  our  actings  and  carriage 
in  this  busines.  If  any  should  asperse  us  on  the  one  hand,  that  we 
have  not  given  so  fair  and  full  and  honourable  a  dismission  as  may  be 
thought  Mr  Davenports  desert  might  challenge  at  our  hands  you  have 
our  Answer  we  were  not  satisfyed  in  the  motions  in  this  matter,  therefore 
could  not  without  injury  to  conscience  act  in  such  a  way  or  resign  him  up 
to  the  church  of  Boston  by  an  immediate  act  of  ours  as  we  signifyed 
so  much  to  the  church  by  our  letter  from  very  first.  Had  we  bin  as 
clear  at  his  leaving  this  church  and  joyning  to  Boston  church  as  himself 
seemed  to  be,  and  had  apprehended  that  his  settling  there  in  office  would 
quiet  and  compose  all  matters  in  that  church  as  some  seemed  to  be  of 
that  mind,  though  our  loss  would  have  bin  [incomparably]  great,  yet 
I  think  we  should  have  denyed  ourselves,  and  have  given  him  as  full  and 
as  honourable  a  dismission  as  our  understandings  could  have  reached  to 
have  framed. 

It  is  our  great  greif  that  we  are  so  bound  up  even  in  conscience  that  we 
could  not  anszver  his  and  others  desires  and  expectations,  but  the  truth  is 
we  were  so  in  the  dark  about  these  motions,  and  so  fell  of  fears  of  a 
different  effect  (and  it  seems  by  your  letter  that  our  fear  was  not  vain) 
that  we  could  not  act  that  way  with  any  liberty  of  spirit  or  conscience. 
If  we  are  aspersed  on  the  other  hand,  because  we  yielded  so  farr  as 
we  did  to  leave  him  to  his  liberty,  the  Holy  ghost  seemeth  to  answer 
for  us  in  the  text  before  alledged  Act.  21.  14  wherein  we  suffer  in 
these  matters  we  have  the  testimony  of  our  consciences,  that  we  have 
bin  true  to  our  present  light,  faithfull  to  Christ  and  his  rules  in  the 
management  of  this  busines,  though  accompanyed  with  human  frail- 
tyes.  And  if  we  suffer  herein  we  must  bear  it,  and  shall  look  higher 
than  men  even  to  the  hand  of  God  which  hath  bin  upon  us  of  late  7jery 
sore  (though  below  our  demerits)  since  this  troublesome  exercise  began, 
our  ways  and  hearts  are  known  to  him.  our  [name]  is  with  him.  to 
whom  we  commit  our  Case,  not  doubting  but  hee  will  bring  forth  our 
righteousness  and  plead  our  Cause  for  us  in  his  owne  time  and  way. 
the  Lord  be  with  you  and  yours  and  rest 
your  brother  in  the  fellowship  of 
the  Gospell 

N.  H.  2.  of  dec.  68 

I  pray  be  careful  to  whom  you  Communicate  this,  that  I  may  not 
suffer  for  my  readines  to  answer  your  desire. 

due  respects  to  your  wife  to  [         ]  and  his.1 

1  [Evidently  a  copy  of  this  letter  was     stroyed,  so  that  Mr.  Street  might  not  be 
made,  and    the    original    was   then   de-     drawn  into  the  controversy.     The  copy, 


46  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

We  now  return  to  the  Third  Church  Narrative :  — 

Mr.  Davinport  in   his  sermon  held  forth  that  the  dissentors  par- 
taking in  the  supper,  would  actually  and  really  demonstrate 
their  acceptance  of  the  teaching  officers,  as  well  as  if  they 
had  consented  from  the  beginning ;  and  spak  allso  in  excuse  of  the 
Church  and  said  they  had  fully  tendrd  satisfaction,  and  the  dissentors 
had  offred   something   that  way,   but  it  did  not  reach,   the   Church 
wearyed  with  contests  desired  to  have  the  Lords  supper  administred, 
and  the  officer  could  not  deny  to  administer  to  any  not  under  censure, 
all  which  made  the  dissentors  feare  some  did  intend  a  snare  for  them 
viz.  if  they  did  partake  they  would  never  give  them  their  dismission, 
but  tell  them  they  had  lost  their  case  by  their  owne  consent,  and  if  they 
did  not  partake,  they  would  improve  it  against  them  in  order  to  cen- 
sure, the  Lords  supper  was  appointed  to  be  celebrated  the  24th  (11). 
The  dissentors  sent  therefore  3  Brethren  with  their  request  in  writ- 
ing to  all  the  Elders  that  they  did  humbly  intreat,  that 
they  might  partake  at  the  Lords  table  now  in  the  season 
agreed  upon  by  the  Church  ;  according  to  the  advice  of  the  Reverend 
Councill,  and  the  agreement  made  by  the  severall  Reverend  Elders 
and  Honourd  Brethren  of  other  Churches  before  the  ordination,  with- 
out any  such  condition  imposed  upon  them  as  was  the  last  Lords  day 
by  Reverend  Mr.  Davinport  insisted  upon  but  the  Elders  would  not 
concede  to  their  motion.     The  dissenters  considered  that  unlesse  they 
had  some  opportunity  publiquely  to  declare,  that  they  onely  came  with 
a  full  salvo  to  their  Case,  it  would  not  be  safe  for  them  to  come,  and . 
there  was  no  opportunity  in  their  power  but  on  the  saboth  day  just 
before  the  Administration  and  to  speak  then  might  hazard  the  peace 
of  the  Church  and   therfore   thought  it  not  safe,  and  waited  untill 
Saturday  in   the   afternoone  to  see   if   the   Elders  would 
show  them  any  compassion,  the  three  deacons  allso  had 
told  the  Elders  that  they  could  not  partake  unlesse  that  snare  were 
removed,  then  the  dissenters  sent  4.  brethren  in  all  their  names,  to 
the  Elders  with  a  writing  directed  to  them  and  rest  of  the  Church 
contents  is  as  followeth. 

Revrd  and  beloved  we  desire  to  hold  Communion  with  you  in  all  the 
ordinances  of  Christ  according  to  the  advice  of  the  Reverend  Coun- 
cill which  we  looke  at  ourselves  bound  to  adhere  unto,  but  in  asmuch 
Coppy  of  a  as  Reverend  Mr.  Davinport  did  on  the  last  Lords  day  de- 
^EfdLuJon  clare>  that  if  we  should  sit  downe  at  the  Lords  table  with 
bearin°nthfef°r"  y°u'  we  should  really  and  actually  demonstrate  our  ac- 
Lords  supper,     knowledgement  and  consent  to  the  teaching  officers  which 

which  has  been  preserved  in  the  Mass.  the  authorship  of  the  letter.  At  the  foot 
Archives  (vol.  x.  p.  56),  is  without  a  sig-  are  the  words  :  "  Received  19. 10.  Tran- 
nature,  but  there  can  be  no  doubt  as  to     scribed  1  mi.  1  mo."] 


THE  DEACONS   CALLED    TO   ACCOUNT.  47 

the  Church  hath  chosen,  asmuch  as  if  we  had  consented  to  their 
Election  from  the  beginning,  we  in  respect  thereof  are  forced  to  for- 
beare,  and  intreat  it  may  not  be  an  offence  to  the  Church  But  the 
Elders  showd  no  pitty  unto  them  neither  x  reading  to  the  Church  the 
letter  signed  by  the  dissenters  nor  expressing  any  word  to  ease  or 
incourage  them.     Soe  when  as  the  time  of  Administration        .   ,  ,,a 

o  _  24:  (,11;  1668. 

came  all  the  dissenters  after  a  pawse  to  see  if  the  Elder 
or  Church  would  offer  any  ease  unto  them  or  give  them  any  oppor- 
tunity of  declaring  themselves  by  their  invitation  thereunto  they  all 
withdrew  themselves  except  the  deacons.  The  3  deacons  staid  least 
if  they  had  left  their  charge  to  wait  upon  the  table,  they  should 
have  bin  found  Culpable  but  they  durst  not  partake  least  they  should 
be  ensnared. 

A  Church  meeting  was  appointed,  and  it  appeared  by  the  sequell,  it 
was  to  deale  with  the  deacons,  but  in  the  interim  between 
they  gave  them  no  knowledge  of  any  offence  taken,  the 
Church  being  met  the  3  deacons  were  called  forth  (two  of  them  being 
dissenters  from  the  first  and  the  3d  not  cleare  in  the  Churches  call 
and  actings  relating  to  Mr.  Davinport)  they  were  charged  with  high 
contempt  of  the  holy  ordinance  of  god,  and  agravated,  in  being 
present  waiting  upon  their  office  and  not  partaking,  that  it  was  a  will- 
full  presumptuous  contempt  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  and  his  body 
and  blood,  and  deserved  cutting  of  according  to  Num  :  9:13:  a  sin 
against  the  Institution  of  Christ  against  the  Church  of  Christ  and 
against  the  Officer  or  Administrator. 

The  deacons  desired  them  not  to  construe  it  as  contempt,  their 
desire  being  not  to  give  offence  but  considering  their  office  charge 
Rom  :  12  :  6.  Acts  6.  they  doubted  their  absence  would  have  bin 
much  more  agravated  against  them,  and  therefore  chose  rather  to 
shew  utmost  willingnes  to  serve  them,  they  had  taken  what  paines  and 
care  they  could  before  to  have  the  cause  removed,  speaking  to  the 
Elders  themselves  and  by  their  Brethren,  but  at  that  time  as  matters 
were  circumstanced,  they  judged  they  could  not  safely  partake  accord- 
ing to  Rom  :  14 :  23  :  and  if  it  was  an  evill  it  was  through  their  owne 
darkenes,  and  intreated  the  Church  to  passe  it  by. 

Mr.  Thatcher  offerd  to  moderate  between  the  Church  and  them, 
but  was  with  great  displeasure  commanded  silence,  and  because  he 
offered  speech  the  second  time,  he  was  taken  up  sharpely,  telling  him 
he  showed  how  litle  he  knew  what  belonged  to  be  an  officer,  who  had 
bin  so  many  yeares  in  office  and  could  not  be  silent  when  required. 
Mr.  Thatcher  said  he  ought  indeed  to  have  ben  silent 2  and  therefore 
desired  pardon,  Mr.  Davinport  much  undervalued  all  that  the  deacons 

1  [These  words  are  crossed  out  in  the  2  [The  words  "  when  required  "  follow 
MS.  :  "  But  the  Elders  showd  no  pitty  the  word  "  silent "  in  the  MS.,  but  have 
unto  them  neither."]  been  erased.] 


48  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

said,  saying  that  they  had  cleare  light  held  forth  unto  them,  and  their 
acknowledgments  were  Jejune  and  poore,  soe  they  kept  the  deacons 
untill  nigh  evening,  then  concluded  the  meeting  and  gave  them  time 
to  consider  untill  that  day  seven  night  which  they  appointed  for 
another  meeting. 

The  Church  when  met  applyed  themselves  to  the  deacons  as  men 
under  great  offence,  and  used  exhortations  as  if  they  had 
great  care  of  their  soules  good,  which  the  unintherested 
bystanders  toke  it  as  if  their  reall  indeavour  was  to  minister  occasion 
to  them  to  slip  into  some  unadvised  expression  that  they  might  take 
advantage  to  censure  them  for,  some  of  the  dissenting  Brethren  spake 
on  the  deacons  behalf  but  were  sharply  reproved  for  diverting  the 
Church  from  their  work  with  them  at  length  Deacon  Ellyot  was 
vehemently  urged  by  diverse  Brethren  to  speake  unto  sundry  things,  he 
declared  he  had  some  trouble  and  doubt  in  his  mind  about  the  regu- 
larity of  Mr.  Davinports  dismission,  which  word  was  snatched  up  and 
with  much  violence  managed  against  him,  and  agravated  as  being  that 
which  highly  reflected  dishonour  upon  Mr.  Davinport,  upon  this 
Church,  upon  the  Church  of  New  Haven,  and  upon  6  Churches  more, 
who  were  present  by  their  messengers  at  his  Ordination,  and  gave  him 
the  right  hand  of  fellowship.1 

The  honest 2  deacon  presently  owned  it  was  his  folly  to  mention  that 
which  he  did  not  soe  [well]  understand  and  was  freely  willing  to  beare 
any  blame  for  it,  thus  they  held  the  deacon  upon  the  rack  this  day 
likewise,  and  it  seemed  to  be  no  litle  provocation  unto  the  Church 
and  Elders  that  in  these  two  daies  they  could  find  no  more  against 
them,  yet  because  the  evening  was  come  they  concluded  the  meeting, 
but  would  not  cleare  them,  and  therfore  appointed  another  meeting 
for  the  same  end. 

A  third  time  the  Church  met  for  the  same  buysines,  and  all  these 
meetings  were  publique,  neer  five  hundred  persons  present 
and  diverse  not  of  the  Church,  the  deacons  acknowledg- 
ment was  much  the  same,  and  now  the  matter  became  publique  talke, 
and  people  ready  to  cry  out  upon  them  for  their  severity,  —  the  Church 
therfore  toke  what  had  bin  said  for  good  satisfaction  for  this  their 
highly  aggravated  offence,  but  then  some  of  the  Church  used  another 
stratagem,  seing  they  had  soe  far  and  soe  well  satisfyed  the  Church 
that  now  the  2  deacons  would  compleat  all  by  withdrawing  their 
hands  from  a  letter  upon  Church  record  for  their  dismission,  saying 
all  were  as  nothing  unlesse  that  were  done,  and  the  Elders  said  it 
would  declare  their  hearts  to  be  cordiall  unto  them  but  otherwise  not, 

1  [The  following  words  in   the  MS.  letter  of  his  dismission  as  hath  bin  partly 

are  erased:  "but  indeed  this  Church  and  declared,  but  as  then  it  was  not  known 

the  other  Churches  were  grossely  deceived  unto  them."] 

about  his  ordination  and  the  pretended  2  [The  word  "  honest "  is  erased.] 


FOUR  PROPOSITIONS.  49 

but  the  deacons  could  not  come  up  unto  them  in  that  and  the  Church 
concluded  them  unmeet  to  be  continued  in  their  office,  and  did  there- 
fore vote  them  out,1  and  at  the  same  time  elected  3  other  deacons  in 
their  roome.2 

Mr.  Bridgham  was  the  first  new  deacon  nominated  and  chosen,  and 
being  called  to  shew  his  acceptance,  said  he  had  rather  indeed  they 
had  chosen  some  other,  but  seing  the  holy  ghost  had  elected  him,  he 
did  give  up  himself  to  the  work,  the  other  two  desyred  time  to  con- 
sider of  it,  but  upon  the  next  Lords  day  they  were  all  three  ordayned 
by  Mr.  Davenport  &c  who  read  Acts.  6  :  1  to  7  :  Rom  :  12  :  7:8. 
1  Tym :  3  :  8  :  13.  and  then  said  if  any  had  any  objection  against  the 
men  as  to  these  qualifications  laid  downe  in  those  scriptures  they 
might  speak. 

The  dissenting  Brethren  sate  downe  with  the  Church  at 

0  21  :  (12). 

the  Lords  table. 

Mr.  Davenport  the  last  Church  meeting  acknowledging  that  what  he 

had  spoken  in  his  sermon  the  Lords  day  before  the  first  supper  did 

not  alter  the  state  of  the  dissenters  from  that  which  the  Councill  put 

them  under  :  The  dissenters  sent  foure  of  their  Brethren  in  the  behalf 

of  all  the  rest  with  a  request  written  and  subscribed  by 

.  .  .  .26:  (12). 

them   all   (because  their  former  writing   delivered    in    by 

them  to  Elder  Pen  was  by  Mr.  Davinport  called  clandestine)  this 
was  declared  to  all  the  Elders,  desiring  according  to  their  former  re- 
quest upon  Church  record  their  dismission :  and  by  word  of  mouth 
in  the  name  of  the  rest  of  their  Brethren  was  proposed, 

1.  That  they  would  call  the  Church  togither  in  convenient  time  in 
order  to  their  dismission.     That  was  denyed. 

2.  That  they  would  promise  to  give  them  a  dismission  in  4.  6.  or  8 
months  time  when  they  should  have  built  a  meeting  house  for  the 
Lords  service. 

this  was  denyed  allso. 

3.  That  the  Church  would  recall  Councill,  or  give  way  that  the  dis- 
senting Brethren  might  doe  it.     this  was  allso  denyed. 

4.  That  they  would  then  please  to  dismisse  them  unto  some  other 
Church,     this  allso  was  denyed. 

1  ["  On  12  Feb.  1669,  Edward  Ransford  not  voted  out  then  [Richard  Trewsdale] 
and  Jacob  Eliot  were  dismissed  from  the  (he  being  none  of  the  first  dissenters)  but 
office  of  deacons  for  setting  their  hands,  none  of  these  votes  were  put  in  the  nega- 
with  other  brethren,  to  desire  their  dis-  tive,  supposing  (as  there  was  cause)  that 
mission  from  the  church,  because  the  many  of  the  Church  besides  the  dissent- 
church  had  chosen  Mr.  Davenport  for  ers  were  against,  and  did  not  goe  along 
their  pastor."  —  Ellis's  History  of  the  in  these  strange  motions."] 
First  Church  in  Boston,  p.  117.  2  [The    three    deacons  chosen  at  this 

The  following  words  in  the  Narrative  time  were  Henry  Bridgham,  Robert  San- 
are  crossed  out :  "  onely  one  of  them  was  derson,  and  Henry  Alline.] 


50  HISTORY  OF   THE   OLD   SOUTH   CHURCH. 

The  Third  Church  Narrative  does  not  contain  a  memorial 
which  at  or  about  this  time  was  addressed  by  the  "  dissenting 
brethren "  to  the  Governor  and  Council.  The  copy  of  this 
memorial  which  has  come  down  to  us  bears  no  date,  but  it  is 
indorsed  "  Petition  to  the  Governour  and  Councill  /6g,"  and  is 
in  the  following  terms  :x  — 

To  the  Honourable  the  Governour  and  Councill  of  the  Massatusett  ?iow 

sitting  in  Boston  — 

The  Humble  Petition  of  us  whose  names  are  subscribed 

Whereas  the  uncomfortable  differences  under  which  wee  have  divers 
months  laboured,  are  butt  too  well  knowne  of  all,  to  the  no  small 
greife  of  our  owne  hearts,  and  to  the  greatt  scandall  of  religion,  which 
wee  hoped  would  have  beene  eased  and  issued,  by  that  remedy  which 
the  Lord  Jesus  hath  appointed  in  case  of  such  a  prevailing  malady : 
vizt :  the  Councill  of  Churches  (concerning  which  wee  att  the  first  pro- 
fessed ourselves  willing  to  acquiesce  in,  as  also  did  our  Elder  in  the 
face  of  the  church)  who  in  their  Advice  declared  our  dismission  (as 
expressed)  to  bee  the  best  expedient  for  the  issue  of  our  then  differ- 
ences, and  agreeable  to  the  mind  of  Christ,  since  which  wee  have 
travailed  and  with  patience  waited  for  itts  accomplishment,  upon  our 
frequent  desires  thereof,  butt  hath  beene  hitherto  denyed  us ;  yea 
though  some  dayes  since,  wee  renewed  our  motion  in  writing  under 
our  hands  unto  the  Reverend  Elders  of  our  Church  to  promove  itt  to 
the  church  by  calling  a  meeting  to  that  end,  yett  this  endeavour  also 
hath  beene  fruitles,  either  as  to  a  church  meeting  or  hopes  of  ever 
gaining  our  dismission  according  to  the  advice  of  the  Reverend  Coun- 
cill ;  nor  to  dismiss  us  to  such  a  church  as  wee  should  desire,  nor  to 
have  further  Advice  from  sister  Churches,  ishatt  wee  ought  to  doe  in 
such  a  case  ;  Butt  are  wholly  shutt  upp  and  deprived  (as  wee  conceive) 
of  that  Christian  liberty,  which  Christ  hath  purchased  for  his  people 
in  church  estate,  and  contrary  to  the  professed  practise  of  our  churches 
our  studiousnes  to  avoid  schisme  and  scandall  being  improoved  against 
us,  as  if  wee  had  deserted  that  cause  and  interest  of  truth,  which  ought 
to  bee  dearer  to  us  then  our  very  lives. 

Worthy  Patrons  (in  the  failure  of  all  endeavours  hitherto)  under 
God  wee  are  necessitated  to  take  sanctuary  att  your  Altar,  and  to 
implore  your  aid,  as  from  those  who  are  the  nursing  ffathers  of  our 
Israeli,  and  who  by  divine  appointment  are  made  the  keepers  of  our 
Libertyes  both  Ecclesiasticall  and  Civill,  that  under  your  Covert  wee 
may  have  such  encouragement,  as  that  withoutt  offence  (the  numer- 

1  The  copy,  which,  with  the  signatures,  make  use  of  it.     It  will  be  noticed  that 

we  think  is  in  the  handwriting  of  John  Edward  Rawson,  who  was  an  officer  of 

Hull,    belongs    to    Mr.    Walter    Lloyd  the    Council,   did   not   sign   it,   nor    did 

Jeffries,  who  has  kindly  allowed   us  to  Richard  Trewsdale. 


TO    THE   GOVERNOR  AND   COUNCIL. 


51 


ousnes  of  inhabitants,  together  with  the  confluence  of  strangers 
calling  for  enlargement)  to  build  a  house  for  our  seasonable  assem- 
bling to  worship  God  : 

And  that  you  will  please  to  provoke  the  churches  unto  that  duty 
and  help  that  our  condition  calls  for  (that  so  our  greivances  (which  lye 
heavy  upon  us  may  bee  removed)  [which]  have  beene  multiplyed  since 
the  last  Councill,  and  more  especially  the  ejection  of  our  faithfull 
Deacons)  that  wee  may  doe  our  duty  to  God,  our  owne  soules,  the 
churches  of  Christ  and  our  Posterity. 

Wee  further  beseech  you  to  accountt  of  us  (how  ever  traduced)  as 
true  and  faithfull  both  to  the  Civill  Government  here  established,  and 
to  the  professed  interest  of  Christ  Jesus  in  these  Churches,  according 
to  the  Platt-forme  of  church  Government  here  established,  and  decla- 
ration of  the  Synod  in  62,  withoutt  any  desire  of  innovation  upon 
either  in  any  measure.  Thus  craving  your  Honours  candid  consider- 
ation of  our  present  application  to  yourselves,  and  your  seasonable 
releife,  wee  shall  further  pray  for  your  prosperity,  and  that  wee  may 
long  live  under  you  a  quiett  and  peaceable  life  in  all  godlines  and 
honesty. 

Tho:  Savage 
Josh.  Scottow 
Hez.  Usher 
Edwd.  Rainsford 
josiah  belshar 
Jno.  Alden 
Benj.  Gibbs 
Benj.  Thirston 


Peter  Oliver 
Joseph  Rock 
Joseph  Belknap 
Peter  Brackett 
James  Pemberton 
Jno.  Wing 
Jacob  Eliot 
Theoph.  Frary 
Wm  Davis 


Robt.  Walker 
Wm.  Dawes 
Jno.  Hull 
Theode.  Attkinson 
Jno.  Tappin 
Wm.  Salter 
Jos.  Davis 
Tho  Brattle 
Seth  Perry 


We  return  to  the  Third  Church  Narrative  :  — 


7 :  (1)  68-69. 


A  motion  was  made  by  the  Church  that  deacon  Trusdale  might 
have  his  dismission  from  his  office  because  of  his  many 
bodily  infirmities  which  passed,  giving  him  thankes  for  his 
former  faithfull  service  :  then  it  was  moved  that  all  the  former  deacons 
might  have  some  appointed  to  give  them  a  discharge,  which  allso  was 
voted.1 

The  Elder  told  the  Church  that  they  intended  to  call  forth  Brother 

Negus  his  daughter  a  child   of  the  Church  who  had  com- 

&  20. 

mitted  fornication,  but  that  she  was  not  well  enough  to 

come  abroad,  it  was  supposed  by  this  motion  they  did  now  intend  to 

shew  some  Church  care  towards  the  Church  children. 

1  [The  following  words  are  crossed  out  the  Church,  the  Elder  bad  him  forbeare, 
in  the  Narrative  :  "  One  of  the  dissenting  pretending  it  was  not  a  season,  but  gave 
Brethren  desired  to  make  a  motion  unto     him  no  liberty  that  meeting."] 


52  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

Being  the  saboth  day  the  Elder  in  the  latter  part  thereof,  declared 

that   now  they  should  have  proceeded  in  the  matter  of 

Brother  Negus  daughter,  but  her  mother  would  not  suffer 

her  to  come  forth  into  the  Congregation,  therefore  the  matter  being 

soe  fowle  and  haynous,  we  doe  declare  her  to  be  none  of  us,  and  this 

past  without  any  vote  of  the  Church.1 

The  whole  Church  met  in  the  towne  house  private,  the  dissentors 
again  humbly  desired  the  Church  to  give  them  their  dis- 
2  9-       mission,  or  to  Consent  that  a  Councill  of  Churches  might 

be  called  to  heare  the  whole  Case,  and  they  would  oblige  to  sit  downe 
by  their  counsell  and  determination,  the  dissenters  then  desired  of  the 
Church  that  if  the  Lord  should  favor  them  in  their  application  unto 
Churches  of  the  neighborhood,  that  they  would  please  to  give  them  a 
meeting  when  they  should  convene  in  order  of  a  Councill,  the  dis- 
senters were  often  charged  with  willfullnes  and  obstinacy  and  that 
they  had  not  one  sillable  of  rule,  but  of  will. 

Then  severall  Brethren  urged  for  the  admonition  of  the  dissenters 
and  Mr.  Davinport  said,  he  thought  that  had  bin  meet  to  have  bin 
done  before  now,  and  because  it  was  not,  therefore  they  were  thus 
hardned,  for  he  discerned  nothing  but  will  as  the  cause  of  all,  and  if 
now  they  did  not  hearken  he  should  looke  at  them  as  under  great 
hardness.  One  of  the  dissenters  told  them  if  there  were  but  a  free 
passage  of  the  just  scripture  liberty  of  the  Belovd  the  owning  of 
scripture  Councill  with  a  decisive  power  according  to  the  judgement 
of  our  best  Orthodox  divines,  and  the  owning  and  attendance  of 
Church  duty  to  the  children  of  the  Church  he  should  asmuch  delight 
in  the  Church  as  formerly. 

In  this  meeting  was  put  to  vote  whether  the  church  would  grant  the 
dissentors  their  dismission,  which  vote  was  expounded 
both  in  the  Negative  and  afirmative  by  mr.  Davenport ;  It 
was  caryed  in  the  negative  by  the  lifting  up  of  hands.2 

conference  being,  about  the  dissenting  Brethren  desiring  of  a  Coun- 
Assuredthat  c^-  Tllat  also  was  resolved  in  the  Negative  though  not 
there  was  no      by  any  stated  vote  which  they  did  decline  but  by  personall 

major  or  minor        J  ,  ,        ,      __,.  .  ,     -,-.      d. 

part  in  a  conclusion  of  many  against  it  both  Elders  and  Brethren, 

church  it  beine  .  ,  .  n-ii      ,  ,  r-i 

one  intire  com-  as  instances  some  speeches  :  viz  :  I  nat  to  grant  a  Loun- 
pieatebody.       ^  tendg  tQ  overthrow  the    Congregation  all  way.     That 

1  ["Mary  Negosse,    the    Daughter   of         2  [» On    29   March,    1670,  [?  1669]  at 

our  brother  Benjamin  Negosse  for  com-  a   meeting   called   about    our  dissenting 

mitting  fornication  was    declared   to   be  brethren,     the     question,     whether     the 

none  of  its,  and  so  left  till  God  shall  give  church  see  light  from  the  word  of  God 

repentance,  on  the   28.   1  mo.   1669."—  to  dismiss  our  dissenting  brethren  that 

First  Chtirch  Records.     In  this  instance  desire  it,  was  answered  in  the  negative, 

the  church  was  dealing  with  a  baptized  unanimously." —Ellis's    History   of  the 

child  not  in  full  membership.]  First  Chtirch,  p.  117.] 


A    SECOND   COUNCIL  CALLED.  53 

there  was  no  releife  for  a  greived  Brother  or  Brethren  in  a  church  un- 
less the  Church  will  releive  them  untill  the  day  of  judgement  and  That 
the  church  itselfe  is  the  sole  and  alone  Judge  (infm[e])  they  tooke  of- 
fence at  the  dissenting  Brethren  for  pressing  for  their  dismission,  and 
indeavoring  to  procure  a  councill,  for  which  both  Elders  and  Brethren 
did  exhort  them  to  repent,  with  some  intimation  that  otherwise,  they 
should  be  looke[d]  upon  by  the  church,  and  proceeded  with,  as  those 
that  did  harden  their  hearts,  and  not  harke[n]  to  Counsill  according 
to  God. 

The  dissenting  Brethren  met  to  seeke  the  Lord  to  direct  and  guide 

them  in  considering  what  the  Lord  calld  them  to  doe  in 

°  31  (1)  69. 

this  their  present  distres,  seing  the  Church  was  soe  pro- 
voked, on  the  desire  of  their  dismiss[ion]  and  on  the  deniall  to  call 
in  the  helpe  of  other  churches,  it  was  agreed  to  make  their  request  by 
sending  letters  to  severall  churches  the  coppy  thereof  (as  followeth) 

Honoured  Reverend  and  Beloved  &>c : 

We  cannot  but  with  much  greife  of  heart  be  waile  the  sad  occasion 
of  this  our  present  application  to  yourselves,  and  that  at  such  a  time 
when  it  is  a  day  of  Jacobs  trouble  abroad  in  other  parts,  the  Bush  on 
fire  ready  to  be  consumed  and  the  Tremendious  dispensations  of  the 
holy  God,  in  a  vicissitude  of  providences  upon  our  Nation  all  which 
calls  for  the  most  deep  and  serious  thoughts  and  sorrow  of  heart  in  all 
Sions  lovers,  And  especially  among  his  outcasts  in  this  Country.  Yet 
as  if  this  were  not  enough,  but  that  they  should  be  increased  by  the 
noise  of  hammers  in  a  tribe  of  our  Israeli  the  sound  where  of  is  gone 
through  the  Country  viz  :  The  divissions  of  our  Rewben,  This  as  it 
calls  for  great  searching  of  heart  in  us,  and  is  that  for  which  we  have 
cause  to  lye  with  our  mouthes  in  the  dust,  and  to  be  a  shamed  before 
the  Lord  soe  fare  as  we  have  bin  any  just  occasion  there  of,  soe  all  soe 
it  provokes  us  to  seek  all  regular  endeavours  for  the  removeing  of  the 
same,  that  no  scandall  may  be  layed,  upon  the  Church  of  Christ  for 
our  sakes 

What  essay  for  the  healing  of  our  differences ;  hath  bin  heither  to 
used  proves  successles  :  viz  :  The  result  of  the  late  reverend  Councill 
(called  by  Elders  and  Brethren)  to  grant  us  an  amicable  dismission  in 
order  to  the  propogation  of  another  church  Body  among  ourselves 
upon  our  desire,  which  advice  was  proposed  by  them  as  the  next  ex- 
pedient to  an  issue  of  our  uncomfortable  contest,  with  our  Brethren 
in  the  church,  and  declared  publiquely  by  the  moderator  as  meet  to 
be  compleated  before  their  proceedure  to  ordination,  This  advice 
of  the  said  Reverend  Councill  hath  bin  attended  by  us,  who  have 
accordingly  severall  times  moved  for  our  dismission,  but  in  vaine. 
We  are  therfore  necessitated  to  make  our  addresse  to  yourselves,  with 
other  churches  as  the  onely  next  refuge  in  order  left  us  by  christ  in  his 


54  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

word,  Assuring  you  that  how  ever,  we  are  traduced,  yet  we  are  not  in 
the  least  Alienated  from  the  forme  of  Government  according  to 
Pattent  under  which  God  hath  soe  long  blessed  this  Collony  ;  But  are 
ready  to  spend  and  to  be  spent  for  it,  according  to  that  sollemn  oath 
which  we  have  taken  Neither  are  we  for  any  other  way  respecting 
church  order  than  sollemnly  declared  from  the  Scriptures  in  the  Plat- 
,gp=,  forme  of  discipline,  and   the  last  Synods  determination 

54  about   the    subjects   of    Baptisme,    and    consociation    of 

churches,  nor  is  there  any  averseness  in  us,  but  a  firme  resolution  to 
mainetaine  due  Brotherly  love  with  our  church,  in  all  things  consistent 
with  what  we  have  professd  whiles  we  are  with  them,  and  when  we 
shall  be  parted  from  them  (as  the  Lord  shall  dispose)  as  with  a 
pretious  Church  of  Christ  and  much  Honoured  mother  in  Israeli 
Honoured  Reverend  and  deare  bretheren  we  humbly  againe  and 
againe  request  you  in  the  bowels  of  Jesus  Christ,  that  you  receive  no 
such  reports  against  us,  whose  travile  of  soule  is  to  mainetaine  the 
unity  of  the  spirit  in  the  bond  of  peace  with  you,  and  all  the  churches 
of  Christ,  we  humbly  beseech  you  to  spread  our  case  before  the  Lord 
in  your  fervent  prayers,  and  to  send  your  Elders  and  Messengers  to 
meet  in  Councill  at  Boston,  upon  the  13th  of  Aprill  next  at  8  Oclocke 
in  the  morning,  to  consider,  consult,  and  give  your  helpefull  advice  in 
our  labouring  case,  and  we  and  ours  shall  be  for  ever  engaged  to 
Blesse  God  for  you,  Thus  we  commend  you  unto  the  grace  of  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  subscribe  ourselves 

Your  distressed  Brethren  members 
of  the  first  church  of  Boston 
Subscribed  by  28  hands  of  the  dissenting  Brethren  31  (1)  69 

Memento  :  just  as  a  Messenger  was  dispatching  to  Lyn  Sallem  and 
Ipswich  this  under  written  was  brought  by  Goodman 
Chandler  to  Captaine  Davis  one  of  the  dissenters. 

Honoured  Sirs  According  to  the  desire  of  the  writer  I  have  sent 
you  this  inclosed  that  (if)  upon  perusall  you  judge  it  expedient  you 
may  by  some  faithful!  messenger  send  it  to  the  persons  to  whome  it  is 
in  scribed  The  busines  as  he  saith  requiring  a  speedy  trusty  and 
private  Conveyance  who  also  ads,  that  he  shall  willingly  beare  his 
parte  in  the  charges,  I  shall  ad  noe  more  but  commend  you  to  him 
who  is  perfect  in  wisdome  and  councill  take  leave  and  remaine 
your  affectionate  freind 

Sam:  Danforth.1 

Subscribed  for  my  Honoured  friend  Captain  Wm.  Davis 

1  [Mr.  Eliot's  colleague  at  Roxbury.] 


MR.  ALLIN  AND   MR.  ELIOT  INTERVENE.  55 

Reverend  and  Dearely  Beloved 

We  thought  it  needfull  to  acquainte  you  with  the  present  state  of 
the  church  of  Boston  which  doth  not  a  litle  exercise  and  aflict  our 
thoughts,  upon  the  2d  day  las[t]  in  a  Church  meeting,  The  dissenting 
Brethren  wer  charged  as  disturbers  of  the  Church  by  desiring  of  their 
dismission  according  to  Counsill  given  by  the  neighbour  churches  in 
conclusion  it  was  voted  (not  to  dismis  them)  with  intimation  of 
further  proceeding  against  them  if  they  submit  not  (as  they  conceive) 
the  consequences  where  of  are  like  to  be  dangerous  not  onely  in  the 
suffering  of  the  dissenters,  in  a  Good  cause  as  they  in  Conscience 
judge  it  to  be,  but  also  it  will  tend  much  to  the  dishonour  of  God  and 
the  scandall  of  the  way  of  those  churches  as  haveing  noe  meanes  to 
heale  breaches  and  other  Evills  in  our  churches,  yea  to  cast  aside  that 
ordinance  of  Communion  of  churches  by  way  of  Counsill,  And  it  will 
occasion  much  disturbance  in  our  neighbour  churches  here  upon  it 
was  yesterday  amongst  us  thought  to  be  high  time  for  the  Elders  to 
Interpose  by  such  reasons  as  the  Lord  may  helpe  us  with  all  to  per- 
swad  the  Elders  of  Boston  to  graunt  their  dismission  as  the  best 
expedient  to  themselves,  we  do  not  feare  to  justify  that  Councill  for 
dismission  to  be  regular  expedient  and  necessary.  We  are  here  few 
to  appeare  in  the  case,  mr.  mather  cannot  travell  nor  mr.  Syms 
the  Elders  of  the  new  Church  of  Boston1  are  not  free  to  ap- 
peare in  respect  of  their  vicinity,  wherefore  we  earnestly  request 
you  to  assist  us,  with  your  Councill  and  helpe  in  soe  needfull  a  case, 
if  you  would  come  to  Charlstowne  upon  the  4  day  next,  some  of  us 
God  willing,  will  meet  you  there,  and  prepare  our  thoughts  for 
a  conference  with  the  Elders  of  Boston,  after  the  lecture  on  the 
5th  day.  If  we  should  not  prevaile,  yet  we  shall  discharge  our  Duty 
soe  farr,  and  discover  what  need  there  may  be  of  some  more  sollem 
way  to  be  taken  in  this  sad  case,  thus  not  doubting  of  your  readines 
unto  this  service  of  Christ,  Beseeching  the  God  of  peace  to  tread 
downe  Satan  under  the  feet  of  the  saints  shortly,  with  tender  of  our 
love  and  respects  we  leave  you  in  the  arms  of  everlasting  mercy  and 
rest  with  desire  of  mutuall  prayers. 

2  (2)  69  Yours  in  the  Lord 

Jo  :  Alline. 
Superscribed  Jo :  Elliot.2 

To  the  Reverend  Elders  of  the  churches  of  Christ  in  Salem,  Lyn 
and  Ipswich  these  — 

The  church  had  a  meeting  upon  short  worning  and  private  notis 
given  to  some  of  not  twenty  four  hours  before  the  time 
appointed,   Att  the  begining  of  it  Elder  Pen  declared  the 

1  [The  Second  Church.]  Dedham  and  Mr.  Eliot  of  Roxbury,  and 

2  [This  letter  was   from  Mr.  Allin  of     was  written  probably  by  the  former.] 


56  HISTORY  OF   THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

Cause  of  it  to  be  in  as  much  as  the  time  of  the  Lords  Supper  drew 
neer,  some  Brethren  had  given  offence,  That  offences  might  be 
removed  soe  as  that  there  might  be  a  comfortable  sitting  downe,  (or 
words  to  that  purpose)  and  then  he  first  singled  out  Captain  Davis, 
and  mr.  Hull  as  haveing  layed  a  false  charge  upon  the 
M?Huii  av's  Elders  in  saying  that  they  did  not  desire  the  last  church 
Charge[d]  meeting  Captain  Davis  being  upon  some  publique  imploy- 
ment  was  absent. 

Mr.  Hull  stood  up  and  pleaded  his  integrity  that  he  had  layed  noe 
charge  upon  the  Elders  nor  that  he  had  spoaken  any  falsehood,  mr. 
Stodder,  mr.  Houching,1  Lieutenant  Cooke  and  Captain  Hutchinson 
and  severall  backed  the  Elders  charge  And  Captain  Hutchinson 
said  that  Captain  Davis  and  mr.  Hull  had  charged  the  whole  Eldership 
with  a  lye,  in  denying  whatt  they  had  declared,  mr.  Hull  stood  up  and 
further  vindicated  himselfe,  and  desired  seeing  other  Brethren  were 
there  as  well  as  himselfe  that  they  might  be  heard,  Jos  :  Scottow 
being  one  of  those  Brethren  and  being  desired  to  speake  stood  up  and 
said,  If  what  he  knew  to  be  truth  might  not  be  interpreted  according 
as  mr.  Huchinson  had  spoken,  as  charging  the  lye  upon  the  Eldership 
he  should  speake,  if  not  he  should  choose  to  be  silent,  mr.  Davenport 
incouraged  him  to  speake,  where  upon  he  did  justify  mr.  Hull  speech, 
soe  did  Mr.  Usher  and  mr.  Bratle,  who  were  present  with  the  Elders 
at  the  first  discourse  it  being  private  [  ] 

Some  of  the  Church  would  have  wrung  something  out  of  their 
speech  to  have  confirmed  the  charge,  This  designe  failing 
charg  agTinst  then  Elder  Pen  declared,  that  all  the  dissenters  had 
what rukdoth"5  given  offence  to  the  church  by  absenting  themselves  from 
!endCthoUhdidat"  the  Lords  Supper,  and  that  they  had  come  to  the  Lords 
fedfa^XTft]  Supper  without  giving  satisfaction  to  the  Church,  but 
offence're-ukr  now  it:  was  expected  that  they  should  give  it,  and  singled 
out  mr.  Rawson,  mr.  Hull  and  Josh  :  Scottow. 

Mr.  Rawson  and  Captain  Savage  were  spoken  unto,  mr.  Rawson 
said  as  to  forbearing  of  the  Lords  supper  it  was  but  once,  and 
occasioned  upon  what  hath  bin  given  in  writing  to  the  Elders,  which 
we  gave  as  our  reason  of  our  then  forbearing  And  that  we  looked  at 
ourselves  as  those  in  a  journy. 

Mr.  Ting  stood  up  and  said  that  the  dissenters  action  in  communi- 
cating with  the  church  afterward  did  speake,  that  they  had  seen  their 
errour,  and  that  this  was  not  a  time  to  draw  hard  upon  them,  Captain 
Savage  and  the  others  spake  (soe  as  there  was  satisfaction  given  on 
that  account).  In  discourse  mr.  Rawson  spake  In  case  that  were  true 
that  he  had  heard  reported  that  at  Last  Church  meeting,  viz  :  that  mr. 
Alline  in  answer  to  a  Question  what  releef  should  be  aforded  unto 

1  [Jeremiah  Houchin.  He  died  April  of  the  second  John  Endicott,  became  the 
14,  1670.    His  daughter  Elizabeth,  widow     second  wife  of  the  Rev.  James  Allen.] 


THE    CASE   STATED    TO    THE    COUNCIL.  57 

Brethren  oppressed,  that  [     ]  there  was  none  untill  the  day  of  judge- 
ment it  was  ground  enough  to  call  a  Councill,  there  was 

0  .  mr.  Rawson 

much  discorse  upon  it,   soe  as  he  very  hardly  escaped   iw  escaped 
without  a  Censure  :      This  device  faylling  Brother  Abell 
Porter  who  had  desired  once  or  twice  to  speake  was  called  upon  by 
divers  to  speak  :  —  Whoe  layed  a  greivous  charge  upon   Brother  Porters 
all  the  dissenters,  as  guilty  of  scisme  and  making  divis-   charse- 
sions  in  the  Church,  and  that  it  was  the  Church  duty,  to  lay  them 
under  censure,  expetially  the  ring  leaders  and  seducers  of  others,  mr. 
Stodder  desired  him  to  name  some  of  them,  where  upon  he  named 
Captain  Davis  mr.  Rawson  and  mr.  Hull,  at  whose  houses  they  had 
often  meetings,  many  of  the  dissenting  Brethren  stood  up  and  said 
that  Abell  Porter  had  laid  a  false  charge  upon  Captain  Davis  &c :  — 
and  therefore  desired  he  might  make  Good  his  charge,  and  said  that 
they  were  noe  ways  led  by  them  or  any  other,     Elder  Pen  proposed 
that  we  might  all  sit  downe  at  the  Lord[s]  table  together  and  he  could 
pass  all  by : 

Where  upon  mr.  Davenport  manifesting  great  displeasure  against 
Elder  Pen  for  soe  speaking  declared  that  he  could  not  sitt        ^ 

~  °  mr.  Davenport 

downe  at  the  Lords  Table  with  the  dissenters,  untill  thev  deciare.d  he  was 

.  .  J      not  satisfied 

had  given  him  satisfaction  which  was  backt  with  mr.  with  the  dissent- 
Houchin,  mr.  Stodder  and  others  the  offence  was  for  munion  and  yet 
absenting  from  the  first  Lords  Supper.  At  last  they  removein^that 
apointed  a  meeting  next  fourth  day  at  two  of  clock  to  offence- 
charge  the  dissenters  in  a  better  method  than  they  had  done  and 
Captaine  Clark  expressed  it,  viz  to  have  their  charge  written,  and  to 
be  Commended  to  the  Elder  and  managed  by  him,  and  to  be  attested 
by  the  Brethren,  every  word  the  dissenters  spake  was  strained  to  the 
utmost,  any  Brother  might  charge  as  much  as  they  would  and  all  very 
well  liked. 

The  Councill  met  at  Boston,  and  Convened  13  Aprill — 1669  — 

The  humble  Apologie  of  us  whose  names  are  subscribed,  brethren 
of  the  first  Church  of  Christ  in  Boston,  together  with  the   second  Coun- 
sume  of  our  case  for  which  we  have  desired  the  Conven-  Slllsmeetins 
tion  of  the  Reverend   Elders  and  Messengers  of  churches  in  Coun- 
cill at  this  time.1 

A  councill  being  called  by  the  first  church  of  Christ  in  Boston, 
to  give  them  advice  according  unto  God  in  reference  unto  us  theire 
brethren  who  dissented  in  their  proceedings  in  calling  of  teaching 
officers :  and  the  Answer  being  given  by  Councill  unto  the  church 
being  in  sume. 

ffirst   that   the   mutuall   greivances   that   have   fallen    out   through 

1  [We  have  corrected  this  "  apologie  "  by  a  copy  of  the  document  in  the  posses- 
sion of  the  Mass.  Hist.  .Society.] 


58  HISTORY  OF   THE    OLD   SOUTH   CHURCH. 

humaine  frailty  and  temptation  of  Satan  in  the  transaction  of  this 
matter  Should  be  covered  with  love,  and  that  in  case  we  could  not 
consent  with  our  brethren  in  the  call  of  officers,  nor  sit  down  quietly 
and  submit  to  the  act  of  the  rest  therein,  that  then  the  church  upon 
our  desire  to  be  dismist  from  them  would  give  us  up  to  the  Lord  with 
love  and  prayers  recommending  us  to  the  grace  of  God  in  order  to  the 
propagation  of  another  church  to  be  set  up  in  the  town  of  Boston, 
according  to  the  rules  of  the  Gospel,  and  yet  so  that  in  the  meantime 
we  might  have  communion  with  this  church  or  any  other. 

And  the  church  having  after  our  humble  and  earnest  pressing  before 
the  ordination  and  since,  voted  the  negative  unto  such,  our  dismission 
advised  unto,  our  Consiences  continueing  still  bound  to  indeavour  the 
obtaining  thereof,  and  restrained  from  consenting  to  those  transac- 
tions of  our  Brethren. 

We  have  bin  necessitated  to  intreat  your  respective  churches  to 
send  their  Elders  and  Messengers  to  sit  in  order  of  Councill  to  con- 
sider, consulte,  and  advise  concerning  the  regularity  of  the  sayd 
decision,  and  our  right  to  injoy  the  benifit  there  of. 

There  fore  God  having  by  his  gratiouse  Providence  brought  you  to- 
gether: we  humbly  beseech  the  advice  of  you  this  Reverend  Councill 
concerning  the  said  decision,  and  our  right  to  the  benifit  there  of, 
sith  that  the  non  observance  there  of  by  our  brethren  hath  upon  our 
continueing  steadfast  in  our  desires  of  it,  occasioned  noe  small  greife 
and  trouble,  from  which  we  could  hope  for  no  releif  but  in  our  appli- 
cation to  yourselves  as  the  onely  ordinance  of  God  provided  in  such 
cases, 

Being  bold  humbly  to  signify  further,  that  we  have  many  other  rea- 
sons in  a  readyness  to  present  why  the  decision  advised  to  should  be 
necessary  for  the  peace  and  aedification  both  of  our  brethren  and  our- 
selves which  we  desire  if  it  be  possible  to  bury  in  eternall  silence  — 
Provided  that  we  may  have  the  releif  which  God  in  the  former  Councill 
hath  seemed  unto  us  plainly  to  provide,  without  the  making  mention 
of  them. 

Presented  with  the  subscription  of  the  names  of  the  dissenting 
brethren  to  the  Councill. 

the  13  :  Aprill :   1669 

THE    2D    COUNCILLS    FIRST    LETTER    TO    THE    ELDERS    OF    THE    CHURCH 

OF    BOSTON. 

To  the  Reverend  Elders  of  the  first  Church  in  Boston 

Itt  is  not  without  great  affliction  of  spirit  that  we  have  so  sad  an  oc- 
casion to  meet  here  this  day  being  assembled  as  sent  from  our  respec- 
tive Churches  to  endeavour  a  passification  among  our  Honoured 
Reverend  and  deare  Brethren  of  this  1st  Church  in  Boston,  In  order  to 
which  we  doe  intreate  the  Reverend  Elders  of  this  Church  to  vouch- 


THE    COUNCIL   AND    THE  FIRST  CHURCH.  59 

safe  now  to  give  us  a  meeting,  to  obtaine  a  right  and  mutuall  under- 
standing of  Things  labouring  in  this  case  befor  us,  to  consider 
thereof,  and  advice  there  in  as  the  Lord  shall  please  to  direct,  and 
graunt  a  favorable  and  Christian  assistance  and  concurrence 

Richard  Mather 
Boston  13  :  (2)0  69  Thomas  Cobbet 

In  the  name  and  by  the  desire  of  the  rest  of  the  messengers  of  the 
churches   assembled  at  Boston  at  the  time  above  mentioned  .... 

THE   ANSWER    OF    THE    ELDERS    OF    THE    CHURCH    OF    BOSTON    TO    THE 
LETTERS    OF    THE    CHURCHES    MESSENGERS.  13  (2°)  69 

We  agree  to  propound  the  desire  of  the  Reverend  Elders  to  the 
Church  that  when  they  come  to  a  conclusion  about  our  dissenting 
Brethren,  they  would  be  willing  to  give  them  the  reasons  of  their  pro- 
ceeding, which  we  for  our  owne  parts  judge  to  be  most  agreeable 
to  the  congregationall  way,  if  they  have  any  suspicion  of  any  male 
administration,  till  which  time  we  can  not  give  them  a  meeting  with- 
out offence  to  the  church  which  we  humbly  desire  the  Reverend 
Elders  candidly  to  Interpret. 

This  answer  was  sent  without  any  hand  to  it. 

THE    2D    COUNCILLS    2D    LETTER    TO   THE    ELDERS   OF   THE    CHURCH   OF 

BOSTON. 

To  the  Reverend  Elders  of  the  first  Church  in  Boston 

Reverend  Sirs  Haveing  Received  your  answer  to  our  letter,  where- 
in you  intimate  to  us  your  unwillingnes  to  give  us  a  meeting  till  the 
Church  hath  come  to  a  conclusion  about  their  dissenting  Brethren 
We  request  that  there  may  not  be  needless  delayes  of  accepting  that 
our  motion  now  repeated  againe  and  againe,  therefore,  earnestly 
we  besech  you  that  we  may  unite  in  an  indeavour  speedily  and  all 
together  to  promote  a  peacable  issue  of  these  present  differences,  for 
the  glory  of  Christ  and  the  edification  of  his  people  in  this  pretious 
flock  of  Christ  in  the  Towne  of  Boston. 

Richard  Mather 
Boston,  13  :  2d  1669.  Tho  :  Cobbet 

In  the  name  and  with  the  consent  of  the  rest 
of  the  Assembly  present 

THE    ANSWER    OF   THE    ELDERS    OF    THE    CHURCH    OF    BOSTON    TO    THE 
2D    LETTER    OF   THE    MESSENGERS   OF   THE    CHURCHES. 

Reverend  Brethren,  The  answer  was  not  to  the  writing  which 
you  were  pleased  to  send  by  Reverend  Mr.  whiting  &c  But  to  a 
motion  made  by  him  or  some  of  them  present,  nor  did  I  purpose  to 
give  you  a  meeting  or  Account  of  the  offences  given  by  the  dissenting 
Brethren,  when  the  Church  should  come  to  a  conclusion,  for  I  doe  not 


60  HISTORY  OF   THE    OLD   SOUTH   CHURCH. 

see  that  you  are  an  orderly  Councill,  but  my  true  meaning  is  that 
when  the  Church  had  done  their  duty  to  their  dissenting  Brethren,  the 
Elders  would  move  the  Church  to  send  in  convenient  time,  copies  of 
their  light  held  forth  for  conviction  of  the  dissenters  unto  your 
Churches  wee  cannot  meet  and  act  with  you  in  matters  that  concerne 
this  Church  against  the  expressed  mind  of  this  Church. 

John  Davenport  Senior 
13  :  (2)  69  James  Penn. 

Aprill  14th  the  whole  Church  being  met  togither  to  proceed  against 
the  dissenters  the  Councill  sent  the  Reverend  Mr. 
Richard  Mather,  Mr.  whiting,  Major  Symon  willard 
and  Captaine  Mason  being  members  thereof  with  a  letter  to  the 
Towne  house  where  the  Church  was  assembled,  the  doore  was  locked 
against  them  upon  knocking  Richard  Taylour  came  to  the  doore  and 
returned  answer  that  Mr.  Mather  &c  was  at  the  doore.  Mr.  Davenport 
replyed  tell  them  we  desire  to  be  in  private  and  not  to  be  disturbed, 
Mr.  Allin  said  Elder  Pen  had  better  goe  and  give  them  the  answer, 
who  went  and  returning  said  that  the  Elders  had  prevailed  with  him  to 
bring  a  letter  to  the  Church  from  the  neighbour  Elders  Mr.  Davenport 
replyed  it  is  not  for  us  to  take  any  notice  of  it,  Mr.  Davenport  had 
sundry  times  moved  that  the  meeting  might  be  put  of[f]  that  they 
might  not  be  disturbed  by  the  Assembly,  these  messengers  though 
Reverend  Honoured  and  aged  Gentlemen  wayted  soe  long  at  the 
doore  before  they  could  deliver  their  message,  that  Mr.  Peter  Oliver 
went  to  fetch  chairs  for  them  to  sit  downe  at  the  doore,  and  others  of 
the  Church  coming  and  finding  the  doors  locked  against  them  said  let 
us  goe  home  againe,  though  the  letter  was  at  length  taken  in  from 
them,  yet  they  were  not  permitted  to  come  in  though  the  Councills 
desire,  and  their  request  was  to  have  delivered  it  to  the  Church  with 
their  owne  hands,  but  it  would  not  be  granted  :  It  was  put  to  the  vote 
in  the  negative  unto  the  Church  whither  the  letter  should  not  be  read 
and  soe  it  was  carryed,  the  affirmative  not  being  voted :  Major 
Generall  Leverit  expressed  trouble  that  these  Reverend  Elders  should 
have  no  answer  returned  unto  them,  affectionately  expressing  although 
it  was  a  day  of  temptation  with  them  yet  they  should  desire  to  be  kept 
from  the  evill  of  it :  whereupon  it  was  voted  that  himself,  Elder  Pen, 
Mr.  Allin,  Mr.  Houchin,  and  Mr.  Cooke  should  goe  and  have  a 
private  conference  with  the  Messengers  of  the  Churches  (who  were 
met  at  Mr.  Ushers  house  *  to  wait  the  event)  who  went  thither,  and 
upon  their  returne  to  the  Church  it  was  voted  in  the  Affirmative 
whither  the  letter  sent  should  be  read,  and  it  was  soe  carryed,  the  nega- 
tive not  being  then  voted,  which  letter  followeth. 

1  [See  ante,  p.  40,  note.] 


LETTER    TO    THE   FIRST  CHURCH.  6l 

Honoured.  Reverend  and  Beloved. 

Be  pleased  to  understand  that  we  are  at  this  time  by  the  providence 
of  God  convened  under  an  Ordinance  of  Christ  (wee 
hope)  in  observance  of  the  right  rules,  and  in  pursuance  coundii  to'the2d 
of  the  good  ends  of  consociation  of  Churches,  and  with  §£"£„  o£ 
a  faithfull  designe,  and  sincere  and  fervent  desire  to  pro- 
mote your  peace  and  prosperity,  In  particular  having  bin  called 
togither  by  letters  unto  our  severall  Churches  from  a  considerable] 
number  of  your  brethren  (by  all  due  means)  to  mediate  unto  a  com- 
fortable issue  of  an  uncomfortable  dissention  which  hath  bin  between 
you  and  them  and  trewly  the  fearefull  apprehension  which  we  have,  of 
a  common  danger  by  the  prevalency  of  a  spirit  of  Division  in  the 
country  especially  as  it  now  begins  to  appeare  circumstanced,  with 
many  sad  and  dangerous  signes  of  a  Judiciall  evill  working  more  and 
more  strongly  even  unto  the  shaking  of  foundations,  hath  moved  us 
with  all  readines  to  take  the  present  opportunity  in  a  regular  way  to 
make  this  interposure,  wherein  we  desire  to  approve  the  solemnity, 
simplicity  and  sincerity  of  our  soules  both  unto  god  and  unto  you,  we 
are  not  without  a  due  sense,  of  our  owne  personall  insufficiency  to 
transact  in  matters  of  soe  great  concernment  unto  gods  glory  and  his 
Churches  good,  but  from  the  consideration  of  our  present  publique 
capacity  as  Messengers  of  Churches  we  have  bin  incour- 
aged  to  implore  and  to  expect  divine  Assistance  in  de- 
pendance  upon  which  alone  we  have  made  both  our  entrance  upon  and 
our  progres  in  this  our  present  weighty  undertaking,  wherein  we  have 
been  ingaged,  onely  as  your  servants  for  Christs  sake,  not  assuming 
unto  ourselves  any  undue  power  over  you,  or  presuming  to  offer  any 
violence  unto  your  Christian  liberty,  which  Christ  hath  purchased  for 
you,  and  betrusted  you  with  for  the  managing  of  the  affaires  of  his 
kingdome  among  yourselves,  but  onely  as  your  helpers  in  Christ,  to 
give  you  the  right  hand  of  fellowship  for  your  present  assistance,  And 
therefore  we  doe  beseech  you  for  Christs  sake,  let  it  not  be  greivous 
or  offensive  to  you,  that  we  doe  desire,  with  all  humillity  and  meeke- 
nes  in  bowells  of  Christian  love  and  charity,  In  the  name  of  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  to  close  in  with  you  in  this  way  of  Communion,  by 
that  great  rule  of  Gospell  order  directing  unto  Councell,  but  let  it  be 
very  gratefull  unto  you  we  pray  you,  that  Neighbour  Churches  are 
jealous  with  a  godly  jealousy  and  sollicitous  for  you  with  an  earnest 
care  of  your  estate,  the  safety  of  which  is  of  great  concernement,  to 
the  common  weal  of  our  Israeli :  the  preservation  and  promoving  of 
which  is  the  labour  and  travaile  of  our  very  soules,  ffinally  therfore 
Reverend  and  dearely  beloved,  we  doe  by  these  our  letters  instantly 
and  importunately  intreat  you  that  you  will  be  pleased  to  admit  of  us, 
into  your  present  Church  assembly  :  Now  to  give  us  an  opportunity  of 
treating  with  you  before  you  doe  make  any  further  proceedure  against 


62 


HISTORY  OF   THE    OLD   SOUTH   CHURCH. 


your  dissenting  Brethren,  that  we  may  give  you  full  assurance  of  our 
reallity  in  all  the  premises,  by  our  faithfull  indeavours,  with  all  gentle- 
nes  meekenes  and  moderation  to  issue  your  dissention  in  such  a  way 
as  may  best  conduce  unto  the  preservation  of  the  unity  of  the  spirit 
in  the  bond  of  peace,  hoping  (that  through  grace)  we  shall  treat  you 
and  be  treated  by  you  with  that  wisdome  which  is  from  above,  which 
is  pure  peaceable  gentle  and  easy  to  be  intreated  :  confidently  beleiv- 
ing  that  when  you  shall  be  quietly  and  peaceably  settled  under  the 
administration  of  the  kingdome  of  Christ  it  will  be  no  greif  of  heart 
unto  you,  that  we  have  made  this  interposition  in  this  houre  of  your 
temptation,  but  that  you  will  hereafter  have  cause  to  say,  blessed  be 
god  &c.  The  blood  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  which  is  the  bond 
of  the  everlasting  Covenant  is  running  through  all  sanctified  soules  in 
an  indespensable  obligation  to  love  peace  and  union  (then  which)  we 
have  no  stronger  argument  to  assure  you,  that  we  have  you  in  our 
hearts,  and  that  we  are  moving  towards  you  by  the  present  exercise  of 
our  spirituall  love  and  charity  in  this  act  of  Communion,  for  the  deare 
sake  of  our  dying  saviour,  under  which  soule-binding  compellation, 
wee  leave  you  waiting  and  attending  the  instant  opportunity  of  speak* 
ing  with  you,  as  wee  are  messengers  of  the  Churches  now  convened. 
Boston  14:  (2)  1669. 


Subscribed  by 

Rich.  Mather 

Sam  :  Torry 

Hugh  Mason 

Sam  :   whiting 

Th :   Shepheard 

Rog  :  Clap 

Edm  :  Browne 

Edw  :  Bates 

Wal:  Price 

Tho  :  Cobbit 

James  Humphry 

Tho  :   Lynd 

EDW  :    BULKLY 

John  Hale 

JO  :    COOLIDGE 

John  Sherman 

JOS.  ESTABROOKE 

Luke  Potter 

Fran  Dane 

Anti  :  Newman 

Jo  :  Haines 

John  Higginson 

Jo  :  Fry 

Hen  :  Palmer 

Wm.  Hubbard 

Th  :  Fisher1 

Wm.  White 

Sam:  Phillips 

Symon  willard 

Jo  :   Sandly2 

Jo :  Rawlinson 

Wm.  Stillson 

Subscribed  for  the 

Honoured   Reverend  and 

beloved  the  Elders 

and  Brethren  of  the  first  Church  in  Boston. 


1669 


This  preceeding  letter  being  read,  they  voted  to  take  no  notice  of 
it,  and  laid  it  by,  but  proceeded  to  that  which  they  called 
the  worke  of  the  day.  Mr.  Davenport  proposed  that  they 
who  had  any  paper  of  charges  against  the  dissenters  would  produce 
them,  Elder  Pen  brought  forth  a  paper  called  a  narrative  of  charges 
against  them,  some  being  fin  all  against  them  all  that  they  had  ob- 

1  [Probably  Thomas  Fisk.]  Smedly,  whose  signature  is  on  the  Result 

2  [This  is  probably  the  same  as  John     of  this  Council.] 


RESULT   OF   THE  SECOND    COUNCIL.  63 

structed  the  Churches  proceeding  in  their  election,  and  had  divulged  a 
paper  of  pernitious  queries  to  hinder  other  Churches  from  assisting  in 
the  day  of  ordination,  that  they  had  refused  to  partake  at  the  Lords 
supper  with  the  Church,  and  that  they  had  partoke  with  the  Church 
againe  without  giving  satisfaction,  Captaine  Davis  and  Mr.  Hulls 
morall  evills  for  which  they  were  formally  questioned  and  satisfaction 
given  for,  were  called  over  againe,  Captain  Savage  was  charged  for 
saying  that  Mr.  Davenport  left  the  Church  of  Newhaven  for  worldly 
ends  &c.  which  occasioned  Mr.  Davenport  to  labour  to  cleare  himself, 
that  he  came  not  rashly  to  Boston,  but  was  invited  by  letters  from 
sundry  diverse  moneths  before  the  Church  sent  to  him,  and  that  he 
came  not  for  any  worldly  ends  or  advantage,  but  much  to  his  dis- 
advantage instancing  in  his  farme  &c.  this  meeting  broke  up  and  they 
could  not  make  it  to  beare  against  the  dissenters.  Captaine  Savage 
denying  his  charge,  as  to  the  first  it  was  pleaded  to  be  before  the 
advice  of  the  first  Councill  and  that  they  judged  it  no  fault  in  them, 
and  for  the  rest  satisfaction  was  given  for  in  former  meetings  and  not 
to  be  set  on  the  tainter-hookes  againe. 

The  Councill  dissolved  upon   the   16th  of  Aprill  who  drew  up  and 
declared  the  result  which  followeth,  advising  to  all  love 
and  amicablenes  and  that  the  coppy  of  it  should  be  deliv- 
ered by  the  dissenting  Brethren  unto  the  Church  which  accordingly 
was  performed. 

Boston  Aprill,  16th  1669. 

The  result  of  the  consultation  of  an  Assembly  of  Elders  and  mes- 
sengers chosen  and  sent  in  the  way  and  order  of  Consociation  of 
Churches,  upon  the  regular  and  orderly  sollicitation  of  a  considerable 
number  of  the  Brethren  of  the  first  Church  of  Christ  in  Boston  to  give 
them  counsell  and  advice  (according  to  God)  in  a  difficult  case,  con- 
cerning their  duty  in  pursuance  of  the  grave  advice  of  a  former 
Honoured  and  Reverend  Assembly  of  Elders  and  messengers  (called 
by  the  Elder  with  the  consent  of  the  Brethren)  unto  effect  given  by 
the  said  Assembly  for  the  issuing  of  a  dissention  in  that  Church  by 
the  peaceable  and  orderly  dismission  of  these  Brethren  unto  the  grace 
and  guidance  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  for  the  constitution  of  another 
Church  in  order  of  Communion  with  that  Church  of  Boston,  and  all 
other  neighbouring  Churches  further  to  Counsell  and  advise  as  the 
matter  might  require  and  god  direct. 

The  which  result  is  as  followeth. 

First  we  find  that  there  was  a  momentous  difference  of  apprehen- 
sions aboute  the  call  of  teaching  officers  in  the  first  Church  of  Boston. 

Secondly  we  finde  that  the  Elder  fore  seeing  the  dangerous  con- 
sequence of  that  dissenti[on]  afore  said,  (if  not  timely  prevented)  and 
that  they  could  not  agree  in  their  choice  of  officers  did  therefore  with 


64  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

the  consent  of  the  Brethren,  according  to  God  call  a  councill  of  the 
Elders  and  Messengers  of  neighbour  churches  to  meet  at  Boston  on 
the  5th.  6mo.  1668  —  impartially  to  heare  and  give  their  counsill  and 
advice  in  the  case. 

Thirdley  we  finde  that  the  Reverend  councills  advice,  was,  that 
mutuall  greivances  that  had  fallen  out  through  humaine  frailty,  in  the 
transaction  of  that  matter  might  be  covered  in  a  way  of  mutuall  for- 
giveness, And  that  in  case  the  dissenting  Brethren  could  not  yet  consent 
with  their  Brethren  in  the  call  of  officers,  nor  sitt  downe 
quietly,  and  submit  to  the  act  of  the  rest  therein,  that 
then  the  church  upon  their  desire  to  be  dismissed  from  them  would 
give  them  up  with  love  and  prayers  to  the  Lord,  recommending  them 
to  the  grace  of  God :  in  order  to  the  propogation  of  another  church  to 
be  set  up  in  this  Towne  of  Boston  according  to  the  rules  of  the  Gos- 
pell,  yet  soe  that  in  the  meane  time  they  might  have  communion  with 
this  Church  or  some  other  in  the  ordinances  of  God  &c  :  But  as  to 
proceeding  to  Church  Censure  in  such  a  case  as  this  is  they  found  no 
rule  in  the  Scripture. 

ffourthly  We  finde  no  other  condition  as  to  the  dissenting  Brethren 
left  by  the  councill  in  order  to  that  dismission  a  fore  said  (excepting 
the  for  giveness  befor  mentioned)  but  their  desire  to  be  dismissed  from 
them ;  to  be  given  up  by  the  Church  to  the  Lord  and  to  be  recom- 
mended to  the  grace  of  God  unto  the  worke  above  said. 

5ly  we  finde  that  the  dissenting  Brethren  did  according  to  the 
Councills  advice,  seasonably  —  earnestly,  frequently,  and  humbly  de- 
sire of  the  church  the  said  dismission. 

61y  We  finde  that  the  grounds  held  forth  by  the  former  Rev- 
erend Councill  for  such  a  dismission  were  both  weighty  and  such  as 
carried  convincing  light  with  them  :  — 

7ly  we  assert  therefore  that  the  first  ^Church  in  Boston,  desiring 
the  Councills  advice  according  to  God  in  that  matter  before  them  \ 
and  this  respecting  the  non  Censuring  and  the  dismission  of  the 
dissenting  Brethren  being  a  principall  parte  thereof  the  church  was 
obliged  according  to  order  to  acquiess  therein,  especially  considering 
that  no  reasons  that  we  have  ever  heard  of  have  bin  returned  from 
the  church  unto  the  councill  for  the  rejecting  of  that  advice. 

81y  The  church  of  Boston  being  obliged  to  dismise  the  dissent- 
ing Brethren  upon  their  desire  of  it,  and  that  being  duely  attended  as 
above  said  by  them  It  was  the  right  of  the  dissenting  Brethren 
according  to  order  to  have  bin  dismissed. 

9ly  We  finde  that  not  withstanding  the  desire  for  their  dismission 
according  to  the  advice  of  the  Councill,  yett  it  hath  bin  denied  them 
by  the  church  which  deniall  nevertheless,  wee  conceive  doth  not  inval- 
idate that  right  which  the  dissenting  bretheren  had  unto  their  said  dis- 
mission. 


RESULT  OF   THE   SECOND   COUNCIL.  65 

ioly  The  regular  sentence  of  a  councill  of  churches  in  order 
and  orderly  called  by  the  Church  concerned,  adviseing  to  a  dismission 
may  (not  withstanding  that  Churches  not  hearking  to  it)  stand  valid 
and  regular  as  to  immunity  from  censure,  And  secession  from  that 
particular  church  relation  and  the  Brethren  concerned  (as  if  for- 
merly dismissed)  may  seasonably  proceed  to  unite  according  to  order 
in  Church  fellowship  by  themselves. 

nth  ffinally  this  whole  Assembly  having  unanimously  and  with 
one  voice  instantly  and  affectionately  sollicited  the  Reverend  Elders 
of  this  Church  by  two  addresses  in  writting  made  unto  them,  for  an 
amicable  and  Christian  conference  aboute  matters  in  difference,  in 
order  to  a  right  and  cleare  understanding,  And  have  bin  by  the  Elders 
plainly  and  positively  denied  any  opportunity  of  such  conference  with 
expressions  of  their  deepe  disgust  of  our  interposure  in  this  way  of 
order,  as  will  more  amply  appeare  by  their  answers  in  writing,  and 
also  having  made  their  application  unto  the  whole  Church  (Elders  and 
Brethren  Assembled)  by  our  letters  wherein  we  did  with  all  meekness 
and  humillity  desire  a  meeting  with  them,  onely  to  mediate  by  all  due 
meanes  unto  a  peaceable  issue  of  their  dissenting,  have  bin  also  utterly 
denied  by  a  vote  of  the  church,  not  so  much  as  to  read  our  letters,  we 
are  therefore  hopeless  of  any  issue  then  what  we  nextly  propound. 

The  premises  being  seriously  considered  and  consented  to  by  the 
Messengers  of  Churches  conveined  sent  to  for  advice  in  this  matter. 
Wee  judge  that  the  dissenting  Brethren  may  seasonably  make  use  of 
their  christian  liberty  unto  a  regular  coalition  in  an  other  church 
Body: 

ffirst  the  holy  covenant  of  God  binding  these  Brethren  to  endeavour 
after  communion  with  God  and  his  people  in  all  his  ordinances  Dut. 
32  :  46  :  47  :  1  Chro  :  28  :  8.  Math  :  28  :  19  :  20  :  As  in  particular  the 
administration  of  Baptisme  and  ecclesiasticall  discipline  to  the  children 
of  the  Covenant,  And  consociation  of  Churches  according  to  the  late 
synod  in  1662.  which  we  see  not  that  they  are  other  wise  like  to  ob- 
taine, — if  they  make  not  use  of  this  their  christian  liberty:  not  to 
insist  upon  the  danger  of  seduction  in  these  dayes  :  in  which  cases 
when  the  matter  is  too  weighty,  the  Apostle  cautions  all  christians  to 
be  ware  16  Romans  17  :  — 

2ly  from  the  nature  of  the  liberty  of  the  Brethren  granted  to  them 
by  Christ,  for  their  free  election  of  Church  officers  6  :  acts  11:9:  and 
14 :  23  :  Ezek :  23  :  2  :  which  free  election  is  the  ground  of  that  affec- 
tion and  subscjection  due  from  the  people  to  their  minister  (2  Thess  : 
5  :  12  :  13  :  Heb  :  7  :  17  :)  the  deprivation  of  which  liberty  is  reproved 
as  injurious  by  the  holy  Ghost :  Ezek  :  34  :  4  :,  but  with  force  and 
cruelty  have  they  ruled  them,  the  just  reproch  of  the  prelaticall  way  of 
imposing  ministers. 

3ly  ffrom  Heb  :  13  :  17  :  remember  your  rulers  who  have  spoken  to 


66  HISTORY  OF   THE   OLD   SOUTH   CHURCH. 

you  the  word  of  God  whose  faith  follow,  considering  the  end  of  their 
conversation,  whence  we  argue  that  the  dissenting  Brethren  if  they 
should  not  make  use  of  their  christian  liberty  above  said,  would 
neglect  the  duty  incumbent  upon  them  of  remembring  them  which 
have  had  the  rule  over  them,  (as  the  Renowned  and  Reverend  willson, 
Cotton,  Norton)  who  have  spoken  to  them  the  word  of  the  Lord,  in 
platforme  of  discipline  touching  this  matter  they  must  not  onely  doe 
nothing  against  it  but  they  are  to  follow  it. 

4.1y  from  15  Acts  37  :  40  :  the  instance  of  Paul  and  Barnabas  who 
departed  the  one  from  the  other  for  peace  sake  in  a  sharpe  contention, 
and  proportion  of  like  liberty  of  secession  to  church  worke  else  where 
may  be  allowed  those  Brethren,  see  more  in  the  Reverend  mr.  John 
Allins  his  defence  of  the  resulte  of  the  advice  of  the  Messengers  of 
the  churches  convened,  6  August  1668. 

5ly  Because  the  doctrine  of  the  churches  of  this  Collony  publiquely 
declared  from  the  word  of  God  by  the  Synod  att  Cambridge  Anno 
1648  And  approved  by  the  act  of  the  General  Court  in  165 1  And  par- 
ticularly consented  to  by  the  Brethren  of  the  first  church  in  Boston,  at 
a  Church  meeting  when  they  urged  the  Reverend  mr.  Norton  to  give 
his  full  assent  unto  their  call  of  him  to  the  office  of  a  teacher  among 
them  the  same  doctrine  holding  forth  a  parity  of  reason  in  this  case, 
and  that  the  withdrawing  of  such  members,  as  are  there  spoken  of, 
from  their  owne  church  in  order  to  Church  fellowship,  elsewhere,  is 
as  if  they  had  bin  orderly  dismissed  thereto  from  their  owne  Church, 
the  contrary  principles,  and  practices  where  unto  would  Render  the 
(Yea)  of  such  Churches  to  be  (Nay) 

61y  ffrom  Math  :  the  6:11:  Lead  us  not  into  temptation  from 
whence  we  argue,  that  these  dissenting  Brethren  if  they  should  not 
make  reasonable  use  of  this  their  christian  liberty,  are  in  danger  to 
be  led  into  temptation  (as  in  case  of  soe  great  a  paroxysme)  the  pre- 
venting or  removeing  of  which  is  their  duty  to  endeavor. 

7ly  Because  there  is  sufficient  ground  for  the  use  of  their  christian 
liberty,  above  mentioned  in  cases  of  Lesser  concernment  as  in  case  of 
providing  for  those  of  his  owne  house  and  cleared  in  the  platforme  of 
discipline  —  (chapter  13  Section  3  :  4.)  in  these  or  like  cases  a  mem- 
ber (much  more  number  of  such  members)  may  lawfully  remove,  and 
the  church  can  not  lawfully  detayn  them. 

81y  Because  we  see  not  any  rule  of  Christ,  that  will  be  broken  by 
these  Brethren  in  the  use  of  the  above  mentioned  liberty :  affirmanti 
incumbit  probatio. 

cjly  ffinally  the  improvement  of  this  their  christian  liberty,  unto  such 
a  secession  is  the  most  probable  meanes  unto  Edification,  and  to  the 
preservation  of  the  unity  of  the  spirit  in  the  bond  of  peace  as  this 
case  is  circumstanced —  1  Cor  :  14  :  26  :  2  Cor  :  13  :  10  :  4  Eph  :  5  : 

And  now  Brethren  we  haveing  laboured  according  to  the  measure 


RESULT  OF  THE   SECOND    COUNCIL. 


67 


of  grace  received,  faithfully  to  discharge  our  duty  to  God,  and  unto  all 
his  people  concerned  in  this  transaction,  and  being  likewise  under  an 
awfull  Apprehension  of  that  account,  which  we  must  give  unto  our 
Lord  Jesus  christ  our  great  Lord  and  master  of  this  our  Negotiation, 
in  this  great  affaire  of  his  Kingdome. 

We  doe  with  reverence  of  Gods  gratious  presence  in  his  name  and 
feare,  —  offer  you  this  result  of  our  consultation  as  the  product  of  the 
poore  prayers  and  weake  (though  we  trust  sincere  and  faithfull)  en- 
deavours of  us  your  servants  for  Christs  sake.  We  desire  to  be  deeply 
humbled  under  the  sence  of  our  sinfull  weaknesses,  and  infirmityes, 
appearing  in  this  as  in  all  other  services,  for  God,  and  for  his  people 
which  we  undertake,  we  are  also  through  his  grace  humbly  confident 
of  his  acceptance  of  us  in  this  our  poore  weake  service  for  Christs 
sake,  it  is  therefore  a  very  small  matter  for  us  that  we  should  be 
judged  of  man  or  by  mans  judgement  he  that  judgeth  us  is  the  Lord. 

Therefore  deare  Brethren  wee  beseech  you  to  humble  yourselves 
deeply  before  the  Lord  acknowledging  all  your  sinfull  Aberrations 
that  you  have  bin  incident  unto  in  these  past  transactions,  and  with 
all  selfe  deniall  and  humillity  to  seek  unto  God  for  a  sufficiency  of 
Wisdome  and  grace,  to  make  a  right  improvement  of  this  Counsell 
and  advice  given  you  unto  his  glory  and  your  owne  and  others  good, 
and  to  waite  upon  him  for  further  discoveries  of  his  minde  and  will 
concerning  your  duty. 

ffinally  Brethren  we  committ  and  commend  you  to  the  grace  and 
guidance  of  him,  who  is  the  God  of  peace  that  brought  againe  from 
the  dead  our  Lord  Jesus  that  great  Shepheard  of  the  sheep,  through 
the  blood  of  the  Everlasting  covenant,  he  make  you  perfect  in  every 
good  worke  to  doe  his  will,  working  in  you  that  which  is  well  pleasing 
in  his  sight  through  Jesus  christ,  to  whom  be  glory  for  ever  and  ever 
Amen. 


Symon  Willard 
Hugh  Masson 
Roger  Clap 
Tho  :  Lynd 
Wm.  Stittson 
John  Cooledge 
John  Haines 
Tho  Shepheard 
Jos :  Easterbrooke 


Luke  Potter 
John  Smedly 
John  Frey 
Hen  :  Palmer 
Wm.  White 
Tho  Fiske 
Sam  :  Phillips 
Ant  :  Newman 
Edw:  Bates 


Thomas  Cobbitt 
Edm  :  Browne 
Edw  :  Buckly 
John  Sherman 
Fran  Dane 
Wm.  Hubbard 
Jos :  Rowleyson 
Sam  Torry 
James  Humphry1 


1  ["  13.  2m.  69.  A  great  Assemblie 
of  Elders  and  messengers  of  several 
Churches  in  the  Bay,  who  upon  the  Call 
of  their  Dissenting  Brethren  at  Boston, 
met  together  to  consider  and  advise  them 
what  to  do.     They  judged  that  the  Dis- 


senting Brethren  might  seasonably  make 
use  of  their  christian  libertie  unto  a  reg- 
ular coalition  in  another  church-body."  — 
Roxbury  Church  Records. 

The  Roxbury  Church  does  not  seem  to 
have  been  represented  in  this  Council,  as 


68  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

We  whose  names  are  subscribed  though  we  were  not  sent  by  our 
churches  as  others  of  the  Councill  to  vote  therein,  yet  being  desired 
by  our  churches  to  be  present  at  the  councill  and  to  doe  what  Good 
we  could,  finding  meanes  used  for  mediation  to  be  in  vaine  we  doe 
approve  of  this  Judgement  of  the  Councill  subscribed  by  the  members 
there  of  as  the  next  probable  meanes  for  edification  and  peace. 

Sam  :  Whiting 
John  Higginson 

the  letter  of  the  reverend  mr.  john  allin  member  of  the 
first  councill  to  the  2d  councill 

To  the  Honourd  Reverend  and  beloved  Elders  and  messengers  of  the 

Churches  assembled  in  Boston.  13  :  (2)  1669 

Grace  mercy  and  peace  be  multiplyed 

Reverend  and  Beloved  in  our  Lord,  the  Brethren  of  this  Church  in 
Dedham  not  being  convinced  of  their  duty  to  send  messengers  at  the 
desire  of  the  Brethren  of  Boston  calling  for  a  Councill,  I  thought  it 
my  duty  notwithstanding  to  give  in  my  testimony  to  the  sentence  of 
the  Councill  at  Boston  5  :  (6)  68  which  will  necessarily  fall  under  your 
consideration  1 

And  first  to  remove  the  uncharitable  censure  of  such  as  say,  we  did 
onely  accommodate  the  dissenting  Brethren  with  neglect  of  the  Church 
I  can  truly  profess  with  good  conscience  (and  I  doubt  not  but  it  will 
be  remembered  and  attested  by  others)  that  our  first  and  cheif  care 
was  that  the  Church  of  Boston  might  be  furnished  with  an  able  min- 
istrie,  and  considering  how  difficult  it  is  for  soe  populous  a  congre- 
gation to  agree  in  one  in  their  choice,  Therfore  our  care  was  that  the 
dissent  of  these  Brethren  might  not  interrupt  the  Major  part  of  the 
Church  in  seeking  after  Reverend  Mr.  Davenport,  if  regularly  they 
might  obtaine  him  with  consent  of  his  Church  in  Newhaven,  and  this 
was  manifested  by  the  indeavours  of  many  that  were  of  that  Coun- 
cill to  perswade  unto  their  dismission  before  the  ordination  that  no 
objection  might  be  made,  yea  when  that  could  not  be  obtayned,  we 
were  soe  carefull  and  desirous  of  the  peaceable  preceding  of  the  ordi- 
nation, that  upon  the  promise  of  those  that  now  are  the  Reverend 
Elders,  that  if  the  dissentors  would  be  silent  upon  that  day,  their 
silence  should  not  be  taken  for  consent,  but  they  should  stand  in  the 
same  state  they  then  did,  we  upon  this  perswaded  the  dissenters  to 
silence,  and  many  of  us  concurred  with  other  Church  messengers,  in 
giving  the  right  hand  of  fellowship  to  these  teaching  officers,  soe  that 

the  names  of  Mr.  Eliot  and  Mr.  Danforth  been  on  the  other  side  of  this  controversy 

do  not  appear  in  the  Result.     Mr.  Wil-  from  himself.     Joshua  Fisher  and  Daniel 

liam  Parke,  a  prominent  member  of  that  Fisher,    of   Dedham,  voted   against   the 

church,  and,   then    or   later,    a    deacon,  report  adopted  by  the  House  of  Deputies 

seems  to  have  been  on  the  other  side.]  in  1671,  as  will  appear  in  the  next  chap- 

1  [Mr.  Allin's  church  seems   to   have  ter.] 


LETTER  FROM   THE   REV.  JOHN  ALU  A.  69 

if  we  erred  in  anything,  it  was  in  too  much  forwardnes  to  promote 
the  desires  of  the  Church  in  the  choice  of  officers  with  neglect  of  the 
dissenters,  and  of  the  councills  sentence  which  should  have  bin  per- 
formed before  ordination,  or  at  least  some  reason  given  to  us  against 
that  sentence,  to  the  great  disadvantage  of  setling  the  peace  of  the 
Church  and  to  the  losse  of  the  use  and  benifit  of  Councills,  the  truth 
is  we  were  led  on  with  hopes  of  their  dismission  afterwards  when 
offences  they  lay  under  were  removed,  and  matters  quietly  settled,  but 
now  being  frustrate  of  those  hopes  by  the  late  vote  of  the  Church  not 
to  dissmisse  them,  which  hath  occasioned  these  Brethren  to  crave  coun- 
sell  of  the  Churches,  I  shall  take  this  opportunity  to  present  unto  your 
judgment,  what  reasons  I  have  to  prove  that  sentence  concerning 
their  dismission  to  be  according  to  God,  and  therefore  that  it  should 
have  bin  attended. 

The  Regular  sentence  of  a  Councill  of  Churches  in  order  and 
orderly  called  to  consult  in  a  Case  ought  to  be  observed.  But  that 
sentence  to  dismisse  the  dissenting  Brethren  in  order  to  the  propogating 
of  another  Church  in  Boston  according  to  the  rules  of  the  gospell  is  a 
regular  sentence  of  such  a  Councill. 

And  therfore  ought  to  be  observed. 

Reason :  1  :  the  proposition  is  proved  part  from  the  example  of  that 
patterne  of  Councills  Acts.  15  :  whose  sentence  was  joyfully  received 
Acts  :  16  : 

Objection  :  Show  us  such  a  councill  as  can  say,  it  seemeth  good  to 
the  holy  ghost  and  us  and  we  will  obey  it. 

Answer  :  the  same  may  be  objected  against  most  other  primitive 
examples  where  the  Apostles  ordered  all  the  affaires  of  the  Churches. 
2ly:  there  were  diverse  things  in  the  Councill  ordinary:  as  1  the 
presence  of  Elders  and  Brethren.  2ly  disputations  and  allegations  of 
scripture  :  3b/  if  the  matter  was  carryed  by  the  extraordinary  power 
and  authority  of  the  Apostles,  why  might  not  Paull  and  Barnabas 
being  Apostles  have  determined  the  case  at  Antioch  : 

2d  Answer  :  the  sentence  of  everie  minister  in  his  office  work  rightly 
grounded  upon  the  scripture  is  a  sentence  of  the  holy  ghost,  who 
speaketh  in  the  scriptures  Heb  :  3  :  7  :  2  Tym  :  3  :  16.  the  same  may 
be  said  of  the  sentence  of  a  Councill  rightly  grounded  on  the 
scripture. 

Reason  2  :  because  a  Person  or  Church  calling  for  Councill  and 
refusing  to  observe  it  being  regular,  doth  highly  take  the  name  of  god 
in  vaine  contrary  to  the  3d  Commandment : 

Reason.  3  :  Because  if  the  regular  sentence  of  such  a  Councill  may 
be  rejected,  we  are  deprived  of  all  meanes  under  God  for  healing  of 
differences,  errors,  scandall,  or  maladministrations  in  Churches  to  the 
great  scandall  of  the  doctrine  we  professe. 

Assumption  is  proved  thus,  approved  examples  of  scriptures  espe- 


70  HISTORY  OF   THE   OLD   SOUTH   CHURCH. 

cially  in  the  New  Testament,  are  Paternes  for  the  Churches  to  walke 
by  in  all  like  cases  —  Math  :  12  :  39  Heb  :  12  :  1  :  1  Cor  :  12:1:4 
Phill  :  9  :  But  that  example  of  Abraham  Counselling  a  departure  from 
Lot,  in  a  case  of  Contention,  was  an  approved  Example,  for  God  gave 
him  a  large  promise  when  Lot  was  departed  —  Gen  :  13  :  14 :  and  the 
case  is  like  to  this,  they  being  family  churches  living  together  had  no 
doubt  neere  Communion  in  the  worship  of  God,  yet  to  end  Conten- 
tions, parted  to  the  losse  of  that  neere  Communion,  which  is  the  Case 
in  dispute. 

2ly  This  proved  by  the  Example  of  Paul  and  Barnabas,  who  de- 
parted one  from  another  for  peace  sake  in  a  sharp  contention  Acts 
15  :  39  :  40:  which  was  an  aproved  example,  at  least  on  Pauls  parte 
who  was  the  dissenter  in  that  contention,  for  he  had  an  Infallible 
guidance  in  the  worke  of  his  minnistry  Acts :  16  :  7.  and  19:21:  and 
28  :  22  :  2ly  Paul  was  approved  in  his  departure  from  Barnabas  by  the 
Church  of  Antioch  :  who  Commended  him  to  the  Grace  of  God. 

2ly :  That  this  case  of  the  dissenters  is  a  like  case  or  rather  more 
cleare,  appeareth  by  comparing  them  in  all  the  substantialls  thereof 
as  Are  these  joyned  in  memberly  relation  to  the  church  from  which 
they  are  to  parte ;  Paul  and  Barnabas  were  joyned  in  a  greater  and 
nearer  bond  of  union,  Being  joyntly  seperated  by  the  holy  Ghost  to 
the  worke  of  the  gospel,  and  set  apart  there  unto  by  laying  on  of 
hands  with  fasting  and  prayer,  Acts  13:2:3: 

2ly  This  difference  and  dissent  arose  upon  a  like  occasion  which 
was  the  chusing  of  John  :  Marke  a  Good  man,  a  profitable  minnister: 
1  Tim0 :  4  :  1 1  :  yea  an  Evangelist. 

3ly  The  reason  of  Pauls  dissent  was  because  Barnabas  determined 
to  take  him  that  departed  from  them  at  Pamphillia,  and  went  not  with 
them  to  the  worke  Acts  :  15  :  38 :  which  was  one  reason  of  those  dis- 
senters in  reference  to  the  worke  of  God  at  New  haven  to  which  also 
they  add  another  Reason. 

from  an  awfull  ingagement  upon  their  hearts  about  the  Exercise  of 
the  watch,  And  of  the  discipline  of  Christ  to  their  seed,  which  was 
said  in  the  Councill  is  a  matter  of  great  weight  (seing  to  disowne 
them)  as  having  no  part  in  the  Lord,  is  to  cause  them  to  cease  from 
fearing  the  Lord  Josh  :  22  :  23. 

4ly  As  then  the  contention  grew  Sharp  to  a  paroxysme,  Barnabas 
holding  firme  his  determination  to  take  John  Marke,  And  Paul  still 
dissenting  on  his  former  reasons  (soe  he)  after  long  endeavours  to 
unite  both  parties  they  held  soe  strongly  to  their  determinations  with- 
out councill. 

5ly  As  both  Paul  and  Barnabas  in  their  parting  promoted  the 
worke  of  the  Gospel,  soe  the  sentence  of  Councill  was  such,  as  both 
parties  should  freely  attend  the  worke  of  God,  in  promoting  the 
Gospel  and  ordinances  of  God,    The  Paralel  thus  cleared  affordes  this 


MR.  ALLIN'S  LETTER. 


71 


argument  (a  pari).  If  Paul  dissenting  from  Barnabas  in  choice  of 
a  fellow  minister,  in  a  sharp  contention  departed  from  him,  and  was 
there  in  Commended  to  the  grace  of  God  by  the  church  of  Antioch, 
Then  by  the  like  reason  may  the  church  of  Boston,  commend  their 
dissenting  Brethren  for  peace  sake  to  the  grace  of  God,  for  the  further- 
ance of  the  Gospell,  yea  the  argument  ariseth  from  the  greater  to  the 
less,  in  three  respects,  first  in  that  Paul  and  Barnabas  parted  asunder 
being  ingaged  in  stronger  bonds  of  union  than  Brethren  in  a 
church  :  — 

2ly  In  that  these  Brethren  have  a  further  reason  to  depart  than  any 
Paul  alledged. 

3ly  In  that  here  is  an  intervening  of  the  Councill  of  the  churches 
which  we  read  nothing  of  in  their  case.  —  (Objection)  But  there  is 
nothing  said  of  dismission  Acts  15  :  and  therefore  it  doth  not  suite  this 
case. 

Answer  ffirst  they  parted  asunder,  and  Paul  the  dissenter  was  rec- 
ommended to  the  grace  of  God,  which  is  the  substance  of  the  thing 
here  advised. 

2ly  for  the  manner  by  dismission  of  members  we  have  no  Example 
that  I  finde  in  the  New  testament,  what  if  the  church  will  give  way 
peaceably  and  loveingly  to  their  departure  it  might  suffice. 

objection  2d  Paul  and  Barnabas  were  equalls,  and  might  depart  by 
mutuall  consent  but  these  are  under  the  power  of  the  Church. 

Answer.  A  minor  parte  of  a  Church  have  an  Equall  right  with  the 
major  part  to  consent  or  dissent  in  choice  of  an  officer. 

2ly  The  Power  of  a  Church  is  for  Edification  and  not  for  destruction, 
what  power  have  a  Church  to  compell  such  to  submitt  themselves 
and  seed  to  any  officer  they  never  consented  unto,  when  they  profess 
they  cannot  doe  it  in  faith,  and  what  soe  ever  is  not  of  faith  is  sin, 
Rom  :  14  :  23  :  not  onely  in  things  indifferent  but  in  whatsoever,  were 
not  this  to  be  Lords  over  their  faith  and  not  helpers  of  their  joy 
2  :  Cor  :  1  :  24  :  — 

objection  3d.  The  difference  is  not  such  but  that  Brethren  might 
beare  one  with  another. 

Answer  Itt  is  one  thing  to  beare  with  one  of  a  different  judgement, 
but  it  is  another  thing  to  submitt  themselves  and  children,  to  a  prac- 
tice contrary  to  their  Conscience  a  practi[se]  of  disowning  the  seed  of 
the  Church  which  was  never  heard  of  in  Scripture,  or  any  orthodo[x] 
reformed  church  till  this  time. 

2d.  Reason  from  the  necessity  of  another  congregation  in  Boston, 
unto  which  worke  none  appeared  and  these  by  the  Councill,  were 
judged  both  fitt  and  able  to  carry  it  on  a  thing  frequently  practised 
and  even  in  case  of  dissention  as  in  the  case  of  Hartford. 

objection  Those  set  up  a  church  in  a  nother  place  not  in  the  same 
Towne. 


72 


HISTORY  OF   THE    OLD   SOUTH   CHURCH. 


Answer  In  Cittyes  and  populous  townes  Multiplinge  of  churches  is 
noe  just  offence,  but  for  Common  Edification  by  the  various  Gifts  of 
Elders  more  frequent  opportunities  of  hearing  &c  : 

objection  2d.  If  there  be  need  let  the  Church  Chuse  and  send  out, 
whome  they  thinke  fitt. 

Answer  But  that  being  neglected  Providence  cast  the  worke  upon 
these  whoe  are  approved  by  the  Churches,  and  doe  sollemnly  professe 
their  soundness  in  Doctrine  worship  and  discipline  with  these  churches. 
Deare  Brethren  pardon  my  prolixness  unto  tediousnes  accept  my  will 
and  affection  to  truth  and  peace  and  pray  for  your  unworthy  Brother 

John  Allin.1 

Dedham  12:2:  1669. 


LETTER  SENT  TO  THE  CHURCH  BY  THE  DISSENTING  BRETHREN  WITH 
THE  RESULT  OF  THE  COUNCILL  AND  MR.  ALLINS  LETTER  FORE- 
GOING. 

Honourd  Reverend  and  Beloved  Brethren 

By  the  bearers  here  of  we  have  sent  unto  you  the  result  of  the 
Honoured  Reverend  and  Beloved  the  Messengers  of  the  Churches,  to 
whome  we  saw  ourselves  necessitated  to  make  an  application,  for 
advice  and  Councill  in  our  present  difncultyes,  wherewith  the  holy  and 


1  [The  Dedham  church,  as  we  have 
already  intimated,  was  not  altogether  in 
agreement  with  its  minister  in  reference 
to  the  controversy  in  Boston,  and  did  not 
accept  the  invitation  to  the  council.  Mr. 
Allin  therefore,  wrote  this  letter  for  his 
own  justification,  as  a  friend  of  the  "  dis- 
senting brethren."  But  when  his  church 
heard  of  the  alteration  and  suppression 
of  the  New  Haven  correspondence,  it 
wrote  to  the  First  Church,  asking  for  an 
explanation,  and  received  a  reply  drawn 
up  by  a  committee  appointed  for  the  pur- 
pose. 

"  At  a  general  meeting  of  the  [First] 
church  on  16  August,  1669,  it  was  voted 
by  the  church,  that  our  honored  magis- 
trates do  draw  up  instructions  for  Capt. 
Clarke  to  New  Haven,  that  they  might 
declare  the  owning  of  the  letter  sent  from 
them  to  this  church  to  be  a  true  dismis- 
sion for  Mr.  Davenport." 

"  At  a  meeting  of  the  church  :  on  the 
20  of  August :  69,  It  was  voted  by  the 
church  that  major  generall,  the  elders, 
with  Capt.  Clarke,  Mr.  Stoddard,  and 
Mr.  Cooke,  do  draw  up  a  letter  in  answer 
to  the  letter  sent  from  Dedham  Church, 


enquiring  after  the  proceeding  of  the 
church  about  a  letter  or  letters  from  the 
church  of  New  Haven  to  this  church,  and 
to  sign  it  in  the  name  of  the  church." 

"On  25  Aug.  1669,  the  church  met  to 
hear  the  letter  read  that  was  sent  to  Ded- 
ham ;  and  they  did  unanimously  concur 
with  it,  as  their  own  mind."  —  Ellis's 
History  0/ the  First  Church,  pp.  117,  118. 

The  Rev.  John  Allin  died  August 
26,  167 1.  His  wife,  Katharine,  widow  of 
Governor  Thomas  Dudley,  died  three 
days  later.  "  Mr.  Allin  was  among  the 
chief  founders  of  New  England,  in  its 
principles  of  Church  and  State,  and  in 
its  elements  of  character.  He  was  able 
and  faithful  as  a  pastor,  indefatigable  and 
patriotic  as  a  member  of  the  Common- 
wealth, beloved  and  beneficent  in  all  his 
relations  in  life."  In  Johnson's  Wonder- 
working Providence  he  is  thus  described  : 
The  "  humble  and  heavenly-minded  Mr. 
John  Allin,  a  man  of  a  very  courteous 
behaviour,  full  of  sweet  Christian  love 
towards  all,  and  with  much  meekness  of 
spirit  contending  earnestly  for  the  faith 
and  peace  of  Christ's  churches."  —  Felt's 
Eccles.  History,  vol.  ii.  p.  483.] 


RESULT  SENT  TO   THE  FIRST  CHURCH.  73 

wise  God  hath  seen  meet  to  Exercise  us,  wee  hope  we  need  not  to 
apologize  for  seeking  advice  from  the  Churches,  the  holy  ghost  having 
stiled  the  church  the  pillar  and  ground  of  truth,  nor  for  ourselves  the 
subject  thereof  our  act  here  in  speaking  the  sence  of  our  infirmityes 
and  submission  to  the  heavenly  Orakle,  who  hath  said  in  the  Multi- 
tude of  Counsellors  there  is  safety,  and  as  to  the  subject  matter  of 
that  advice,  such  hath  bin  the  presence  of  God  with  his  servants  the 
Messengers  of  the  churches  whose  character  and  esteeme  is  such  in 
the  Lords  account,  as  that  the  holy  Ghost  hath  stiled  them  the  glory 
of  Christ  2  Cor.  8  23  :  such  hath  bin  his  gratious  presence  with  his 
servants,  giving  them  that  unanimity  and  clearenes  in  discovering  the 
mind  of  Christ  as  that  we  are  not  without  hope,  it  may  satisfy  all  con- 
cerned, and  yourselves  much  Honoured  in  the  Lord,  will  with  Israeli 
of  old,  blesse  the  Lord  that  there  is  no  such  evill  found  in  their 
Brethren,  who  stand  convicted  of  no  other  trespasse  than  the  inter- 
prising  an  Altar  of  witnes  and  not  of  Apostasy,  as  some  have  ground- 
lessly  charged  us  with  we  allso  having  bin  desired  by  the  Councill  to 
deliver  to  your  Reverend  selves  (and  by  you  to  be  communicated  unto 
the  rest  of  the  Church)  a  coppy  of  the  advice  in  pursuance  hereof,  we 
doe  here  present  you  with  a  coppy  of  the  same  as  it  is  attested  by 
one  of  the  Secretaries  of  the  assembly,  trusting  through  grace  like- 
wise, that  as  we  have  expressed  ourselves  in  our  letters  of  request 
unto  the  respective  Churches  (who  sent  their  messengers  hither  to 
give  us  their  Counsell  in  our  labouring  case)  we  shall  still  continue 
stedfast,  such  who  are  not  the  least  alienated  from  the  forme  of  Gov- 
ernment according  to  pattent,  under  which  God  hath  soe  long  blessed 
this  Collony,  but  are  ready  to  spend  and  be  spent  for  it,  according  to 
that  solemne  Oath  which  we  have  taken,  neither  are  wee  for  any  other 
way  respecting  Church  order,  than  that  solemnly  declared  from  the 
scripture  in  the  platforme  of  discipline,  and  the  last  Synods 
determination  about  the  subject  of  Baptisme  and  consocia- 
tion of  Churches,  nor  is  there  any  aversenes  in  us,  but  a  firme  resolution 
to  maintaine  due  Brotherly  love  with  this  first  Church  in  Boston  the  19: 
Boston,  as  with  a  pretious  Church  of  Christ  and  much  (2>l669 
honourd  mother  in  Israeli,  and  whose  travaile  of  soule  is  to  maintaine 
the  unity  of  the  spirit  in  the  bond  of  peace  with  you  and  all  the 
Churches  of  Christ  thus  craving  your  prayers  we  subscribe  ourselves. 

Your  Loving  Brethren 
Subscribed  by  all  the  dissenters. 

The  dissenting  Brethren  sent  the  result  of  the  Councill  with  Mr. 
John  Allins  letter  inclosed  in  this  letter  preceding  by  foure   ^        ^ 
of   their  Brethren  who    deliverd  the  same  to  Elder  Pen : 
upon  the  same  day  there  was  a  Church  meeting,  wherein  there  was  a 
narrative  and  paper  of  charges  read,  and  indeavourd  to  wave  and  dis- 


74  HISTORY  OF   THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

owne  the  calling  of  the  first  Councill,  and  said  it  was  onely  by  the 
Elder,  and  that  the  Church  was  not  bound  to  stand  to  what  was  writ- 
ten in  the  letters  sent  by  the  Elder  to  the  Churches. 

The  Elder  acquainted  the  Church  he  had  received  a  paper  from 
some  of  the  dissenters  which  had  two  other  papers  in  it,  one  of  which 
was  said  to  be  the  result  of  that  which  they  called  the  Councill,  they 
vehemently  denied  to  read  them,  or  take  any  notice  of  them  till  they 
had  proceeded  with  the  dissenters,  saying  their  sending  for  councill 
was  a  great  agravation  to  all  the  rest,  and  sending  from  Dedham  to 
Rowly  and  not  in  a  strait  line  &c :  but  the  Lord  soe  ordered  it  that 
they  concluded  fully  of  nothing. 

Att  a  Church  meeting   they  read  a  paper  of   charges 
against  the  dissentors. 

First  charge  was  for  endeavouring  to  deprive  the  Church  of  its 
power  within  it  selfe,  which  Christ  had  committed  to  her,  By  twice 
assuming  power  to  send  to  other  churches  to  meet  in  Councill :  the 
first  time  without  the  Churches  knowledge,  and  the  2d  time  agains[t] 
their  Consent,  saying  they  would  declare  themselves  to  a  regular 
judge,  implying  the  church  was  not  one  contrary  to  Math :  16  :  they 
required  answer  to  them  :  the  dissenters  desired  to  know  whatt  con- 
nexion was  betwixt  depriving  the  church  of  its  power  and  desiring  a 
Council],  when  the  charges  were  read.  The  dissentors  were  not  per- 
mitted to  write,  though  they  told  them  they  could  not  distinctly  answer, 
without  haveing  the  very  words  of  their  charges,  then  the  Church  de- 
sired the  dissenters  to  tell  them  in  what  capacity  and  Estate  they 
looked  at  themselves  to  stand  in  who  replyed  in  such  state  as  god  by 
an  ordinance  of  councill  [of]  Churches  had  set  them  before  the 
dissenters  gave  in  their  declaration  they  desired  to  remove  all  offences 
but  unlesse  they  might  have  liberty  to  write  or  have  them  given  in 
writing  they  could  not  doe  it. 

Third  declaration  followeth,  and  was  read  in  publique. 

DISSENTERS   LETTER   TO   THE   CHURCH. 

Honoured  Reverend  and  Beloved 

We  are  covered  with  shame  and  confusion  of  face,  in  the  presence 
of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  whilst  we  doe  call  to  remem- 
brance our  past  great  unworthyness  of  that  Spetiall  grace 
of  God,  vouchsaffed  in  stating  and  settling  of  us  under  a  regular  and 
orderly  administration  of  all  his  holy  ordinances,  in  a  way  of  union 
and  communion  with  this  Church,  unto  which  hath  bin  for  a  longe 
time  continued  a  powerfull  dispensation  of  that  Apostolicall  Bene- 
diction, grace,  mercy,  and  peace  from  God  our  ffather  and  from  our 
Lord  Jesus  christ  which  we  pray  may  be  continued  and  abundantly 
multiplied. 

It  is  alsoe  matter  of  great  lamentation  and  deepe  humilliation  unto 


THE    THIRD   DECLARATION.  75 

us  that  our  sinfull  unworthynes  hath  bin  any  occasion  of  the  present 
diminution  of  that  Blessing  (at  least)  as  to  the  more  full  sensible 
comfortable  influence  of  it  upon  our  owne  soules,  we  doe  therefore  put 
our  mouthes  in  the  dust,  And  humbly  submitt  unto  and  beare  the  dis- 
pleasure of  the  Lord,  to  gither  with  the  rest  of  our  Brethren  who  have 
we  hope  a  holy  simpathy  with  us,  under  that  great  suffering  which  doth 
arise  from  the  evill  of  dissention  and  divission,  which  we  feare  we  have 
in  a  way  of  just  Judgment  bin  left  unto,  as  a  punishment  of  our  past 
unthankefullnes,  and  unproffitablenes  under  the  meanes  of  grace,  And 
therefore  after  the  sollem  search  of  our  hearts  and  wayes  —  having 
laboured  to  humble  ourselves  deeply  before  God,  and  to  obtaine  par- 
don from  him  and  peace  with  him  through  Jesus  christ  And  by  the 
renewed  Exercise  of  our  faith,  —  to  obtaine  a  sencible  assurance  of 
our  stedfast  standing  in  the  union  of  that  one  mistical  body  —  We  doe 
humbly  and  most  affectionatly  crave  the  Exercise  of  Brotherly  love 
and  Christian  charity  with  bowells  of  mercy,  kindness  hum- 
blenes  of   minde,  meekenes   long   suffering,   forbearance,  9' 

forgivenes,  Yea  beseech  you  to  love  us  as  Brethren  to  be  tender 
hearted,  and  pittiful  to  wards  us,  unto  the  utmost  degree  of  Christian 
condiscendency,  in  all  matters  of  christian  liberty  wherein  we  differ 
from  you,  And  this  we  aske  of  you  in  the  bowels  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  yea  this  we  challenge  of  you  as  Brethren  by  the  law  of  Christ, 
with  confidence  of  your  ready  and  full  obedience  unto  the  new  Com- 
mand of  our  dying  Saviour,  this  new  Comandement  I  give  unto  you, 
that  ye  love  one  another  as  I  have  loved  you,  being  therefore  hope- 
fully perswaded  of  your  tendernes  towards  us,  we  pray  you  to  give  us 
leave  to  give  you  an  account  of  our  present  understanding  of  our 
owne  state  and  of  our  duty  to  God,  to  you  and  to  ourselves  therein. 

first  although  we  doe  sencibly  acknowledge  much  sinfull  infirmity 
as  hath  appeared  in  our  late  transactions,  as  we  are  men  and  very  sin- 
full men,  yet  after  the  sollemn  examination  of  ourselves,  we  cannot, 
we  dare  not  to  charge  ourselves  as  guilty  of  any  open  Publike  and 
scandalous  offence  given  to  the  Church  whereby  we  are  lyable  unto 
the  application  of  any  Publique  Censure,  surely  if  we  could  have  found 
ourselves  soe  guilty  we  should  not  presume  to  have  so  long  expos- 
tulated with  you  about  our  inocency  : 

2ly  We  doe  not  understand  that  we  have  bin  soe  charged  with  any 
such  offence,  as  that  we  are  guilty  before  the  church  or  that  we  are 
under  any  binding  power  of  the  keyes  of  the  kingdome  of  heaven  in 
the  church  regularly  Exerted. 

3ly  We  doe  not  understand  that  the  present  proceeding  of  the 
church  hath  bin  in  any  way  of  discipline  towards  us,  but  that  they 
have,  by  concession  unto  our  departure  actually  disobliged  themselves 
from  any  other  duty  unto  us,  and  evacuated  that  relation  which  some- 
times we  had  to  the  Church  :  And  therefore  that  we  are  not  layed 


76  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

or  left  under  any  regular  restraint  from  the  Exercise  of  christian 
liberty,  and  the  performance  of  our  part  of  duty  in  the  observance  of 
the  advice  of  the  churches  offered,  both  unto  [  ]  and  ourselves  in  a 
way  of  order,  rather  we  take  your  concession  unto  our  Departure  as 
an  Expedient  offered  for  the  more  facile  Expidition  in  the  pursuance 
of  that  advice  to  effect  by  a  peaceable  and  orderly  secession. 

4-ly  And  finally  therefore  with  awfull  feare  and  reverence  of  God  in 
whose  presence  we  stand,  and  in  obedience  to  the  power  and  authority 
of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  your  Lord  and  ours,  unto  whome  both  you 
and  we  have  submitted  ourselves,  for  direction  unto  duty  in  our  diffi- 
cult case  in  the  way  of  his  owne  ordinance,  that  is  the  way  of  councill 
As  with  a  very  high  Regard  and  deare  esteem  of  this  church  we  doe 
humbly  declare  that  we  are  under  an  indispensible  obligation  to  obey 
God,  according  to  that  discovery  of  his  minde  and  will  concerning  our 
Duty,  which  hath  bin  held  forth  with  convincing  light  unto  ourselves 
from  the  holy  scriptures,  and  that  therefore  we  are  resolved  by  Gods 
gratious  guidance  and  assistance,  seasonably  to  make  use  of  our  chris- 
tian liberty,  unto  a  coalition  into  another  church  Body  in  a  regular 
and  orderly  way  and  therefore  we  doe  instantly  and  importunately  beg 
your  prayers  and  Blessings,  and  that  we  may  by  you,  be  commended 
and  committed  to  the  gratious  conduct  of  our  Lord  Jesus  in  the  man- 
agment  of  this  great  affaire  of  his  kingdome,  And  we  hope  the  day  will 
declare  our  worke,  soe  as  that  it  will  appeare  that  it  is  not  in  rebellion 
or  transgression  against  the  Lord,  or  to  turne  from  following  the  Lord, 
that  we  doe  interpri[s]e  this  thing,  nor  out  of  any  designe 
to  innovate,  either  in  doctrine  or  in  worship,  oh  God  for 
bid  that  it  should  be  soe,  but  it  is  by  a  loveing,  peaceable,  and  orderly 
secession  to  prevent  the  breach  of  union,  and  to  establish  the  faith 
and  order  of  the  Gospel,  in  another  congregation  for  the  settlement 
and  inlargment  of  the  kingdome  of  Christ  in  the  present,  and  we  hope 
in  future  generations. 

Subscribed  by  the  dissenters  and 
delivered  to  the  church  4 :  3mo  :  69. 

After  the  reading  of  this  declaration  to  the  church  by  their  Elder 

they  declared  the  dissentors  to  be  under  great  guilt,  saying 

God  would  in  his  time  looke  upon  it  and  requier  it  And  if 

not  in  this  world  yet  in  another,  where  the  councill  could  not  helpe 

them,    Then  they  declared  they  could  not  Partake  with  them  at  the 

Lords  table  which  non  Communion  they  passed  by  a  vote. 

They  told  the  dissenters  they  were  scismaticks  and  did  rend  of[f] 
from  the  church  and  that  this  Councill  was  not  an  ordinance  of  Christ, 
the  dissenters  heard  them  patiently  and  then  humbly  took  leave  of  the 
Church  and  departed  from  the  meeting. 

Here  upon  the  dissenting   Brethren    applyed  themselves  by  their 


THE  MAGISTRATES'  APPROBATION.  77 

letters  to  five  churches,  having  the  approbation  of  five  Magistrates  to 
incourage  them  in  order  to  gather  into  a  Church  body  —  which  appro- 
bation followeth. 

Whereas  Sundry  of  our  Beloved  Brethren  and  neighbours  of  Boston, 
having  declared  their  purpose,  (by  the  Lords  assistance)  Magistrals 
to  imbody  themselves  in  a  church  way,  according  to  the  aPProbation- 
order  of  the  Gospel,  and  the  platforme  of  discipline  owned  by  the 
churches  of  Christ  in  this  place,  upon  the  perusall  of  the  ground  of 
their  proceedings,  finding  their  motions  in  such  wise  to  be  justified  by 
the  concurring  issue  of  two  severall  councills 

The  first  where  of  was  called  by  the  first  church  of  Boston,  and  the 
latter  at  the  instant  request  of  these  Brethren  that  are  concerned  here 
in,  we  having  weighed  the  case  as  it  hath  bin  presented  unto  us  with 
the  circumstances  thereof 

Doe  here  by  declare  our  allowance  and  approbation  of  their  pro- 
ceedings as  is  above  promised  Dated  in  Boston  22  :  (2mo)  69. 

Danniell  Gookin 
Danniell  Dennison 
Symond  Willard 
Richard  Russell 
Thomas  Danforth1 

Allthough  I  have  not  that  particular  understanding  of  their  affaires 
as  some  others,  yet  upon  what  I  have  heard,  and  out  of  the  Confi- 
dence I  have  of  the  regular  and  just  determination  of  the  Reverend 
Councill  I  see  no  cause  to  withhold  my  consent  but  rather  to  approve 
of  their  proceedings  and  give  allowance  there  [ 

Symond  Broadstreet 

Your  resolution  of  imbodjng  (according  to  Councill)  though  it  is 
some  what  a  new  thing,  and  ought  tenderly  and  with  all  humility  to  be 
managed  that  the  name  of  God  may  not  suffer,  yet  I  finde  it  allowed 
by  the  Platforme  of  discipline,  And  that  such  a  thing  may  be  without 
scisme,  and  therefore  since  you  have  the  Elders  and  other  magis- 
trate consent,  I  shall  concur  in  giveing  my  approbation  to  your  joyn- 
ing  together  in  a  Church  Estate 

Your  truely  Loving  Brother 

John  Pinchon 

Springfeild  — 

May  10th,  1669 

1  [Mr.  Daniel  Gookin  and  Mr.  Thomas  Council,  and  Mr.  Simon  Willard  was  a 
Danforth   were   members    of    the   First      member  of  the  Second.] 


78  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 


COPPV  OF  THE  LETTER  SENT  BY  THE  DISSENTING  BRETHREN  TO  FIVE 
CHURCHES  X  TO  YEILD  ASSISTANCE,  BOTH  BY  THEIR  ELDERS  AND 
MESSENGERS    ON    THE    DAY    OF    COALITION. 

Honoured  Reverend  and  Beloved  in  our  Lord  Jesus : 

It  hath  pleased  the  holy  God  after  many  birth  pangs  of  that  travel- 
ing intherest  of  Christ  a  mong  us  in  the  first  church  of  Christ  of  Bos- 
ton to  which  you  are  not  strangers,  to  bring  forth  this  as  the  present 
jssue  of  his  good  pleasure,  referring  to  ourselves  in  point  of  our  Duty, 
That  we  have  bin  advised  by  the  Honoured  and  Reverend  Councill  of 
Elders  and  Messengers  of  churches  convened  (13  (2ino)  69)  as  is 
to  be  seen  in  their  Councill  given  us  (a  Coppy  where  of  we  send  you 
here  in  closed)  That  we  may  seasonably  make  use  of  our  Church 
liberty,  unto  a  regular  Coalition  into  another  church  Body,  whose 
councill  therein  we  doe  looke  at,  (with  due  thankefullnes  unto  him 
especially  whose  name  is  wonderfull  &c :)  As  his  voice  who  hath  the 
Goverment  upon  his  shoulder  unto  us  in  this  houre  of  temptation, 
We  in  pursuance  of  that  advice  having  also  declared  unto  our  Be- 
loved Brethren  (after  much  confHict  of  spirit  and  patient  waiting  for 
the  churches  observance  of  the  advice  of  this,  and  a  former  Coun- 
cill called  by  themselves,  In  both  which  the  truth  asserted  for  our 
becoming  another,  distinct  church  hath  not  bin  followed  by  the 
church)  our  advised  secession  from  them  and  we  hope  in  such  a  man- 
ner as  might  become  us,  with  full  purpose  not  withstanding  to  hold 
Ecclesiasticall  communion  with  them  as  with  a  pretious,  and  much 
honoured  Church  of  Christ,  According  to  the  rule  of  Consociation  of 
Churches,  as  also  having  attended  whatt  other  requisit  duty  we  under- 
stand to  be  in  Cumbent  on  us,  in  order  to  our  more  regular  proceed- 
ing in  this  weighty  undertaking  which  we  are  about,  thought  it  most 
expedient  and  seasonable  to  pitch  upon  the  12th  of  this  31110  for  the 
duty  of  our  Coalition  afore  said  These  are  therefore  humbly  to  re- 
quest your  solemn  prayers  for  us,  by  your  asistance  of  us,  by  your 
elders  and  messengers  for  our  more  orderly,  and  edifying  proceedure 
on  that  day,  vouchsafing  to  us  the  right  hand  of  fellowship,  as  that 
sisterly  relation  of  churches  one  to  another  may  require,  the  place  of 
our  Assembling  will  be  at  Charlestowne,  The  Blessed  Lord  who 
walketh  in  the  midst  of  the  Golden  candelstickes  shine  upon  you,  and 
blesse  all  your  holy  administrations  in  whome  we  are 

your  afflicted  Brethren  in  the 
fellowship  of  the  Gospel 
Subscribed  by  the  dissenters 

Boston  8  (3)  69 

1  [The  churches  sent  to  on  this  occa-  Charlestown,  Cambridge,  Dorchester, 
sion  we  suppose  to  have  been  those  of     Dedham,  and  Weymouth.] 


THE   GOVERNOR  AND   OTHERS  PROTEST.  79 

The  dissenters  haveing  obtained  leave  and  incouragment  under  the 
hands  of  seven  magistrates,  And  also  having  obtained  the 
Convention  of  five  neighbour  Churches  by  their  messen- 
gers and  Elders  [  ]  the  Councill  of  churches  that  met  upon  the  13th 
day  of  the  2d  mo  by  the  advice  helpe  and  direction  of  all  these,  con- 
vened as  above  at  Charlestowne  then  gave  up  themselves  to  this  great 
and  sollemn  worke  of  embodying  into  a  new  Church  estate,  Though 
not  without  sundry  difficultyes  which  the  Lord  in  his  wise  and  sover- 
eigne  guidance  suffered  to  assaile  them  as  the  opposition  of  the 
Governour  and  five  magistrates  by  a  writing  under  their  hand,  by 
themselves  brought  over  and  read  at  Mr.  willoughbies  house  to  the 
church  Messengers,  And  a  writing  from  the  Church  of  Boston  sent  by 
five  of  their  members  to  the  Messengers  of  Churches  there  assembled. 
Yet  the  Lord  cleared  all  rubs l  out  of  the  way,  and  gratiously  Perfected 
that  great  worke  for  them  the  same  day  to  the  comfort  of  themselves 
and  beholders  :  The  messengers  of  the  Churches  being  sent  for  to 
Mr.  willoughbies  the  following  writing  was  read  unto  them. 

THE   GOVERNORS  WRITING    SIGNED    BY  HIMSELFE  AND    FIVE  MAGISTRATS 
TO    IMPEDE   THE    COALITION. 

To  the  Honoured  Reverend  and  Beloved  the  magistrats  Elders  Brethren 
and  Messengers  of  the  churches  assembled  this  day  at  Charlstowne 
Salhitations. 

We  the  Governor,  and  magistrates  Assembled,  accounting  it  our 
Duty  by  vertu  of  the  trust  at  present  committed  to  us,  to  Governors  pro- 
care  for  the  preservation  of  the  peace  and  order  of  the  istratefa^Snlt 
churches  of  Jesus  Christ  among  us  according  to  law.  Tit.  the  worke- 
Eccle  :  Sect :  1 1  :  upon  serious  consideration  of  the  sollemn  transac- 
tion this  day  intended  with  you  :  viz  :  that  severall  persons  which  we 
understand  yet  to  be  of  the  first  church  of  Boston,  are  about  to  gather 
into  a  Church  estate  by  themselves,  we  judgeing  it  to  be  greatly  in- 
consistent with,  and  Contrary  to  the  said  order  of  the  Gospel  doe 
therefore  hereby  declare  that  we  approve  not  of  the  said  transaction 
at  Present,  and  doe  desire  and  advise  that  the  said  proceedings  be 
delayed  untill  further  consideration  be  had  there  in. 

Rich  :  Belengham  Governor 
Sam  :  Symonds 
Wm  :  Hathorne 
Eliaz  :  Lusher 
John  Leveritt 
Edw:  Ting.2 
Boston  the  12th:  (3)  1669. 

1  [Worcester  defines  a  rub  as  an  ob-  2  [The  governor,  Mr.  Leverett,  and 
struction,  hindrance,  obstacle,  difficulty,  Mr.  Tyng  were  members  of  the  First 
or  cause  of  uneasiness.]  Church.] 


8o  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD   SOUTH  CHURCH. 


THE    CHURCH    OF    BOSTONS    LETTER    TO    IMPEDE    THE    COALITION. 

Honoured  Reverend  and  Beloved  in  the  Lord 

We  being  acquainted  the  Eleventh  day  of  this  month  By  two  of  our 
dissenting  Brethren  that  on  the  12th  day  of  the  same  which  is  the 
4th  day  of  this  weeke  Itt  was  the  purpose  and  intention  of  themselves 
with  the  rest  of  them  to  gather  into  a  Church  at  Charlstowne  that  we 
might  not  be  wanting  in  our  duty  to  God  ourselves  or  them  we 
thought  it  now  seasonable  to  declare  our  apprehensions  therein,  How, 
farr  it  may  prevent  sin  in  our  Brethren  we  know  not,  That  it  might 
is  our  desire  and  hope,  however  we  are  perswaded  we  shall  hereby 
deliver  our  owne  soules  from  the  guilt  or  fruit  of  any  Evill  in  it,  by 
renouncing  participation  or  fellowship  in  that  action.  We  doe  there- 
fore declare  these  Brethren  who  intend  an  imbodying  by  themselves  to 
be  members  with  us  by  covenant,  a  bond  as  yet  not  loosed  that  we 
know  of,  according  to  God,  And  that  they  are  under  offences  to  this 
church  which  they  have  not  indeavored  regularly  to  rem[ove]  and 
therefore  are  not  capable  of  such  a  Coalition  among  themselves, 

John  Davenport 
James  Allen 
James  Penn 
with  the  consent  of  the  Brethren 

Boston  :  1 1  (3)  mo  69. 

Superscribed  for  the  Honoured  and  Reverend  the  Elders  and  mes- 
sengers of  the  churches  assembled  at  Charlstowne 

Elder  Pen,  Captaine  Clark,  Captaine  Hutchison,  Lieutenant  Cooke, 
James  Everill  were  sent  over  by  the  Church  with  the  letter 
foregoing  who  before  the  meeting  gave  the  Messengers  of 
the  Churches  a  meeting  with  the  said  letter ;  and  all  of  them  publiquely 
spake  in  the  name  of  the  Church  (except  Elder  Pen)  to  impede  the  work 
and  made  objections  against  the  work  of  the  day,  it  was  replyed  unto 
them  that  there  should  be  consideration  had  of  what  they  had  spoken, 
the  meeting  was  adjourned  about  noone  for  half  an  houre,  when  began 
againe  the  messengers  of  the  Church  of  Boston  were  publiquely  called 
for,  but  none  appeared,  they  being  returned  home  the  work  then  was 
finished  thus  this  work  of  God  after  sore  pangs  and  throws  of  many 
prayers  and  teares  labours  and  conflicts  very  hardly  escaped  strangling 
in  its  birth,  notwithstanding  all  the  midwively  care  that  the  good  Lord 
sent  in  as  was  then  solemnely  acknowledged  by  the  Reverend  Mod- 
erator In  the  latter  end  of  the  day,  in  the  presence  of  the  Honoured 
Mr.  Oxen-  and  Reverend  Messengers  of  the  Churches,  Mr.  Oxen- 
singgofSGodyfor  bridge  being  by  them  desired  to  returne  thankes,  praysed 
the  worke.  qocj  fo^  though  the  day  began  in  a  storme  yet  that  it  ended 
in  a  Calme,  and  praid  that  this  infant  Church  might  live  to  condemne 
their  condemners. 


MR.   STREET  COMES   TO  BOSTON.  8 1 

Being  Election  day  Mr.  Davenport  preachd,  who  then  did  grievously 
inveiofh  against  the  preceding  work  and  all  that  did  assist 

'9:  (3) 

therein,  to  provoke  the  Generall  Court  against  it.     vide 
Copiam. 

A  writing  was  put  in  by  Mr.  Everill,  Mr.  Bridgam,  and  good[man] 
Grub  into  the  house  of  Deputies  tending  to  the  disturbing 

28 : 

of  it. 

Mr.  Davenport  in    his   Lecture  sermon  did  excuse  the    Churches 
slownes  to  dismisse  the  dissenting  Brethren  perceiving  it 
stuck  with  the  Country. 

The  writing  above  mentioned  put  into  the  house  was  rejected  by  the 
house.  Goodman  Grub  and  Hollingshead  repaired  to  Mr. 
Thatcher  acquainting  him  with  their  offence  against  him, 
and  desired  him  to  absent  from  the  Lords  supper.  Mr.  Torry  a  mem- 
ber of  the  late  Councill  was  excepted  against  by  sundry 
Brethren  in  sitting  with  them  at  the  Lords  table,  after 
debate  was  permitted  to  partake. 

Mr.  Street  coming  to  Boston  and  upon  discourse  of  Mr.  Davenports 
dismission  there  was  occasion  for  him  to  informe  himself   _      . 

Occasion  of  the 

of  the  pretended  letter  of  dismission  read  to  the  Church   discoverie  of  the 

.  .  ..         former  fraud  in 

and  how  short  a  letter  it  was,  it  became  discourse  in  the   concealing  the 
Towne  that  the  letter  read  in  the  Church  of  Boston  was   wing^uYan 
not  the  whole  sent  from  the  Church  of  New  haven  but   ^SSonedfo!: 
part  therof  nor  indeed  the  thing  itself  conteyned  in  the   l6:  I?:  lS- 
said  letter. 

it  Being  a  lecture  day  Elder  Pen  appointed  the  Church  to  meet 
after  the  lecture  when   met  Elder  Pen   declared   it  was 
to  remove  scandalous  reports  raised  against  the  Church 
about  Mr.  Davenports  dismission  and  the  concealed  letter. 

Mr.  Davenport  made  an  offer  that  the  concealed  letter  might  be 
read,  his  son  was  sent  home  for  it  but  returned  saying  he  could  not 
find  it,  Mr.  Davenport  replyed  though  the  Church  had  not  heard  it, 
yet  above  40  of  the  Brethren  were  advised  with  all  who  thought  it  not 
fit  to  be  read  in  the  Church,  it  concerned  not  the  Church  but  related 
to  himself,  having  in  it  many  mistakes,  and  injurious  expressions 
which  he  did  beleive  were  not  from  the  Church  but  from  Mr.  Streets 
misguiding  of  them  to  consent  thereunto  and  was  to  be  no  marveii  if 
attributed  unto  him,  and  he  said  further  it  was  done  on  chuTch^pon 
purpose  to  put  the  matter  to  a  period  in  this  church,  but  ^/^"^uch 
as  it  concerned  himself  he  had  answered  it,  declaring  his   a  letter  which  ex- 

0  traded  is  called 

resolution  never  to  returne  unto  New  haven  againe  though   Mr.  Davenports 

,  .  -I-,  [dismission]. 

he  had  not  accepted  office  here  at  Boston. 

The  Elder  then  read  the  letter  of  dismission  soe  called  as  it  came 

from  New  haven  (which  was  not  read  to  the  Church  be- 

v  17:  (4)  69. 

fore)  Elder  Pen  and  Mr.  Ja  :  Aliens  extract  being  read 


82  HISTORY  OF   THE    OLD   SOUTH   CHURCH. 

instead  of  it,  they  cleared  all  the  Brethren  of  the  Church  from  having 
any  hand  in  it  and  also  Mr.  Davenport  from  any  guilt  therein  (but 
this  was  afterward  acknowledged  by  Mr.  Allen  before  sundry  Elders  1 
at  Mr.  H  V  house  that  in  soe  doing  he  had  told  a  falshood)  for  Mr. 
Davenport  knew  the  matter  and  consented  unto  it,  as  will  appeare  by 
his  owne  publique  declaration  insuing :  Elder  Pen  said  that  what  evill 
was  in  it,  he  must  take  it  upon  himself,  and  the  Teacher  Mr.  Daven- 
port replyed  that  he  wondered  what  the  Elder  should  meane  by  soe 
saying,  for  he  saw  no  appearance  of  evill  in  it.  Sundry  Brethren 
shewd  their  dislike  of  it  as  viz  :  Cap  :  Clarke,  Mr.  Hutchison,  Mr.  Stod- 
dard, others  saying  they  were  sorely  troubled  that  the  name  of  God 

was  dishonoured ;  Major  Generall  Leverit  said  there  was 
speech  in  the        a  reall  injury  in  it  to  this  Church  to  the  Church  of  New 

haven  and  to  the  neighbour  Churches,  who  sent  their 
messengers  to  give  the  right  hand  of  fellowship,  further  saying  he 
knew  not  what  self  ends  they  might  have  who  did  it,  forgitting  Davids 
prayer,  let  soundnes  and  integrity  preserve  mee  and  that  he  who 
beleiveth  maketh  not  hast,  and  that  god  needed  none  of  our  sinfull 
shifts  to  preserve  his  owne  honour ;  insomuch  as  Mr.  Davenport  much 
pressed  for  a  vote  of  the  Church  whither  they  looked  at  his  dismission 
valid  otherwise  his  office  relation  had  no  foundation,  and  he  would  not 
be  accompted  their  Pastour  if  he  were  not  soe  indeed  nothing  was 
valid,  sundry  saying  if  the  whole  letter  had  bin  read  instead  of  the 
extract,  it  had  satisfyed  them  as  to  his  dismission,  goodman  Search 
pleaded  it  might  not  be  too  much  pressed,  for  Jacob  got  the  blessing 
let  the  extract       *n  a  wrong  wav-      Mr.   Davenport  said   it   savoured  of 

and  letter  be        much  ignorance  and  malice  for  any  to  think  that  this  ex- 
compared  fol :  °  . 
16:  i7.  is.  and     tract  was  a  forgery,  (which  was  to  make  a  writing  con- 

definitioneofPfor-  trary  to  the  intent  of  the  author,)  this  onely  left  out  some 

fouLTin  the         superfluities  and  such  things  as  did  not  properly  belong 

to  it,  nor  ought  to  have  bin  put  to  it,   and  indeed   he 

looked  at  his  dismission  to  be  in  their  leaving  him  to  give  his  owne 

answer,  and  they  resting  in  what  was  done,  saying  the  will  of  the 

Lord   be  done,     Mr.  Davenport  concluded  with  prayer,  wherein  he 

much  excused  Mr.  Allen  and  Elder  Pen  who  had  done  what  they  did 

in    the    integrity  of  their  hearts,   and  much  complained  to  God  of 

others,  who  had  searched  for  haltings,  with  more  eagernes  than  Laban 

did  Jacobs  stuff  for  his  Idolls. 

The  Elders  labouring  to  convince  Mr.  James  Allen  of  his  iniquity 

in  dealing  deceitfully  about  the  letter  from  New  haven, 

in  saying  Mr.  Davenport  was  innoc[ent]  about  that  matter, 

he  acknowledged  that  Mr.  Davenport  knew  the  matter,  asmuch  as 

himself  and  his  unckle,  and  that  he  had  sinned  in  soe  saying,  this  con- 

1  [The  word  "  elders  "  is  erased  in  the     later    at    the    house    of    Mr.    Hezekiah 
MS.      The   meeting   was   held    a   week     Usher.] 


MR.  DAVENPORTS  NARRATIVE.  83 

fession  was  made  before  Mr.  John  Allen,  Mr.  Danforth  of  Roxbury, 
Mr.  Increase  Math[er]  and  Mr.  Stoughton.1 

The  Church    had   a  meeting  pretending  to    satisfy  those  who  re- 
mayned  unsatisfyd  about  the  former  two  letters,  at  this 
meeting  they  put  forth  all  the  sisters,  not  suffering  them 
to  be  present,  as  if  their  consciences  were  not  to  be  considered  in 
satisfaction, 

Mr.  Davenports  narrative  was  read  as  followeth. 

when  my  dismission  from  the  Church  of  new  haven  was  sent  to  the 
Church  of  Boston  inclosed  in  my  letter  from  my  Brother 

..J-,.....  .         Mr.  Davenports 

Street  sealed  up  to  the  Ruling  Elder  I  did  not  open  it,  narrative  read 
but  when  the  Elder  came  to  mee  with  Brother  Allen  I  de- 
liverd  it  before  him  to  the  ruling  Elder  sealed  as  it  was,  he  opened 
it  and  read  it  in  my  hearing,  whereby  both  they  and  I  perceived  that 
the  preface  to  the  dismission  was  altogither  superfluous,  yet  such  as 
might  cause  difference,  they  took  the  letter  away  with  them  to  con- 
sider farther  of  it,  accordingly  when  the  substance  of  the  dismission 
was  extracted  out  of  the  original  they  brought  it  unto  mee  the  last 
day  of  the  week  when  my  thoughts  were  otherwise  exercised,  my 
Brother  Allen  read  what  was  written,  and  what  he  wrote  seemed  to  us 
to  be  the  true  dismission,  agreing  with  the  originall  signed  by  Mr. 
Street  in  the  name  and  with  the  consent  of  the  Church  of  New  haven, 
it  was  allso  said  that  no  wrong  would  be  done  to  that  Church  nor 
unto  this,  if  the  extract  were  read  publiquely,  the  superfluities  in  the 
originall  being  left  out,  but  that  some  dishonour  to  the  Church  of  New 
haven  and  disturbance  to  this  Church  would  thereby  be  prevented,  I 
looked  not  at  myself  fit  to  give  advice  in  this  Case  it 
being  my  owne  Concernment  but  left  it  [to]  them  both  to  *9'  6q' 
satisfy  their  Judgment,  for  I  was  at  that  time  neither  member  nor  Elder 
of  this  Church  whereof  Brother  Allen  was  member  but  no  Elder, 
Brother  Pen  was  the  onely  ruling  Elder  nor  did  I  add  nor  diminish  or 
alter  anything  that  was  written  in  the  Extract,  nor  came  it  to  my 
thoughts  what  was  best  to  be  done,  whence  I  neither  disswaded  from 
reading  the  extract  nor  perswaded  to  the  reading  of  the  Originall 
script  in  publique,  leaving  events  to  God,  nor  had  I  any  hand  in  con- 
triving framing  or  penning  the  Extract  as  both  our  reverend  Elders 
have  already  testifyed  to  the  Church  and  whereas  some  would  prove 
that  I  had  a  further  hand  in  it,  because  my  son  wrote  the  extract 
which  was  read  by  the  Church  this  is  not  a  Cogent  or  sufficient  prof 
thereof,  for  it  was  at  their  motion  and  desire,  that  my  son  wrote  not 
the  originall  but  Mr.  Aliens  extract,  which  when  my  son  had  done,  it 
was  still  in  their  power  and  liberty  to  make  what  use  of  it,  they  pleased 
or  to  have  made  no  use  of  it,  if  their  mindes  had  bin  altered. 

My  hope  is  that  as  God  hath  made  hereby  discoverie  of  the  spirits 
of  many  soe  that  he  will  issue  the  whole  in  giving  repentance,  unto 
1  [See  ante,  p.  36,  note.] 


84  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD   SOUTH   CHURCH. 

some  for  their  harsh  and  wrong  censures  and  reproaches,  and  in  vindi- 
cation of  his  owne  honour,  and  the  name  of  his  servants  who  did 
what  is  done  to  good  ends  and  in  true  simplicity  and  faithfullnes 
according  to  their  present  light  in  the  sight  of  God.1 

This  being  read  to  the  Church  and  the  question  being  put  about  the 
cause  of  reproches  spread  abroad  [the  towne  ?]  the  vote  passed  in  the 
Affirmative  and  the  Lords  supper  appointed  to  be  celebrated  next 
Lords  day,  the  other  two  Elders  made  their  confession  by  word  of 
mouth  more  largly  as  being  more  concerned  in  what  was  done,  soe 
then  Brethren  departed  well  satisfyed.  and  Then  Mr.  Thatcher  came 
into  question,  and  was  after  some  discourse  voted  cleare  of  all  of- 
fences, and  at  liberty  to  come  to  the  Lords  supper. 

The  Lords  supper  was  celebrated,  Mr.  Allen  offered  something 
towards  the  satisfaction  of  the  sisters,  who  had  bin  ex- 

4  :   (5)-  . 

eluded  last  Church  meeting,  who  appealed  to  God,  that 
what  he  did  was  in  the  integrity  of  his  heart  but  because  there  was 
appearance  of  evill,  and  Gods  name  had  bin  dishonoured  and  his 
ways  scandalised  he  desired  it  might  be  recovered,  and  for  his  owne 
honour  no  matter  if  it  lay  in  the  dirt.  Elder  Pen  consented  to  his 
speech :  Mr.  Davenport  then  replyed,  that  those  who  raysed  the  re- 
ports were  the  offendors,  and  not  the  Elders  who  had  done  no  evill, 
nor  had  given  any  just  cause  of  scandall. 

The  testimony  of  many  of  the  Ministers  of  the  gospell  in  Massa- 

chusets    Collony  in   New  England    against  the  scandall 

given  by  the  present  Elders  of  the  first  Church  of  Christ 

in  Boston,  by  their  fraudulent  dealing  about  the  letters  sent  from  the 

Church  in  New  Haven  to  the  Church  of  Boston:     15  :  (5)  1669. 2 

We  being  justly  offended  at  the  great  and  publique  scandall  of  un- 
faithfullnes  and  falshood  committed  by  the  3  Reverend  Elders  of  the 
first  Church  in  Boston  to  the  great  dishonour  of  God,  the  scandall  of 
our  profession  the  reproch  of  New  England  and  of  the  Elders  in  par- 
ticular, desiring  to  be  found  mourners  in  Syon  for  the  same,  and  not 
perceiving  as  yet  any  suteable  repentance  for  it,  least  we  ourselves  and 
the  Churches  in  the  Countrey  should  be  involved  in  the  guilt  thereof, 

1  [In    Mr.    Davenport's   words,  when  generation  of  religious  controversialists, 

vindicating  his   own   honor,  —  who    did  that  God  needs  none  of  our  sinful  shifts 

what  is  done  unto  good  ends  —  we  find  to  preserve  his  own  honor.] 
an  explanation,  as  we  think,  of  the  ex-         -  [The  Mass.  Hist.  Society  has  in  its 

traordinary   proceedings    in    connection  possession   a  partial  copy  of  this  letter, 

with  the  New  Haven  letter  of  October  made  at  the  time  it  was  sent  or  received, 

12,  1 668.     He  and  his  friends  made  the  the  last  third  and  the  signatures  being 

fatal  mistake  of  deviating  from  the  strict  wanting.     Comparing  the  letter  as  it  ap- 

line   of  rectitude   for  the    sake   of    "  the  pears  in   the  Narrative  with  this  partial 

good  cause."     How  often  has  a  similar  copy,  we  have  found  the  deviations  very 

mistake  been  made  since,  in  times  of  re-  slight,  and   we   have  made  no  changes 

ligious  controversy !     Mr.  Leverett's  re-  except  to  correct  two  or  three  obvious 

mark    may   well  be  pondered  by  every  inaccuracies.] 


THE    TESTIMONY  OF  MANY  MINISTERS.  85 

if  no  full  and  open  testimony  be  given  against  it,  beyond  any  that 
we  have  yet  heard  of,  out  of  conscience  towards  God,  being  awed  by 
that  word,  neither  be  partakers  of  other  men  sins,  keep  thyself  pure 
1  Tym  :  5.  22  and  that  Eph :  5:11.  have  no  fellowship  with  the  un- 
fruitfull  workes  of  darkenes,  but  rather  reprove  them  and  considering 
how  the  Lords  name  is  blasphemed,  allso  in  love  and  faithfullnes  to 
our  Brethren,  that  we  may  not  suffer  sin  upon  them  Lev : 

>5'  (s)  1669 

19:  17  :  and  as  watchmen  to  foresee  the  Evill  and  give 
warning,  doe  therefore  declare  and  testify  as  follo[ws] 

1.  That  mr.  Davenport  as  a  gift  of  Christ  for  the  work  of  the  min- 
istry Eph:  4:  n  :  12  :  was  set  by  the  Lord  Jesus  christ,  a  Pastor  in 
the  Church  of  Christ  at  New  haven  1  Cor:  12:  28:  and  therefore 
such  was  the  right  of  that  Church  in  their  Pastor  that  neither  Mr. 
Davenport  could  remove  himselfe  from  them,  nor  the  Church  of  Bos- 
ton regularly  call  him  to  office  with  them  without  some  rule  of  Christ 
directing  the  Church  to  Consent  there  unto,  this  is  a  confessed  truth 
by  mr.  Davenport  himselfe  in  his  printed  Apologie  1  page  109.  where 
speaking  of  his  Church  in  Coleman  Street  in  London  being  about  to 
withdraw  from  them  into  Holland  the  Church  (saith  he)  I  confes  might 
have  required  me  to  stay  with  them  by  virtue  of  that  rule,  Say  unto 
Archippus  take  heed  to  thy  Ministry  which  thou  hast  received  in  the 
Lord  that  thou  fullfil  it,  If  they  had  soe  done  I  purposed  to  yeild 
whatever  had  become  of  me,  Yea  I  confess  the  churches  right  to 
be  such  in  their  Pastor,  that  being  withdrawen  if  they  had  sent  for 
me  to  return  to  my  function  promising  to  sticke  by  me  where  in  law- 
fully they  might  I  hold  myselfe  bound  to  have  returned ;  Allso  the 
right  of  New  haven  in  him  their  Pastor  as  owned  by  his  sollem  ap- 
peale  to  God,  in  publique  prayer  where  in  he  professed  to  this  effect, 
that  he  desired  onely  to  know  the  will  of  God  as  to  his  staying  here 
at  Boston  or  returning  to  New  haven,  and  wayted  for  the  manifesta- 
tion of  the  Lords  will  by  the  returne  of  Messengers  which  were  then 
gone  to  New  haven  for  his  dismission,  likewise  the  right  of  New  haven 
in  Mr.  Davenport  hath  bin  confessed  by  the  Church  of  Boston,  who 
notwithstanding  any  other  dark  or  doubtfull  pleas  applyed  themselves 
by  Messengers  and  letters  to  obteine  the  consent  of  New  haven  in 
the  dismission  of  Mr.  Davenport  unto  them,  expressing  themselves  in 
a  certaine  writing  that  without  his  dismission  they  would  not  proceed. 

2ly:  The  translation  of  a  Pastour  from  one  Church  to  another 
being  a  momentous  and  solemne  act  of  kingly  Government  of  Christ 
in  his  Church,  Acts:  13  :  1  :  2  :  3  :  as  it  calleth  for  serious  Councill 
to  find  out  the  mind  of  God,  soe  it  requireth  great  faithfullnes  in  the 
stewards  of  God  that  s[tand]  between  two  such  Churches  :    1  Cor : 

1  [Mr.  Davenport  published  his  with  the  controversies  in  which  he  was 
Apologeticall  Reply  in  1636,  during  his  engaged  there  on  questions  of  baptism 
residence  in  Holland,  and  in  connection     and  church  government.] 


86  HISTORY  OF   THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

4:2:  and  that  in  serving  the  Lord  in  such  part  of  his  instituted  wor- 
ship, it  be  done  in  sincerity  and  in  truth  Josh  :  24 :   14 :   15. 

3ly  hence  it  clearely  followeth,  that  for  these  Elders  in  this  case  to 
with  hold  any  letters,  or  any  part  of  them  wherein  the  Consent  or  dis- 
sent of  the  Church  of  New  haven  is  made  knowne,  is  an  act  of  great 
unfaithfullnes  and  neglect  of  sincerity  and  truth,  and  of  dangerous 
consequence  as, 

1  :  To  the  great  wrong  of  New  haven  in  their  just  interest. 

2.  To  the  deluding  the  Church  of  Boston  in  their  proceedings  in 
soe  weighty  a  matter. 

3.  to  raise  scruples  in  mens  mindes,  whither  a  Person  soe  called 
be  inde[ed]  their  Pastor  and  his  administration  be  the  Ordinance  of 
God.1 

4ly  :  after  the  concealment  of  one  letter  from  New  haven  that  spake 
their  mindes  fully,  to  transcribe  also  but  part  of  another  letter,  soe 
much  as  may  seeme  to  serve  their  turne,  leaving  out  about  two  parts 
of  three,  to  superscribe  this,  to  subscribe  it,  set  a  seale  upon  it  and  to 
date  it,  and  to  indeavour  to  imitate  the  hand  of  another  in  subscrib- 
ing his  name,  and  thus  to  produce  it  as  if  it  were  the  same  letter  that 
was  sent  from  New  haven  to  the  Church  of  Boston,  calling  it  Mr. 
Davenports  dismission,  this  cannot  be  lesse  than  great  unfaithfullnes 
falshood  if  not  forgery.  If  Doeg  concealing  part  of  the  truth  is 
charged  with  a  deceitfull  tongue  :  Psal  152:4:  If  Ananias  conceal- 
ing part  of  the  price  of  the  truth  is  said  to  lye  unto  God,  how  much 
more  to  conceale  soe  much  of  the  truth  in  soe  weighty  a  Case  and  of 
soe  great  consequence :  And  therefore  we  must  beare  witnes  against 
this  practise  as  contrary  to  the  scripture,  the  light  of  nature,  to  the 
lawes  of  all  Civill  governments  even  in  all  civill  commerce,  and  ther- 
fore  much  more  in  the  things  of  God,  who  is  soe  jealous  in  the 
matters  of  his  worship,  and  before  Jesus  Christ  who  is  the  Amen  the 
true  and  faithfull  witnes,  It  is  also  destructive  to  the  Communion  of 
Churches  by  letters,  for  Churches  cannot  understand  the  meaning  one 
of  another,  where  there  is  such  corrupting  of  letters,  and  therfore 
this  is  a  great  and  scandalous  sin : 

5ly.  to  pretend  a  dismission  of  Mr.  Davenport  from  a  small  part 
of  a  letter,  whereas  the  other  part  left  out  doth  argue  the  contrary, 
wherein  the  Church  of  New  haven  gives  reasons  why  in  conscience 
they  could  not  give  the  dismission  desired,  this  is  a  practise  con- 
demned in  the  scripture  1  :  Thess :  4 :  6  :  let  no  man  defraud  or  goe 
beyond  his  Brother  in  any  matter  :  Phill  14:8:  finally  whatsoever 
things  are  true,  whatsoever  things  are  honest,  whatsoever  things  are 
just,  whatsoever  things  are  pure,  whatsoever  things  are  lovely,  what- 
soever things  are  of  good  report  &c.  2  :  Cor :  7  :  2  :    receive  us,  we 

1  [In  the  copy  of  the  Mass.  Hist.  So-  called  to  approve  such  proceedings  at 
ciety  (see  ante,  p.  84,  note),  the  sentence  the  ordination  "  follows  the  words  "Or- 
"  To  the    deceiving  neighbour  churches     dinance  of  God."] 


THE    TESTIMONY  OF   THE  MINISTERS.  Sy 

have  wronged  no  man,  we  have  corrupted  no  man,  we  have  defrauded 
no  man  :  2  Cor  :  13  :  8  :  we  can  doe  nothing  against  the  truth  but 
for  the  truth.  Ma  :  7  :  12  :  therefore  all  things  whatsoever  you  would 
that  men  should  doe  unto  you,  doe  soe  even  unto  them,  had  the 
Elder  of  New  haven  dealt  soe  with  the  letters  sent  from  the  Church  of 
Boston,  we  suppose  those  Elders  would  have  deeply  condemned  him. 

61y  That  all  the  3  :  Elders  of  the  Church  are  jointly  guilty  of  these 
evills  and  sins,  even  Mr.  Davenport  himself,  who  doth  most  justify 
the  fact  and  himself  as  having  no  hand  in  the  writing  :  Its  evident, 
The  matter  of  fact  in  concealing  one  letter  wholly,  and  framing  an 
abstract  out  of  another  and  reading  it  to  the  Church  as  the  whole 
this  is  confessed  of  all  three  :  as  for  Mr.  Davenport  it  concerned  him 
most  to  see  matters  carryed  clearely,  because  he  could  not  in  con- 
science joine  to  the  Church  of  Boston,  nor  take  office  without  the 
consent  of  the  Church  of  New  haven,  and  therfore  not  withstanding 
the  deceit,  renders  him  guilty  of  it,  besides  he  confesseth  that  he 
knew  of  the  letter  from  New  haven  and  of  the  abstract  out  of  it,  as 
hath  bin  acknowledged  allso  by  the  other  two  Elders,  allso  he  called 
it  his  dismission,  joyned  in  membership  and  office  upon  that  very 
ground,  having  thereby  his  dismission  from  New  haven,  and  was 
highly  offended  with  one  of  the  deacons  for  questioning  the  clearenes 
of  it,  and  therfore  cannot  be  excused  from  being  alike  guilty  with  the 
other  Elders. 

Thus  far  we  have  in  all  plainnes  given  our  testimony  against  thes[e] 
deceitfull  and  false  wayes  with  all  due  abhorrency  against  them  Psal : 
119:  128:  desiring  with  bleeding  hearts  and  faces  full  of  shame  to 
humble  our  soules  before  the  Lord,  who  hath  justly  left  these  Elders 
unto  soe  great  a  scandall :  and  humbly  doe  beseech  the  God  of  all 
grace,  to  raise  up  our  Brethren  that  are  falne  by  a  suteable  manifes- 
tation of  their  repentance,  to  the  recovering  of  the  name  of  God  which 
suffers  by  it :  And  the  good  Lord  in  mercy  through  the  blood  of 
Christ  pardon,  and  impute  it  not  to  any  of  us  nor  to  the  Country :  we 
desire  allso  to  looke  upon  our  Brethren  with  all  due  compassion  and 
to  reflect  upon  ourselves  with  trembling  hearts,  least  we  allso  fall 
being  compassed  with  infirmities,  and  subject  to  manifold  temptations. 
Subscribed  by. 

John  Allin  John  Sherman  Th  :  Cobbet  . 

John  Higginson        Sam  :  Phillips  Zach  :  Symmes 

John  Ward  Tho  :  Shepheard  John  Brock 

John  Willson  Inc  :  Mather  Edw  :  Buckley 

Edm  :  Browne  Sam  :  Torry  Sam  :  Whiting  Jun 

Sam  :  Whiting  Sen  John  Hale  : 

Superscribed 
To  the  Rev.  Elders  of  the  first  Church  of  Boston. 

1  ["  Seventeen  ministers  bore  a  public  three  elders  of  the  first  Church  in  Boston, 
testimony  against  the  proceedings  of  the     viz.   against   Mr.  Davenport  for  leaving 


88  HISTORY  OF   THE    OLD   SOUTH   CHURCH. 

Upon  the  5  th  of  the  6th  moneth  there  was  appointed  a  ffast,  the 
day  before  the  fast,  the  Elders  of  severall  Churches  sent  to  the  Elders 
of  the  first  Church  of  Boston  the  testimony  fore  recited  togither  with 
the  letter  ensuing. 

Reverend  and  Beloved  Brethren  &=c. 

Wee  looking  upon  ourselves  as  the  Lords  watchmen,  under  the  ey 
and  observation  of  God  and  man,  what  zeale  we  have  for  gods  glory, 
what  love  to  our  Brethren  and  feare  least  we  allso  should  fall,  and  your- 
selves knowing  that  there  are  diverse  Brethren  that  have  in  faithfull- 
nes  declared  unto  you  some  of  those  evills,  which  are  justly  offensive 
to  your  Brethren.  It  is  an  amazing  thought  unto  many  to  think  that 
you  should  be  found  and  left  soe  insensible  thereof,  which  hath  occa- 
sioned us  (especially  considering  there  is  intended  a  day  of  humiliation 
among  you  on  the  morrow)  to  present  unto  you  this  our  inclosed  testi- 
mony against  such  evills,  whereby  we  desire  and  hope  the  Lord  will 
help  you  to  see  conviction  in  the  matter,  and  no  ill  spirit  in  the  man- 
ner towards  God  or  yourselves,  If  the  Lord  please  to  bring  you  soe 
as  to  recover  the  honour  of  Gods  name,  that  is  blasphemed  by  your 
meanes  (as  we  heart[ily]  pray)  then  we  have  our  end,  if  not  (which 
God  forbid)  we  shall  be  forced  to  consult  with  God  and  one  with 
another,  what  the  Lord  shall  require  further  of  us,  thus  desiring  the 

his  church  at  New  Haven,  contrary  to  We  see  no  reason  for  the  implied  cen- 

his  professed  principles,  and  against  all  sure  of  the  New  Haven  church  in  this 

of  them  for  communicating"  parcels  only  last    sentence.      We   fail   to  see    in   its 

of  letters  from  the  church  of  New  Haven  part    of   the  correspondence   before    us, 

to  the  church  in  Boston,  by  which  arti-  any  want  of  fairness  or  straight-forward 

fice  the  church  was  deceived,  and  made  dealing.      Dr.    Benjamin  Trumbull  says 

to  believe  the  church  of  New  Haven  con-  of   Mr.    Davenport's    removal    to    Bos- 

sented  to   his    dismission,   when,   if   the  ton  :  — 

whole  had  been  read,  it  would  have  ap-  "  He  had  been  about  thirty  years  min- 
peared  they  did  not.  This  testimony  was  ister  at  New  Haven,  had  been  greatly 
sent  to  the  elders  the  day  before  a  public  esteemed  and  beloved  by  his  flock.  This 
fast.  An  answer  was  given,  in  which  the  circumstance,  with  his  advanced  period 
elders  deny  that  the  letters  concealed  of  life,  made  his  removal  very  remark- 
would  have  been  evidence  of  the  refusal  able.  His  church  and  people  were  ex- 
of  the  church  of  New  Haven  to  consent  ceedingly  unwilling  that  he  should  leave 
to  Mr.  Davenport's  leaving  them  and  them,  and  it  seems,  never  formally  gave 
settling  at  Boston ;  the  church  was  only  their  consent.  The  affair,  on  the  whole, 
unwilling  to  make  his  dismission  their  was  unhappy.  It  occasioned  a  separation 
immediate  act.  Neither  the  church  of  from  the  first  church  in  Boston  ;  and  the 
New  Haven  nor  the  elders  of  the  church  church  and  congregation  at  New  Haven 
of  Boston  can  be  wholly  justified.  There  for  many  years  remained  in  an  uncom- 
does  not  seem  to  have  been  that  fairness  fortable  state,  unable  to  unite  in  the 
and  simplicity  in  their  proceedings  which  choice  of  any  person  to  take  the  pastoral 
the  gospel  requires." — Hutchinson's  His-  charge  of  them." — Complete  History  of 
tory  of  Mass.,  vol.  i.  p.  24S.  Connecticut,  vol.  i.  p.  4S4.] 


MR.    DAVENPORT  REFUSES    TO    CONFER. 


89 


Lord  to  pardon,  and   heale   those  evills   and  all   sharp  contentions 
among  us  we  rest 

Your  Loving  Brethren 

Sam  :  Whiting  Senr. 

John  Ward 

Ed:  Browne 

Sam  :  Phillips 

Sam  :  Whiting  Junr. 


John  Higginson 
Tho  :  Cobbet 
Ed.  Buckley 
Tho  :  Shepheard 
John  Hale 


Increase  Mather 

By  the  letter  above  appeareth  what  private  meanes  had  bin  used  for 
their  conviction  but  uneffectuall,  Mr.  Davenport  refused  conference 
with  some  of  them  and  would  not  admit  them  into  his  presence. 


OLD    CHARLESTOWN.1 


1  This  plan  of  old  Charlestown,  drawn 
by  Mr.  George  Lamb,  is  intended  to  mark 
the  site  of  the  house  (Mr.  Willoughby's) 
in  which  the  third  Council  met,  and  of 
the  meeting-house  in  which  the  public 
services  of  recognition  were  held,  when 
the  Old  South  Church  was  formed.  1 
shows  (sufficiently  for  our  purpose)  the 
site  of  the  "Great  House,"  which  was 
first  occupied  by  Governor  Winthrop  and 
several  of  the  patentees,  and  afterward, 
until   the   meeting-house    (2)  was  built, 


was  used  for  public  worship.  3  is  Mr. 
Willoughby's  mansion  house,  and  4  and 
4  show  his  land.  The  Waverly  House 
stands  on  one  of  these  lots,  on  the  corner 
of  what  is  now  Jenner  Street.  5  is  where 
Joseph  Hills  lived. 

Fore  Street  is  now  Main  Street.  The 
Ferry  Way  is  Charles  River  Avenue. 
The  Street  Way  is  Harvard  Street.  Mid- 
dlegate  Street  is  Prescott  Street.  Maul- 
sters  Lane  is  Arrow  Street,  and  Garden 
Lane  is  Washington  Street. 


CHAPTER   II. 


1669-1671. 


THE    DISPUTE    BECOMES    A    POLITICAL    OUESTION. 


JOHN  HULL,  in  his  diary,  narrates  briefly  and  graphically 
the  proceedings  recorded  in  the  closing  pages  of  our  first 
chapter  :  — 

1669  6th  2d  Sundry  ministers  met  at  Charltown,  to  advise 
whether  they  ought  not  to  apply  themselves  to  the  church,  and  ac- 
quaint them  that  they  were  grieved  and  offended  at  their  refusal  to 
dismiss  their  brethren,  and  move  at  their  desire,  and  endeavor  to  cen- 
sure them.     That  day  was  a  great  deal  of  rain. 

13th  2d  The  elders  of  fifteen  churches  convened  at  the  request 
of  the  dissenting  brethren,  and  sat  a  council  in  Boston. 

1 6th  2d  Gave  in  their  conclusion.  The  elders  and  the  church 
refused  all  their  applications  to  them. 

23d  Rev.  Mr.  Richard  Mather,  teacher  of  the  church  at  Dor- 
chester, died.  The  church  of  Boston  would  not  let  him  into  the 
doors,  when  he,  with  sundry  others,  waited  with  a  letter  from  the 
council  to  them ;  but  the  Lord  soon  opened  his  way  into  the  church 
triumphant.1 

12th  3d     The  third   church    in   Boston   gathered    or  coalesced  in 

For  divers  days,  whilst  he  was  attend- 
ing this  consultation,  he  enjoyed  his 
health  better,  than  of  some  later  months  ; 
but  as  Luther  was  at  a  Synod  surprised 
with  a  violent  'attack  of  illness,' which 
caused  him  to  return  home,  with  little 
hope  of  life,  so  it  was  with  this  holy  man. 


1  [Cotton  Mather,  in  his  Life  of  Richard 
Mather,  says :  "  A  council  of  neighbour- 
ing churches  being  assembled  at  Boston, 
April  13,  1669,  to  advise  about  some  dif- 
ferences arisen  there,  Mr.  Mather,  for  his 
age,  grace  and  wisdom,  was  chosen  the 
Moderator    of   that  reverend   assembly. 


RECORDS  OF  THE   CHURCH  IN  SALEM.  91 

Charltown.  Six  magistrates  opposed  it,  —  R.  B.,  S.  S.,  W.  H.,  J.  L., 
E.  L.,  E.  T.  Eight  magistrates  encouraged  it ; 1  and  no  ministers 
opposed,  but  encouraged,  except  J.  A.,  J.  D.,  and  S.  M.  [James 
Allen,  John  Davenport,  and,  probably,  Samuel  Mather.] 

The  records  of  the  Salem  church,  kept  by  the  Rev.  John 
Higginson,2  confirm  the  statements  of  the  Narrative,  and  the 
entries  of  Mr.   Hull  :  — 

On  the  3d  of  the  2d  month  [1669]  was  read  a  letter  from  the 
dissenting  brethren  at  Boston,  sent  unto  this  Church,  wherein  they 
expressed  that  the  result  and  advice  of  the  Council  called  by  the 
Elder  and  brethren  the  last  summer,  was  to  grant  them  an  amicable 
dismission,  in  order  to  the  propagation  of  another  church ;  this 
advice  they  had  attended,  having  several  times  moved  for  a  dis- 
mission, but  in  vain.  Therefore  they  made  this  address  to  sundry 
other  Churches,  as  their  only  next  refuge  left  them  by  Christ  in  his 
word  ;  professing  their  firmness  to  the  government,  according  to  the 
patent,  and  that  they  are  not  for  any  other  way  of  church  order,  than 
that  solemnly  declared  from  the  Scriptures,  in  the  Platform  of  Disci- 
pline, and  the  last  Synod  about  the  subject  of  Baptism  and  consoci- 
ation of  Churches,  desiring  ever  to  maintain  brotherly  love  and  com- 
munion with  the  Church  they  desired  to  be  dismissed  from  as  also 
with  the  rest  of  the  Churches.  They  did  humbly  again  and  again 
desire  us,  in  the.  bowels  of  Jesus  Christ  request  and  desire  us,  not  to 

On  April  16,  lodging  at  the  house  of  his  government  of  Christ  in  his  church,  and 
worthy  son  [Increase  Mather],  a  minister  that  when  grown  up,  and  qualified,  they 
in  Boston,  he  was  taken  very  ill.  ...  So  have  baptism,  for  their  children.  I  must 
his  Lord  found  him  about  the  blessed  confess,  I  have  been  defective,  as  to  prac- 
work  of  a  peacemaker ;  and  with  an  tice  ;  yet  I  have  publickly  declared  my 
allusion  to  the  note  of  the  German  Phce-  judgment,  and  manifested  my  desires  to 
nix,  Mr.  Shepard  of  Charlestown,  put  practice  that  which  I  think  ought  to  be 
that  stroke  afterwards  into  his  Epitaph :  attended ;  but  the  dissenting  of  some  in 
Vixerat  in  Synodis,  Moritur  Moderator  our  church  discouraged  me.  I  have 
in  Illis.  Returning  by  coach,  thus  ill,  thought  that  persons  might  have  right  to 
unto  his  house  in  Dorchester,  he  lay  baptism,  and  yet  not  to  the  Lord's  Sup- 
patiently  expecting  of  his  change ;  and,  per ;  and  I  see  no  cause  to  alter  my 
indeed,  was  a  pattern  of  patience,  to  all  judgment,  as  to  that  particular.  And  I 
spectators,  for  all  survivors.  .  .  .  His  son  still  think,  that  persons  qualified,  accord- 
perceiving  the  symptoms  of  death  upon  ing  to  the  fifth  proposition  of  the  late 
him,  said  '  Sir,  if  there  be  any  special  Synod-Book,  have  right  to  baptism  for 
thing  which  you  would  recommend  unto  their  children.'  "] 

me  to  do,  in  case  the  Lord  should  spare  '  [In  addition  to  the  seven  magistrates 

me  on  earth,  after  you  are  in  Heaven,  whose    approbation   appears   on   p.   77, 

I  would   intreat  you  to  express   it ; '  at  there  was  the  deputy  governor,   Francis 

which,  after  a  little  pause,  with  lifted  eyes  Willoughby,  who  was   a  friend   of   the 

and  hands,  he  returned,  '  A  special  thing  new  church.] 

which  I  would  commend  to  you,  is,  care  2  John,  son  of  the  Rev.  John  Higgin- 

concerning  the  rising  generation  in  this  son,    married,    October   9,    1672,    Sarah, 

country,  that  they  be  brought  under  the  daughter  of  Thomas  Savage. 


92  HISTORY  OF   THE    OLD   SOUTH   CHURCH. 

receive  sinister  reports  against  them,  but  to  send  the  Elder  and  messen- 
gers of  our  Church  to  meet  with  others  in  council  at  Boston  upon  the 
13th  of  April,  to  consider,  consult,  and  give  their  helpful  advice  in 
their  labouring  case. 

After  the  reading  of  this  letter  it  was  desired  to  defer  the  issue 
till  the  Lord's  day  after,  till  it  might  be  known  from  the  Elders  of 
Boston  Church  whether  the  Church  there  consented  to  such  a  council, 
or  would  give  them  a  meeting  :  which  by  the  Pastor  (and  others)  was 
enquired  of  the  week  following,  who  brought  a  negative  answer  from 
the  Elders.  Yet  the  brethren  of  the  Church  generally  did  agree  in 
this,  that  there  was  and  ought  to  be  relief  against  miscarriages  in  par- 
ticular churches  in  the  Congregational  way.  And  in  the  issue  by  a 
vote  they  desired  the  Pastor  and  Capt.  Price,  to  go  not  as  members  of 
the  Council  to  vote  therein,  but  to  be  present  at  the  Council,  and 
so  to  do  what  good  they  could,  as  they  heard  Mr.  Whiting  and  Mr. 
Laiten  of  Lin  Church  were  desired  so  to  go. 

At  a  Church  meeting,  April  30,  1669.  The  Pastor  made  some 
report  of  what  was  done  at  the  Council,  wherein  there  was  a  meeting 
of  messengers  from  thirteen  other  Churches  besides  Salem  and  Linne, 
and  that  they  applied  themselves  first  unto  the  Elders  twice,  and  then 
to  the  Elders  and  brethren  of  the  Church  of  Boston  ;  the  3d  time  in 
way  of  mediation  for  a  pacification,  but  were  three  times  denied  to 
admit  of  any  conference  with  them.  So  the  Council  considered 
of  the  advice  of  the  first  Council,  and  the  Scripture  grounds  of  it, 
and  saw  cause  to  approve  of  it,  viz.,  that  the  dissenting  brethren 
might  have  their  dismission,  and  in  case  the  Church  persisted  in 
denying  their  dismission,  they  might  take  their  liberty  seasonably  to 
be  a  Church  of  themselves,  as  if  they  had  had  a  formal  dismission. 

On  the  16  day,  [May,]  being  the  Sabbath,  was  read  in  the  public 
assembly,  a  letter  sent  from  the  three  Elders  of  the  first  Church  at 
Boston,  to  the  Church  of  Salem,  expressing  their  desires  of  a  chari- 
table construction  of  their  actions,  and  their  willingness  to  declare  the 
reasons  of  their  actions,  when  it  should  be  desired.  The  Pastor 
declared  that  the  week  past  the  dissenting  brethren  had  made  use  of 
their  liberty  at  Charlestown  in  gathering  into  a  Church  body  of  them- 
selves, according  to  the  advice  of  two  Councils  in  their  case,  with  the 
approbation  of  Magistrates  and  Elders  according  to  the  law,  and  had 
the  right  hand  of  fellowship  given  them  by  the  messengers  from  five 
Churches,  —  so  he  saw  not  any  need  of  any  further  discourse  about 
the  contents  of  the  former  letter  at  present.  So  it  rested  at  the 
present.1 

1  [Mew  England  Congregationalism,  by  The  records  of  Roxbury  church  con- 
Daniel  A.  White,  pp.  76-7S.  tain  this  entry  :  — 


MR.  DAVENPORTS  ELECTION  SERMON.  93 

We  will  now  return  for  a  moment  to  the  Third  Church  Nar- 
rative :  — 

19:  (3)  Being  Election  day  Mr.  Davenport  preachd,  who  then  did 
greivously  inveigh  against  the  preceding  work  and  all  that  did  assist 
therein,  to  provoke  the  Generall  Court  against  it.     Vide  Copiam. 

28  :  A  writing  was  put  in  by  Mr.  Everill,  Mr.  Bridgam,  and  good- 
man  Grub  into  the  house  of  Deputies  tending  to  the  disturbing  of  it.1 

30.  Mr.  Davenport  in  his  Lecture  sermon  did  excuse  the  Churches 
slownes  to  dismisse  the  dissenting  Brethren  perceiving  it  stuck  with 
the  Country. 

2  (4).  The  writing  above  mentioned  put  into  the  house  was  rejected 
by  the  house. 

On  account  of  this  controversy,  "two  parties,"  says  Hutchin- 
son, "  were  produced,  not  in  the  other  churches  only  but  in  the 
State  also ; "  and  "  the  whole  people  of  God,"  says  Cotton 
Mather,  "throughout  the  colony,  were  too  much  distinguished 
into  such  as  favored  the  old  church,  and  such  as  favored  the 
new  church ;  whereof  the  former  were  against  the  synod,  and 
the  latter  were  for  it."  2 

Mr.  Davenport  was,  in  part  at  least,  responsible  for  bringing 
the  dispute  between  the  two  churches  into  the  politics  of  the 
day.  In  the  month  of  May  following  his  installation  he  was 
invited,  as  we  have  seen  by  the  Narrative,  to  preach  the  Elec- 
tion Sermon,  and  he  took  the  opportunity  to  defend  his  side  of 
the  controversy,  and  to  sharply  criticise  his  opponents.3     The 

"  12  3m  69     The  Dissenting  Brethren  parties    and    great    disturbances."      Dr. 

aforementioned,  made  a  Secession  from  Wisner  thinks  that  members  of  the  new 

the  Church  at  Boston  and  gathered  them-  church   may  have  been   imprisoned   for 

selves  into  a  new  church  estate  at  Charles-  not   attending    the    authorized   worship, 

town,  having  the  approbation  of  seven  of  and   for   setting   up  a  church   assembly 

the   magistrates   and   the   right  hand  of  without  permission  from  the  magistrates ; 

fellowship  from  the  Elders  and  Messen-  but  this  is  doubtful,  because  the  majority 

gers  of  five  churches."]  of  the  magistrates,  and  by  far  the  larger 

1  [These  were  petitioners,  and  not  portion  of  the  people,  believed  the  seced- 
members  of  the  house.  Mr.  Bridgham  ing  members  from  the  old  church  to  be 
with  Peter  Tilton  represented  Hadley  in  in  the  right,  and  public  opinion,  we  think, 
1670.  In  1668  Thomas  Grubb,  with  Ed-  would  have  shielded  them  from  punish- 
ward  Hutchinson,  Richard  Way,  Benja-  ment  for  any  such  reason.  The  "  im- 
min  Negoos,  and  others,  addressed  a  prisoning  of  parties,"  of  which  Randolph 
memorial  to  the  General  Court  in  behalf  wrote,  was  probably  the  arrest  of  some 
of  the  "  Anabaptists,"  and  were  admon-  of  the  members  when  they  began  prepa- 
ished  for  "  many  reproachful  expres-  rations  for  building,  as  will  appear  in  the 
sions  "  against  the  authorities  which  their  next  chapter. 

paper  contained.]  3  Mr.    Davenport's   text   was    1    Sam. 

2  Edward  Randolph  wrote  to  the  xxiii.  5 :  "So  David  and  his  men  went 
Bishop  of  London  that  the  dispute  ran  to  Keilah,  and  fought  with  the  Philis- 
so  high  "  that  there  was  imprisoning  of  tines  and  brought  away  their  cattle,  and 


94  HISTORY  OF   THE    OLD   SOUTH   CHURCH. 

deputies,  most  of  whom  favored  the  First  Church,  passed  the 
customary  vote  of  thanks.  The  majority  of  the  magistrates  or 
assistants,  who  constituted  the  upper  branch  of  the  General 
Court,  refused  to  concur  in  the  vote,  thinking  that  the  occasion 
should  not  have  been  used  in  such  a  partisan  manner,  and  that 
the  Third  Church  and  those  who  supported  it  had  been  dis- 
honored by  the  preacher.  A  remonstrance  was  therefore  sent 
down  to  the  deputies,  declaring  the  vote  of  thanks  "  to  be  alto- 
gether unseasonable,  many  passages  in  the  said  sermon  being 
ill-resented  by  the  Reverend  Elders  of  other  churches  and 
many  serious  persons,"  and  the  request  was  made  that  "they 
would  forbeare  further  proceeding  therein."  Governor  Belling- 
ham,  who  was  in  the  chair,  refused  to  put  the  question  on  send- 
ing down  this  remonstrance,  and  at  the  call  of  his  associates  it 
was  put  by  Simon  Bradstreet,  who  himself,  a  few  years  later, 
became  a  member  of  the  Third  Church.1  The  deputies,  how- 
ever, refused  to  give  way. 

When  the  members  of  the  new  church  took  steps  towards 
the  location  and  erection  of  their  meeting-house,  the  ultra-con- 
servatives, as  we  shall  see  in  the  next  chapter,  placed  every 
possible  obstacle  in  their  way.  These  men  seem  to  have  been 
strangely  unconscious  of  the  general  drift  of  opinion  among  the 
churches  and  in  the  community ;  otherwise,  after  the  action  of 
the  influential  and  representative  councils  in  favor  of  the  breth- 
ren of  the  new  church,  they  would  have  abandoned  the  struggle 
as  hopeless.  But  failing,  as  they  did,  to  discern  the  signs  of 
the  times,  they  persisted  in  their  opposition,  only  to  make 
the  ultimate  triumph  of  the  seceding  brethren  more  signal  and 
complete. 

It  has  been  said  that  just  after  Mr.  Davenport's  Election 
Sermon  in  1669  the  House  of  Deputies  was  asked  to  consider 
the  question  of  the  organization  of  the  new  church,  but  declined 
to  do  so.  The  public  excitement,  however,  increased  to  such 
an  extent,  and  the  relations  to  each  other  of  Church  and  State 
were  such,  that  the  General  Court  could  not  but  take  cognizance 
of  the  controversy.  At  the  opening  of  the  session  in  May, 
1670,  the  magistrates  passed  a  "vote  to  heale  differences,"  to 
which  the  deputies  would  not  consent,  their  objection  being  to 
the  proposal  to  call  "  the  teaching  elders  of  the  churches," 
or  some  of  them,  into  conference. 

smote  them  with  a  great  slaughter.     So         l  May  25,  1669.      Mass.  Archives,  vol. 
David  saved  the  inhabitants  of  Keilah."       x.  p.  7. 


A    VOTE   "TO  HEAL   DIFFERENCES:' 


95 


The  magistrates  Apprehending  that  it  is  the  duty  of  this  Court  by 
all  possible  and  lawfull  wayes  and  meanes  to  seeke  the  Composing  of 
the  present  differences  that  are  of  late  increased  among  the  churches 
of  these  parts,  and  as  much  as  in  us  lye  that  the  stumbling  blocks  to 
our  peace  may  be  removed  :  Doe  Judge  meet  that  there  be  a  Con- 
ference of  both  houses,  referring  to  those  matters,  and  that  the  Teach- 
ing Elders  of  the  churches  so  many  as  may  Conveniently  be  desired 
to  be  present  to  give  their  advice  and  helpe  as  the  matter  may  require. 


The  magistrates  have  past  this 
their  brethren  the  Deputies  here- 
to Consenting : 

Edw  :  Rawson  Secretary. 

The  Deputyes  Consent  not 
hereto  but  are  very  willinge  and 
ready  to  attend  by  all  wayes  and 
meanes  for  the  Composure  and 
healinge  of  any  differences  that 
are  amongst  us  So  it  be  in  a  reg- 
ular way,  and  Desire  our  Hon- 
oured magistrates,  would  please 
to  draw  up  some  meete  expedient 
for  the  attaynment  of  the  ends 
before  proposed  our  Honoured 
magistrates  Consenting  hereto 
William  Torrey  Cleric.1 

12  :  3  1670 


The  next  action  was  initiated  by  the  deputies,  and  was 
prompted  by  a  memorial  addressed  to  the  General  Court,  in  the 
name  of  the  freemen  of  the  town  of  Hadley  and  of  sundry  free- 
men of  the  town  of  Northampton.  This  paper  was  drawn  up 
by  the  Rev.  John  Russell,  of  Hadley,  a  friend  of  Governor  Bel- 
lingham,2  and  evidently  at  the  instance  of  the  latter,  for  there 
was  no  reason  why  these  distant  towns  should  concern  them- 
selves in  this  particular  way  about  the  formation  of  the  new 
church  in  Boston.  The  memorial  has  been  preserved  in  the 
Massachusetts  Archives,  and  is  as  follows  :  — 


1  {Mass.  Archives,  vol.  x.  p.  287.] 

2  Mr.  Russell  was  one  of  the  executors 
and  trustees  under  Governor  Bellingham's 
will,  the  others  being  Mr.  Oxenbridge 
and  Mr.  Allen,  of  the  First  Church,  and 
Mr.  Anthony  Stoddard.     He  graduated 


at  Harvard  College  in  1645,  was  one  of 
the  settlers  of  Hadley  in  1660,  and  was 
the  minister  there  from  that  time  until 
his  death  in  1692.  In  1657  he  favored 
the  Baptismal  Covenant.  Walker's  First 
Ch.  in  Hartford,  p.  193. 


g6  HISTORY  OF   THE    OLD   SOUTH   CHURCH. 

To  the  Worshipfull  and  much  Honoured  Generatt  Court  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts now  sitting  in  Boston. 

It  being  abundantly  manefest  to  them  that  know  the  Lord  and  doe 
considar  the  oparation  of  his  hands,  that  his  carriage  toward  his 
churches  and  people  in  this  Country  :  hath  not  bin  as  in  former  times 
the  yeers  of  the  right  hand  of  the  most  High  :  but  that  instead  of  his 
wonted  blessing  and  lifting  up  the  light  of  his  Countenance  he  hath 
shewed  us  both  many  signes  of  his  displeasure  against  and  departure 
from  us  :  which  if  he  proceed  to  doe  then  is  that  fearful  woe  Hos  :  9  : 
12  accomplished  towards  us.  The  Consideration  and  fear  wherof 
occasioneth  us  to  present  this  our  humble  Enquiry  to  this  Honoured 
Court  viz  Whether  the  rods  of  God  upon  our  churches  and  land  have 
not  this  speaking  voice  to  us  that  there  should  be  some  publike  and 
solemn  enquiry  what  it  is  that  hath  provoked  the  Lord  (who  doth  not 
afflict  willingly  but  if  neede  be)  against  us. 

The  genuine  and  tender  filiall  spirit  when  it  sees  the  father  angry 
cannot  rest  without  enquiry  why  it  is :  The  example  of  that  man  after 
Gods  own  hart  2  Kings  [?  Samuel]  21,  1 :  2.  (as  well  as  others)  is  a 
pattern  to  us  :  Our  owne  both  distresses  and  dangers  may  necessitate 
us  to  faithfull  and  diligent  search  if  there  be  any  Achan  or  Jonah  that 
may  hazzard  the  Losse  and  ruine  of  all. 

The  finding  and  unanimous  agreing  in  what  our  evill  is  :  seems  to 
be  the  necessary  and  first  means  and  part  of  our  turning  to  the  Lord 
wherby  only  we  can  hope  for  his  return  (in  mercy)  unto  us  accord- 
ing to  his  wonted  loving  kindnesse  :  which  that  we  may  surely  and 
speedily  finde  is  the  earnest  prayer  of  your  humble  servants 

Hadley  May  3d  1670  In  the  name  of  the  ffreemen 

Henry  Clarke  of  the  Town  of  Hadley. 

John  Russell 

Samuell  Smith  William  Holton  ) 

,,.  ^  \  of  northampton 

William  Clarke    )  ^ 

in  the  name  of  Sundrey  of  the  freemen  there 

who  have  had  Consideration  of  the  above 

mentioned  premises.1 

There  haveing  bin  a  motion  to  this  Court  by  sundry  ffreemen  Inhab- 
itants of  Hadley  and  Northampton,  Subscribed  in  their  Names  by 
severall  gentlemen  and  wel  disposed  persons,  and  herewithall  pre- 
sented the  Contents  whereof  is  of  great  Concernment  to  our  peace 
and  the  Contynuation  of  the  presence  of  god  with  us  as  also  remove- 
all  of  these  evills,  that  have  bin  and  are  at  present  upon  us,  which  on 
due  and  serious  Consideration,  the  Deputyes  Judge  meet,  to  reffer  to 
the  further  perusall  of  A  Committee,  and  to  that  end  have  nominated 

1   [Mass.  Archives,  vol.  x.  p.  286.] 


MEMORIAL   FROM  HADLEY.  97 

Captain  Edw  :  Johnson  [Woburn] x  Captain  Rich.  Walderne  [Dover] 
mr.  William  Parke  [Roxbury]  mr.  Edw :  Woodman  [Newbury]  and  mr. 
Peter  Tilton  [Hadley]  unto  whom  they  desire  some  of  our  Honoured 
magistrates  may  be  Added  to  act  herein  and  to  draw  up  their  appre- 
hentions  about  the  same,  and  seasonably  make  returne  thereof  to  this 
Court,  Desireing  our  Honoured  magistrates  Concurrance  herein. 

William  Torrey  Cleric. 

13  :   3.  1670 

The  magistrates  have  nominated  mr.  Thomas  Danforth  to  Joyne  in 
this  Committee  accordingly 

Edw  :  Rawson  Secretary.2 

13th  may  1670. 

Mr.  Danforth  was  one  of  the  magistrates  who  had  given  his 
official  sanction  to  the  formation  of  the  new  church,  and  it  was 
not  likely  that  he  would  be  able  to  agree  with  his  associates  on 
the  joint  committee,  representing,  as  they  did,  the  majority  in 
the  House  of  Deputies,  who  were  on  the  opposite  side.  The 
result  was  the  presentation  of  two  reports,  one  signed  by  the 
members  of  the  House,  the  other  by  Mr.  Danforth.  In  the 
former,  various  "demonstrations  of  the  Lord's  displeasure 
against  this  poor  people  "  are  enumerated,  "  some  whereof  are 
more  immediately  from  his  own  hand,  and  others  more  mediately 
the  corruption  of  man's  nature,  being  through  the  Lord's  judi- 
cial hand,  made  the  executioner  of  his  good  pleasure."  "  Those 
that  are  more  immediate  are  such  as  these  : "  blasting  the 
choicest  of  the  grain  for  several  years  ;  the  great  loss  sustained 
in  shipping,  and  obstruction  to  the  trade  of  the  country  ;  cater- 
pillars, and  grasshoppers  of  late  years,  and  during  the  last  sum- 
mer extraordinary  floods  ;  God's  visitation  of  the  bodies  of  men 
with  sicknesses,  as  agues,  fevers,  etc.  ;  the  death  of  so  many  of 
the  Lord's  servants,  the  ministers  of  his  word ;  and  sundry  pro- 
digious signs,  such  as  comets,  earthquakes,  etc.  "  Those  that 
are   more    mediate   are    these  —  contentions,    unbrotherly  dis- 

1  [Edward    Johnson    was     the     chief  the   church   there.      Whether  he  or  the 

founder  of  Woburn,  and   the  author  of  Rev.  John  Russell  was  the  author  it  is 

Wonder-working    Providence    of    Siori's  impossible  now  to  say. 
Saviour   in   New   England.      Although         Hutchinson,  speaking  of  Peter  Tilton 

chairman  of   the  committee  on  the  part  in  another  connection,  says  that  he  "  was 

of   the   deputies,  he   does   not   seem  to  one  of  the  most  rigid,  and  was  concerned 

have   written    the    report    that   follows,  in  a   paper   published   about  that   time, 

This  and  the  other  papers   on  the  con-  representing  the  great  apostacy  both  of 

servative  side  in  the  controversy  are  in  magistrates     and     ministers."      Captain 

the  handwriting  of  Peter  Tilton,  one  of  Johnson  died  April  23,  1672.] 
the  founders  of  Hadley,  and  a  deacon  in         2  [Mass.  Archives,  vol.  x.  p.  287.] 


98  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

tances,  such  as  do  seem  by  a  judicial  hand  of  God  to  prevail 
among  the  churches  and  people  here." 

The  majority  report  proceeds  to  specify  under  twelve  heads 
"  some  of  the  causes  of  these  epidemical  judgments."  It  will 
be  enough  for  our  present  purpose  to  quote  the  eleventh :  — 

XI.  Weariness  of  the  rule   and  government   of   Christ  in  Church 
and  Commonwealth  2  Chron  xii.  5.  Jer  ii.  5.  6. 
The  effects  or  consequents  whereof  are  ;  — 

1.  Formality  and  slightness  in  the  awful  and  solemn  administrations 
of  God's  house. 

2.  Woeful  declining  from  our  primitive  and  foundation  work. 

3.  Innovation  threatening  the  ruin  of  our  foundations,  and  the  ex- 
tirpation of  those  old  principles  of  the  congregational  way  laid  by  so 
many  of  the  Lord's  worthies  who  are  now  at  rest. 

In  the  third  part  of  the  report,  some  "helps  or  means"  are 
proposed,  "for  the  removing  the  Lord's  hand,  and  stopping  his 
displeasure  so  signally  manifested."  (1.)  The  appointment  by 
the  Court  of  a  solemn  day  of  humiliation.  (2.)  Consideration  by 
"all  sorts,  rich  and  poor,  high  and  low,  of  what  estate  or  condi- 
tion soever  throughout  this  Colony,"  of  the  professed  ends  for 
which  it  was  planted,  namely,  to  serve  in  God's  holy  institu- 
tions, according  to  his  own  mind  and  will.  (3.)  "  That  our  bitter 
strifes,  envyings  and  contentions  be  heartily  bewailed  before 
the  Lord  and  confessed  one  to  another,  and  that  instead  thereof, 
according  to  the  counsel  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  Col.  iii.  12.  we  put 
on  bowels  of  mercies,  kindness,  humbleness  of  mind."  etc. 

The  deputies   approved  of   this  "  returne,"  and  desired    the 
concurrence    of    the  honored  magistrates,  but  they  consented 
not  thereto  (25.  3.  yo).1 
.     Mr.  Danforth  said  in  his  report :  — 

As  to  the  causes  of  God's  anger,  I  do  fully  concur  with  our  breth- 
ren in  those  twelve  particulars  before  mentioned,  as  to  the  substance 
thereof,  only  in  those  three  things  that  are  entered,  as  the  effects  and 
consequences  of  the  eleventh  particular,  viz.  weariness  of  the  rule  and 
government  of  Christ,  I  cannot  concur  nor  subscribe  thereto,  not  so 
fully  understanding  what  they  intend. 

He  then  propounded  whether  the  "weariness  of  Christ's  easy 
yoke,"  which  had  been  deplored,  did  not  more  truly  appear  (1)  in 
families,  in  the  governors  of  them,  and  those  who  should  be 
governed  ;  (2)  in  churches,  "  by  a  practical  rendering  the  church 

1  Mass.  Archives,  vol.  x.  pp.  289,  290,  292. 


ACTION  OF   THE  MAGISTRATES.  99 

covenant  to  be  an  empty,  useless  and  mere  titular  matter ; "  (3) 
in  the  boldness  found  in  many  to  rise  up  against  the  Lord's 
faithful  ministers  ;  (4)  in  a  practical  denial,  on  the  part  of  many, 
of  subjection  to  the  government  of  Christ  and  his  church,  and 
in  others,  want  of  zeal  against  such  sinful  practice  ;  (5)  in  the 
great  neglect  of  multitudes,  old  and  young,  in  not  joining  them- 
selves to  the  Lord  and  his  people.     And  he  concluded  :  — 

Many  more  things  might  be  added,  but  some  of  the  Reverend 
Elders  having  taken  pains,  more  particularly  and  fully  to  discover  both 
the  causes  and  remedies,  and  is  in  a  manuscript  that  may  be  seen  and 
considered,  and  will  be  found  of  general  use  if  the  Court  please  to  call 
for  it,  I  shall  not  further  enlarge. 

Having  declined  to  concur  with  the  deputies  in  approving 
the  majority  report,  the  magistrates  sent  down  on  the  following 
day  a  communication  to  this  effect :  — 

Beloved  Brethren 

Being  Apprehensive  of  the  Sad  Simptomes  of  the  displeasure  of 
God  against  us,  increasing  upon  us  of  late,  wee  thought  it  a  duty 
incumbent  on  us.  to  make  a  serious  Inquiry  into  the  Causes,  by  Im- 
prooving  the  best  meanes  within  our  power,  and  for  that  end  proposed 
to  our  brethren  the  Deputies,  to  make  use  of  the  help  of  the  Elders, 
then  assembled  at  the  Election,  which  proposall  was  by  yourselves 
waved,  yet  soone  after  yourselves  mooving  for  a  Committee  of  this 
Court  to  be  imployed  in  such  a  Service,  in  Compliance  with  you,  wee 
assented,  and  after  a  large  time  of  Consultation  returned  their  result 
which  being  Approved  by  the  deputies  and  sent  up  to  the  magistrates 
for  their  Consent ;  uppon  a  slender  perusall  thereof ;  (though  many 
things  therein  represented  must  be  acknowledged)  severall  particulars 
therein  being  less  clearely  expressed  yet  manifestly  insinuating,  if  not 
reflecting  blame  upon  the  Elders  and  a  Considerable  part  of  the  Coun- 
try, wee  thought  it  necessary,  to  desier  a  cleerer  explication  in  two 
particulars,  which  having  received  from  yourselves,  wee  must  professe 
and  declare  our  greiffe  and  dissatisfaction  to  your  sence,  not  owning 
or  knowing  of  any  Elders  or  Churches  amongst  us  that  can  be  so  char- 
acterized without  Calumny  and  Slaunder,  in  many  of  the  particulars, 
and  in  others  traduced  and  misrepresented  and  consequently  abused  ; 
and  since  the  receipt  of  the  former  we  have  received  a  second  charg- 
ing many  Elders  churches  and  magistrates  with  irregularities  and 
breach  of  order  and  law  in  approving  the  New  church  at  Boston  ;  in 
which  actings  our  innocency  wee  beleive  is  yet  entire,  and  nothing 
hath  (to  our  understanding)  beene  offered  to  convince  of  blame :  And 
notwithstanding  wee  have  too  much  cause  to  feare  that  diverse,  if  they 


IOO  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

have  not  receded  from,  yet  have  imbibed  other  notions  than  were 
owned  or  intended  by  the  first  founders  of  these  colonies  and  churches 
yet  we  shal  forbeare  to  retaliate,  But  doe  hereby  profess  and  declare 
our  adhaerence  to  the  primitive  ends  of  our  coming  hither,  and  to  the 
practice  of  our  churches  in  their  purest  and  most  athlettick  Consti- 
tutions. 

Voted  by  the  magistrates  to  be  sent  to  their  brethren  the  deputies. 

Edward  Rawson  Secretary.1 

26  May  1670. 

Appended  to  this  paper  was  the  following  proposed  reference 
of  the  subject  to  the  clergy :  — 

The  premises  considered,  wee  apprehend  that  wee  have  all  great 
cause  of  humiliation  for  the  divisions  of  our  Reuben,  yet  haveing  con- 
fidence that  there  is  not  so  much  guilt  resting  on  the  churches,  nor 
their  leaders  as  to  those  innovations  that  are  charged  on  them,  al- 
though much  cause  is  found  to  bewayle  the  great  security  and  wearines 
of  the  easy  yoake  of  Christ  Jesus,  and  unkind  enterteyment  that  is 
given  to  the  rich  offers  of  his  grace  in  the  gospell,  Do  Judge  meet  to 
commend  the  same  as  matter  of  humiliation  and  bemoaneing  ourselves 
before  the  Lord,  and  also  to  the  Reverend  Elders  to  consider  thereof 
and  to  present  what  they  shall  Judge  meet  as  an  expedient  for  healing 
and  remedy,  at  the  next  generall  Court. 

To  this  the  deputies  made  an  addition,  as  follows  :  — 

Besides  those  generall  evills  proposed  to  the  consideration  of  this 
Honoured  Court,  as  causes  of  gods  displeasure  (against  this  poore 
Collony)  so  signally  manifested ;  We  we  offer  to  ffurther  Inquirye, 
whether  their  may  not  be  allso  sometimes  perticular  evills  of  persons 
standing  in  a  publick  capassitie,  in  Cases  wherein  they  may  be  con- 
cerned or  rather  concerne  themselves  unnesesarilye,  which  may  occasion 
publick  Calamitye,  —  That  Instance  of  davids  numbring  the  people 
with  the  Sad  Effects  that  ffollowed  thereupon,  and  Gideons  action  in 
makeing  that  Ephod  and  the  consequents  that  Issued  ffrom  the  Same 
as  allsoe  Elies  Indulging  his  Sonns  in  a  matter  wherein  the  worshipp 
of  the  Lord  was  so  deeplye  concerned  and  that  dreadfull  Testimony 
the  Lord  gave  against  it ;  all  which  considered  and  that  we  may  deale 
nakedly  and  Impartially-  with  our  one  [own]  Soules  and  the  Countrye 
we  now  represent  in  such  a  daye  of  Searching  and  tryeing  as  this 
is  or  ought  to  be  we  canot  but  offer  the  ffollowing  Queres  to  consid- 
eration 

1.  Whether  those  actions  that  not  only  have  in  their  one  [own] 
nature  a  Tendencye  to  but  doe  directly  Infringe  any  of  our  Church 
and  gospell  liberties  (given  us  by  god  himselfe  and  granted  to  us  by 

1  [Mass.  Archives,  vol.  x.  pp.  288,  293.] 


A    PAPER  FROM   THE    DEPUTIES.  IOI 

the  Honoured  Court)  which  we  ought  to  account  as  our  all,  be  not  a 
provokation  of  divine  displeasure. 

our  law  saith  no  Companye  of  men  shall  Joyne  in  any  pretended 
way  of  Church  ffelloshipp,  Except  they  have  the  aprobation  of  the 
magistrates  and  Elders  of  the  Neibouring  Churches  ;  the  meaneing 
of  which  lawe  we  humbly  conceave,  is  not  nor  cannot  in  any  gramaticall 
sence  be  understood,  that  when  some  magistrates  apeare  and  declare 
openlye  against  the  proceedings  of  any  as  Irregular,  That  others  that 
are  absent  shall  abett  or  Incourage  the  same  before  any  search  or 
Examination  of  the  case  be  made :  or  that  Neibourring  Churches  not 
approveing  the  same  procedure  yet  other  Churches  to  aprove  and 
carye  it  on. 

that  we  Inferr  is,  That  which  begetts  and  nesesarily  norishes  con- 
fusion, breaches  disunion  and  divission,  cannot  be  according  to  any 
rule  of  religion  or  order,  and  so  not  the  meaneing  of  the  lawe  before  ex- 
pressed but  rather  diametrically  contrarye ;  Setting  magistrate  against 
magistrate  one  church  against  another,  and  so  a  high  dishonour  and 
provokation  to  the  Lord. 

2.  We  humblye  Conceave  it  is  in  the  libertye  of  every  Church  to 
Exersise  all  the  Ordinances  of  god  amongst  themselves ;  according  to 
the  rules  of  his  one  [own]  apointment,  the  Infringing  or  obstructing 
wherof  we  cannot  but  ffeare  is  highly  displeaseing  to  god. 

That  which  we  offer  to  Quere  and  Consideration  ffrom  the  premises 
whether  in  a  case  lately  Happening  amongst  us  notoriously  known 
which  should  have  binn  regulated  by  the  law  above  expressed  against 
which  magistrates  declared,  wanting  allsoe  that  aprobation  of  New 
Churches  as  was  meete  :  all  things  Considered  whether  we  have  not 
cause  to  suspect  and  therfore  inquire  as  being  a  thinge  of  so  great 
concerne,  whether  ther  may  be  no  guilt  (on  any  our  Civill  or  Eccle- 
siastick  leaders,  in  Incorraging  and  countenanceing  the  same  against 
the  professed  decleration  of  others  ;  standing  in  alike  capassitye  with 
themselves)  which  may  if  not  Searched  out  become  a  trouble  to  our 
Israeli  considering  the  Examples  before  mentioned. 

That  we  may  free  our  selves  and  the  Countrye  whom  we  represent 
ffrom  guilt,  we  Judg  it  our  dutye  If  it  might  be,  to  bring  any  that 
have  binn  active  in  the  premises  seriouslye  to  consider  of  it  and  to 
prevent  like  miscariges  ffor  the  ffuture. 

As  allsoe  that  we  may  declare  and  leave  on  record  our  deepe  Sence 
of  such  Irregularityes ;  and  that  the  hands  of  our  Honoured  magis- 
trates might  be  Strengthened  ;  and  might  not  dash  one  against  another: 
and  that  our  Elders  might  Studdy  the  uniteing  of  our  poore  languising 
sickly  Churches  and  ardentlye  Endeavour,  the  preventing  and  ob- 
structing of  all  those  wayes  and  thinges  that  have  any  Tendencye  to 
divission  and  Breaches. 

The  Deputyes  haveing  read  this  paper  Judge  meete  as  an  addition 


102  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

to  what  is  already  in  Court  to  Commend  to  the  Consideration  of  our 
Honoured  magistrates 

William  Torrey  Cleric.1 
26  (3)  1670 

In  their  communication  of  May  26,  the  magistrates  say  that 
they  have  received  a  second  report  from  the  deputies,  "charging 
many  elders,  churches  and  magistrates  with  irregularities  and 
breach  of  order  and  law,  in  approving  the  New  Church  at 
Boston."  This  paper,  which  would  seem  to  have  been  more 
explicit  in  its  statements  and  charges  than  the  report  of  which 
we  have  given  an  abstract,  has  not  come  down  to  us.  Quite 
possibly,  it  was  destroyed  when  Governor  Hutchinson's  house 
was  sacked  in  the  stormy  days  of  1765.  The  governor,  we 
think,  must  have  had  it  before  him  when  he  was  writing  his 
history  ;  at  all  events,  he  has  preserved  for  us  a  few  of  its  sen- 
tences—  let  us  hope,  the  most  pungent  and  invective  —  which 
show  it  to  have  been  one  of  the  most  remarkable  papers  ever 
adopted  by  a  legislative  body. 

Declension  from  the  primitive  foundation  work ;  innovation  in 
doctrine  and  worship,  opinion  and  practice;  an  invasion  of  the 
rights,  liberties,  and  privileges  of  churches ;  an  usurpation  of  a  lordly, 
prelatical  power  over  God's  heritage  ;  a  subversion  of  gospel  order ; 
and  all  this  with  a  dangerous  tendency  to  the  utter  devastation 
of  these  churches ;  turning  the  pleasant  gardens  of  Christ  into  a 
wilderness ;  and  the  inevitable  and  total  extirpation  of  the  principles 
and  pillars  of  the  congregational  way :  these  are  the  leaven,  the  cor- 
rupting gangrene,  the  infecting,  spreading  plague,  the  provoking 
images  of  jealousy  set  up  before  the  Lord,  the  accursed  thing,  which 
hath  provoked  the  divine  wrath,  and  doth  further  threaten  destruction. 

As  we  now  read  the  history,  it  does  not  occur  to  us  to  con- 
demn the  "  dissenting  brethren,"  and  those  who  approved  of 
their  course,  for  the  "  usurpation  of  a  lordly,  prelatical  power 
over  God's  heritage,"  or  for  "  turning  the  pleasant  gardens  of 
Christ  into  a  wilderness,"  by  the  baleful  introduction  of  strife, 
division,  and  crimination  ;  but  in  all  ages,  as  we  know,  the 
Ahabs  have  insisted  that  not  they,  but  the  Elijahs,  were  the 
troublers  of  Israel. 

In  order  that  there  might  be  no  mistake  as  to  the  application 
of  the  report,  the  committee,  says  Hutchinson,  "  then  take 
notice  of  the  late  transaction  of  churches  and  elders,  in  con- 

1   [A/ass.  Archives,  vol.  x.  pp.  294,  295.] 


ANOTHER  PAPER  FROM   THE   DEPUTIES.  103 

stituting  the  Third  Church  of  Boston,  as  irregular,  illegal  and 
disorderly."  x 

The  magistrates  asked  the  deputies  to  be  somewhat  more 
definite  in  their  "  explication  "  of  some  of  the  causes  of  God's 
judgments,  and  received  the  following  reply :  — 

To  the  Answer  of  our  Honoured  Magistrates  relateing  to  the  depu- 
tyes  explication  of  the  2d  and  3d  perticuler  of  the  nth  Heade  of  the 
Causes  of  Gods  Judgment 

We  cannot  but  with  a  deepe  Sence  be  affected  that  such  whom  we 
hope  Intend  the  same  end  yet  should  so  disagree  in  the  meanes  or 
rather  the  malladye  the  cause  of  the  Lords  Controversye  — 

Honoured  Gentlemen  give  us  leave  to  maintaine  our  inocencye  so 
ffar  as  We  have  binn  active  in  this  so  necesarye  and  momentous  a  con- 
cerne  against  some  perticulers  Aserted  against  us  by  your  selves 

1  you  say  we  waved  your  proposall  of  makeing  Inquirye  into  the 
Causes  of  gods  Judgment,  and  makeing  use  of  the  advice  of  the 
Elders,  To  which  we  Answer  Lett  but  the  Bill  be  perused  that  was 
sent  downe  aboute  the  Same  and  our  Answer  subscribed  to  it  and 
there  will  apeare  no  such  thinge  but  our  expressed  willingnes  to  attend 
the  motion 

2  you  say  we  Insinuate  refHect  traduce  slander  abuse  Churches 
Elders  &c :  in  the  thinges  we  asert  and  Quere. 

we  Answer  such  a  spirit  Very  111  becomes  persons  in  our  present 
capassitye,  but  the  Searcher  of  Hearts  knowes  we  have  not  binn  led 
by  such  a  principle  in  what  we  have  declared,  Neither  can  we  yet 
thinke  uppon  a  serious  search  of  what  we  have  either  Aserted  or 
Quered  But  the  Lord  will  one  [own]  us,  and  Certainly  if  we  will  not 
Search  so  as  to  be  through,  god  will  in  a  litle  time  doe  it  to  purpose  : 
Honoured  Gentlemen  we  are  now  Casting  the  lott  ffor  god,  If  we 
could  say  there  was  no  Achan  or  troubler  in  Churches  [or]  in  State 
Well  were  it,  But  doth  not  the  Lord  spitt  in  our  ffaces  and  fforce  us  to 
a  stand.  If  we  should  say  all  was  well  in  Churches  in  Elders  in 
magistrates  in  other  Sosyeties  as  to  publick  Guilt  would  not  the  Lord 
reprove  us  and  say  what  meanes  then  the  Bleateing  of  the  sheepe  &zc : 
the  Groweing  ffesteringe  wounds  of  poore  New  England  as  to  religon 
both  in  power  and  puritye  ;  we  Assert  and  Quere  but  what  we  have 
observed  and  seene  as  a  ffretting  leprosie  creeping  in  uppon  Us,  and 
ffor  Which  there  hath  binn  many  prayers  and  Teares  powered  fforth 
before  the  Lord  ;  let  us  not  be  blamed  when  called  by  god  to  speake 
Our  Aprehensions  ffor  the  greatest  Interest  in  the  World  yours  and 

1  Hutchinson's  History,  vol.  i.  p.  249.  shall  speak  presently  ;  but  we  think  he 

He  may  have  taken    the  paragraph  we  writes  as  one  having  the  original  docu- 

have   quoted   from   him   from    the    me-  ment  before  him.     Felt,  in  his  Annals, 

morial  of  fifteen  ministers  addressed  to  follows  Hutchinson  in  his  reference  to 

the  General  Court  of  1671,  of  which  we  this  report. 


104  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

ours :  who  I  hope  can  beare  with  Bretheren  of  a  differing  mind ; 
Neither  doe  we  see  any  reason  to  be  Blamed  ffor  drinkeing  in  any 
notions  Contrarye  to  our  primitive  and  ffirst  ffoundations,  as  not  being 
ever  Convicted  of  the  same  by  your  selves  or  any  other ; 

Voted  by  the  Deputyes  to  be  sent  to  our 
Honoured  magistrates 
28  (3)  William  Torrey  Cleric  1 

While  this  controversy  between  the  two  branches  of  the 
General  Court  was  in  progress,  the  deputy  governor,  Francis 
Willoughby,  detained  at  his  home  in  Charlestown  by  illness, 
was  following  it  with  the  deepest  interest.  Unable  to  partici- 
pate in  the  discussions  in  person,  he  wrote  a  letter  to  the  magis- 
trates, which  was  pervaded  by  a  beautiful  spirit  of  charity  and 
conciliation.  This  letter  probably  made  very  little  impression 
upon  the  opposition  party  at  the  time,  but  it  reveals  to  us  the 
amiable,  candid,  and  devout  qualities  of  the  writer's  mind  and 
heart.  After  reading  it  we  can  easily  believe,  as  Backus  tells 
us,  that  he  was  "  a  great  opposer  of  the  persecutions  against  the 
Baptists."  The  members  of  the  Old  South  certainly  can  never 
forget  that  in  the  days  of  its  trial  this  excellent  man  opened 
his  hospitable  doors  to  receive  the  council  which  met  for  its 
recognition,  and  which  extended  to  it  the  right  hand  of  church 
fellowship. 

Gentlemen 

The  allwise  God  seeing  fit  to  lay  me  under  Such  a  dispensation  as 
by  which  I  am  rendered  uncapable  of  attending  upon  you  and  upon 
the  work  that  I  have  been  called  to,  being  Confined  to  my  habitation. 

Having  varietie  of  visiters  Sometimes,  and  meeting  with  reports, 
(how  true  I  know  not)  that  you  were  making  it  your  work  to  be  Solici- 
tous to  know  the  Cause  of  Gods  displeasure  and  frown  upon  us  mani- 
fested in  those  Severall  wayes  which  are  obvious  to  any  intelligent 
spirit ;  It  being  hinted  to  me  that  the  way  that's  taken  does  not  seeme 
to  produce  any  good  Issue ;  but  rather  to  beget  animosities  and 
distances  of  spirit  one  part  of  the  Court  against  the  other,  and  one 
person  against  another;  which  if  true,  is  possibly  occasioned  by  the 
misrepresentation  of  Cases,  possibly  by  prejudices  taken  up  in  one 
anothers  spirits,  without  enquiring  into  the  truth  and  reallity  of  things, 
possibly  by  some  occasion  given  in  some  particular  cases  (we  all, 
being  but  men,  and  capable  of  acting  but  as  men,  and  so  Subject  to 
faile  and  miscarry  in  every  thing  we  doe)  I  take  the  boldnes  to  hint 
the  Same  and  to  lay  my  feares  before  you  that  (if  things  be  amongst 

1  [Mass.  Archives,  vol.  x.  p.  296] 


THE  DEPUTY  GOVERNOR'S  LETTER.  105 

you  as  they  are  rendered,  that  there  should  be  such  distances  in  your 
transactions)  it  may  tend  to  the  provoking  of  God  to  a  further  degree 
of  displeasure,  and  may  lay  us  open  to  greater  Inconvenience  both  at 
home  and  abroad,  when  it  shalbe  rumour'd  that  you  shalbe  at  such  a 
distance  one  from  another ;  especially  if  you  should  rise  and  break  up 
Court  in  such  a  frame. 

As  I  beg  your  excuse  wherein  I  may  be  defective  in  anything  I  say, 
so  I  would  humbly  entreat  you  would  look  upon  your  selves  not  only 
as  men,  but  men  eminently  professing  the  name  of  God  :  Consider 
that  the  eyes  of  the  world  are  in  a  great  measure  upon  us,  so  that 
if  we  doe  anything  that  may  prove  Inconvenient  to  our  Selves, 
the  name  of  God  will  not  only  suffer  exceedingly,  but  we  shalbe  as 
persons  without  pitty,  by  how  much  we  if  by  our  pretended  enquiry 
into  the  Cause  of  Gods  anger,  shall  divide  and  break  to  peeces  and 
bring  suffrings  upon  our  Selves,  when  the  Lord  by  his  providence 
hath  prevented  its  coming  by  other  hands.  That  there  may  be  differ- 
ences of  apprehension  is  nothing  but  whats  Common.  But  our  direc- 
tion in  the  word  of  God  is  that  all  things  should  be  done  in  Love ; 
and  if  we  would  doe  any  singular  thing,  as  we  are  singular  in  our  pro- 
fession, Let's  manifest  it  in  our  endeavouring  to  Subdue  our  Spirits, 
and  to  carry  things  an  end  with  that  affection  and  tendernes  to  the 
name  of  God,  and  one  another,  that  it  may  appear  the  spirit  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  is  breathing  in  us.  I  perswade  my  selfe  your  scope 
and  aime  is  right,  and  for  God  :  But  the  way  and  manner  to  bring 
about  your  aimes  may  possibly  be  sometimes  irregular ;  Let's  mind 
the  manner  as  well  as  the  matter :  Let  the  name  of  God  be  most 
dear  and  precious  to  us,  above  our  private  annimosities  and  preju- 
dices :  Let  not  Jealouzy  possess  our  spirits  without  sufficient  ground 
and  demonstration,  and  let  the  demonstration  appear  to  be  a  Con- 
trivance in  way  of  designe,  before  we  set  our  selves  in  full  opposition  : 
For  it  may  be  upon  enquiry,  it  may  either  arise  from  weakness  or  In- 
firmity, or  from  that  Lattitude  which  we  would  give  to  others  or 
gladly  take  our  selves.  I  earnestly  beg  what  I  say  may  not  be  mis- 
constructed  ;  you  know  my  plainess,  if  I  err  in  anything  Charge  it  to 
to  the  account  of  my  love,  and  great  desire  the  name  of  God  may  not 
be  a  sufferer  by  our  means  :  And  I  doe  earnestly  beseech  you  that 
you  study  and  contrive  some  way  before  you  break  up  the  Court,  to 
adjorne  with  the  demonstration  of  oneness  and  affection,  that  it  may 
appear  you  all  scope  at  the  good  of  the  poor  Country  :  And  that 
you  will  endeavour  to  have  as  good  thoughts  one  of  another  as  pos- 
sibly you  can,  retaining  the  Interest  of  the  name  of  God  among  us  ; 
Let  it  not  be  published  to  the  world  that  the  Government  of  New  Eng- 
land is  broken,  and  that  your  animosities  are  such  that  tis  Impossible 
for  you  to  agree  in  anything  that  may  tend  to  the  Saving  the  whole. 
Desiring  a  good  Construction  may  be  put  upon  my  broken  lines  ;  and 


106  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

that  you  will  beleeve  that  my  scope  is  publike  Interest ;  Praying  and 
beseeching  the  Lord  to  be  with  you  in  your  Counsells  and  determi- 
nations, that  his  name  may  be  gloryfied  in  all  your  transactions,  with 
my  service  heartyly  tendered  to  you  I  rest 

yours  affectionately  desiring  the  Interest  of  the  name  of 
God  may  not  be  buryed,  but  thrive  in  this  poor  wilder- 
ness under  your  hands 

FFR  WlLLOUGHBY  1 

Charlestowne  28th.  3d.  70 

In  one  particular  the  two  branches  of  the  Court  were  able 
to  take  harmonious  action.  The  deputies  concurred  with  the 
magistrates  in  the  appointment  of  a  day  of  humiliation  to  be 
kept  throughout  the  jurisdiction,  as  set  forth  in  the  following 
order,  in  the  terms  of  which  the  latter  seem  to  have  gone  as  far 
as  they  could  in  their  enumeration  of  the  evils  of  the  times,  to 
conciliate  the  former  :  — 

Att  A  Generall  Court  of  Election  held  at  Boston  the  nth  of  May 
1670. 

The  Generall  Court  being  sencible  of  Gods  hand  upon  the  Country 
sundry  yeares  in  divers  aflicting  providences  have  been  desirous  to 
jnquire  into  the  Causes  thereof  and  amongst  others  Doe  Conceive 
these  following  may  be  Considered  :  i.  e. 

A  selfish  spirit  minding  more  our  owne  things  than  the  things  of 
Christ  and  of  private  before  publick  good  —  too  much  slightnes  and 
negligence  in  prizing  and  Improoving  the  Government  and  order  both 
civil  and  Sacred  in  church  and  Comon-wealth  —  A  great  and  gen- 
erall neglect  of  Instructing  and  Governing  the  rising  Generation  both 
in  familjes  and  churches.  A  Cooling  of  former  life  and  heate  in 
Spirittuall  Communion  —  too  great  neglect  in  some  places  of  a  Com- 
fortable upholding  and  providing  for  the  outward  Subsistance  of  sun- 
dry faithfull  ministers  —  too  much  decay  of  love  to  God  and  one  to 
another  and  harboring  groundles  Jealousies  accompanied  with  whisper- 
ings backbitings  which  wayes  tend  to  seperate  very  freinds  —  too  great 
abounding  of  Sin  amongst  us,  as  pride  luxury  drunckenes  oppression 
uncleanes  and  divers  others  —  these  with  many  other  sins  that  the 
Lord  may  upon  Inquiry  Convince  his  people  of  Wee  desire  may  be 
Confessed  bewayled  and  a  thorough  reformation  indeavored  and  for 
this  purpose  The  Court  doe  Appoint  the  sixteenth  day  of  June  next 
for  a  day  of  humilliation  to  be  kept  throughout  this  Jurisdiction  and 
doe  Commend  it  to  the  churches  Elders  ministers  and  people  to  keepe 
the  same  solemnly  and  seriously  accordingly 

1  [Mass.  Archives,  vol.  x.  p.  297.     Mr.  Willoughby  died  April  4,  1671.] 


THE   GENERAL    COURT   OF   167 1.  1 07 

The  magistrates  have  past  this  their  brethren  the  Deputies  hereto 
consenting. 

31  May  1670  Edw.  Rawson  Secretary. 

Consented  to  by  the  Deputys 

William  Torrey  Cleric.1 

It  was  at  this  time  that  the  Rev.  Josiah  Flint,  of  Dorchester, 
wrote  in  his  diary  :  — 

A  spirit  of  division,  persecution  and  oppressing  God's  ministers 
and  precious  saints,  is  the  sin  which  is  unseen,  and  none  bear  witness 
against.  It  is  a  great  sin,  and  threatens  a  sword  of  divine  wrath. 
God's  seers  fear  it,  and  their  bowels  and  compassions  are  moved 
at  it. 

The  next  election  turned  chiefly  on  the  question,  Who  are  for 
the  old  church  and  who  for  the  new  ?  and  so  strong  was  the 
popular  feeling  against  the  conservatives,  that  a  majority  of 
the  members  of  the  House  of  Deputies  of  1670  lost  their  seats, 
and  more  enlightened  men  were  chosen  to  succeed  them.  It 
was  not  then  required  that  a  deputy  should  reside  in  the  town 
represented  by  him,  and  this  made  it  possible  for  several  lead- 
ing members  of  the  Third  Church  to  be  returned  to  the  new 
House.2  Thomas  Savage  was  elected  for  Andover,  William 
Davis  for  Springfield,  John  Hull  for  Westfield,  Hezekiah  Usher 
for  Billerica,  and  Thomas  Brattle  for  Lancaster.  Major  Savage, 
who  had  filled  the  chair  in  1659  and  1660,  was  again  chosen 
speaker.3  A  majority  of  the  magistrates  was  favorable  to  the 
new  church,  and  with  the  ever  faithful  secretary,  Edward  Raw- 
son,  at  his  post,  its  friends  were  now  prepared  to  bring  to  speedy 
silence  the  carping  criticism  and  calumnious  aspersions  with 
which  they  had  borne  so  long  and  so  patiently. 

At  the  opening  of  the  session,  fifteen  prominent  clergymen, 

1  Gen.  Court  Records,  vol.  iv.  p.  653.  people  ;  but  it  certainly  was  occasioned 
On  the  8th  of  September,  the  Council  by  what  is  commonly  called  the  preroga- 
appointed  another  fast,  "  taking  into  their  tive  party  in  government,  and,  however 
serious  consideration,  the  low  estate  of  the  salutary,  was  designed  as  an  abridgment 
churches  of  God  throughout  the  world,  of  liberty."  Samuel  Sewall,  who  had 
and  the  increase  of  sin  and  evil  amongst  represented  Westfield  in  the  House  of 
ourselves."  It  was  observed  September  Representatives,  voted  for  the  change, 
22. —  Mass.  Archives,  vol.  x.  p.  17.  and    so    did    Thomas    Danforth,    John 

2  The  law  of  representation  was  Richards,  Wait  Winthrop,  and  Jonathan 
changed  in  this  regard  in  1693.  Hutchin-  Corwin.  William  Stoughton,  John  Wal- 
son  says  of  the  bill  then  passed,  restrict-  ley,  and  Peter  Sergeant  voted  against  the 
ing  towns  from  choosing  representatives  restriction.  —  See  Sewall  Papers,  vol.  i. 
from   beyond   their   own   limits  :    "  This  pp.  3S6,  3S7. 

provision  is  generally  looked  upon  as  a         3  He  served  again  as  speaker  of  the 
privilege,    and    a    point   gained    by    the      House  in  1677  and  1678. 


108  HISTORY  OF    THE   OLD   SOUTH   CHURCH. 

indignant  at  the  utterances  of  the  House  of  the  preceding  year, 
united  in  a  memorial  in  which  they  protested  against  them  in 
their  own  name  and  in  that  of  their  friends,  and  asked  for  a 
reversal  of  judgment  upon  the  charges  which  had  been  brought 
against  them. 

This  memorial  begins  with  a  recognition  of  God's  goodness 
as  manifested  in  the  "  transplantation  of  our  fathers  in  this 
wilderness,"  and  in  his  blessing  "  this  our  generation  with  the 
uninterrupted  succession  of  a  godly  and  able  magistracy."  It 
declares  that  the  memorialists  have  not  receded  "  from  the  safe 
and  sober  principles  of  the  congregational  way,  laid  in  the  first 
foundation  of  these  churches  by  our  first  sound  and  sincere  re- 
formers," and  they  utterly  disclaim  "  all  spurious  principles  and 
practices,  as  those  of  separation,  anabaptism  (anarchical),  con- 
fusion and  licentious  toleration,  which  is  no  part  of  our  cause, 
nor  of  the  end  and  design  of  the  Lord's  faithful  servants  when 
they  followed  him  into  this  land."  They  then  take  up  the 
specific  charges  which  had  been  brought  against  them,  and  vin- 
dicate their  course  with  regard  to  the  formation  of  the  Third 
Church.     They  say  :  — 

This  solemn  profession  we  make  as  a  vindication  of  our  integrity 
and  innocency  from  the  unjust  charge  of  innovation,  which  with  a  loud 
cry  of  clamor  and  apostasy  is  laid  upon  the  generality  of  the  min- 
isters of  these  churches ;  [a  significant  clause,  as  showing  that  "  the 
generality  of  the  ministers  "  approved  of  the  formation  of  the  Third 
Church ;]  which  unjust  charge  we  are  the  more  deeply  sensible  of, 
because  it  hath  been  (if  not  made  and  managed,  yet)  heightened  and 
more  confidently  and  audibly  divulged  by  the  common  and  vulgar 
reports  of  the  several  returns  of  the  committee  chosen  by  the  House 
of  Deputies  of  the  last  General  Court,  for  the  discovery  of  the  causes 
of  God's  controversies  with  the  land,  and  the  votes  of  the  major  part 
of  the  house  thereupon,  concluding  determining  and  declaring  that 
declension  from  the  primitive  foundation  worke,  innovation  in  doc- 
trine and  worship,  opinion  and  practise  .  .  .  are  the  leaven,  the  cor- 
rupting gangrene,  the  infesting,  spreading  plague,  .  .  .  and  withal 
plainly  insinuating  that  the  ministry  are  the  Achan,  the  chief  incen- 
diaries of  wrath  and  procurers  of  judgment  on  the  land ;  as  if  in  cast- 
ing the  lot  of  God,  they  were  taken,  and  the  accursed  thing  found  with 
them,  giving  instance  in  the  late  solemn  transaction  of  churches  and 
leders  in  the  constitution  of  the  Third  Church  in  Boston,  as  irregular, 
illegal  and  disorderly,  and  so  a  sufficient  signal  of  the  whole  discovery. 

The  memorialists  further  declare  that  a  "  sincere  and  sober 


MEMORIAL  FROM   THE   CLERGY.  109 

zeal  for  the  glory  of  God  and  the  honour  of  the  Gospel "  em- 
boldens them  to  offer  their  defense  "  for  the  removal  of  that 
black  cloud  of  calumny  which  is  drawn  over  the  churches  and 
the  ministry."  They  then,  under  six  specifications,  show  the 
injustice  of  the  sweeping  charges  made  by  the  General  Court 
against  them,  and  through  them  upon  the  churches  and  min- 
isters of  the  colony,  and  add  :  — 

The  whole  charge  savoureth  of  a  spirit  under  an  extraordinary 
transportation,  from  a  present,  personal  and  passionate  concern  in  the 
interest  of  a  party,  as  appears  by  the  instance  of  the  business  of  the 
Third  Church,  and  so  of  a  design  to  scandalize  that  precious  church 
of  Christ,  at  least  to  hinder  the  consummation  and  confirmation  of 
that  work  of  God,  by  the  peaceable  settlement  of  that  church  in 
actual  and  full  communion  with  all  other  churches.  By  a  misrepre- 
sentation of  that  weighty  and  worthy  transaction  undertaken  and 
managed  in  a  regular  way,  to  an  orderly  issue,  it  doth  deeply  charge 
and  calumniate  magistrates  and  churches,  and  consequently  elders 
and  church  messengers,  with  dangerous  design,  yea,  with  a  crime  of 
infringing  gospel  and  church  liberties,  with  breach  of  law,  and  that  in 
a  factious  way  by  abetting  and  encouraging  that  which  is  illegal,  .  .  . 
thereby  loading  so  great  a  part  of  the  magistrates,  churches  and  elders 
with  the  guilt  and  scandal  of  that  which  they  suppose  to  be  the 
great  and  criminal  sin  of  the  times,  .  .  .  and  all  this  before  they 
have  orderly  inquired  into  the  case,  or  could  have  a  regular  cogniz- 
ance of  the  true  state  thereof,  nor  acknowledging  the  many  signal 
manifestations  of  God's  presence  and  assistance  in  his  acceptance  of 
and  blessing  upon  that  work. 

Finally,  the  memorialists  lament :  — 

"  How  much  the  Spirit  of  God  in  the  hearts  of  many  of  his  faithful 
servants  hath  been  grieved,  how  much  an  anti-ministerial  spirit  hath 
been  strengthened  and  emboldened,  how  much  the  hands  and  hearts 
of  many  that  labor  in  the  work  of  the  ministry  have  been  weakened, 
how  much  the  spirit  of  many  hath  been  prejudiced  against  their  in- 
structions, and  filled  with  groundless  jealousies  and  suspicions  by  the 
misrepresenting  and  scandalizing  of  elders  to  their  churches  "  etc.1 

The  clergymen  who  signed  this  memorial  were  Edmund 
Browne,  John  Ward,  Samuel  Whiting,  John  Allin,  Thomas 
Thacher,  Sr.,  John  Higginson,  John  Sherman,  Thomas  Cob- 
bett,  Seaborn  Cotton,  Thomas  Shepherd,  Samuel  Phillips, 
William  Hubbard,  Antipas  Newman,  Samuel  Torrey,  Samuel 
Whiting,  Jr. 

We  have  said  that  the  composition  of  the  House  of  Deputies 

1  \_Gen.  Court  Records,  vol.  iv.  part  ii.  pp.  4S9-492.] 


HO  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

had  been  changed  very  materially  since  the  preceding  session. 
The  memorialists  could  not  have  desired  a  more  full  and  com- 
plete vindication  than  that  which  they  now  received  in  the 
reply  to  their  address.     It  was  in  these  words  :  — 

Upon  consideration  of  the  petition  of  sundry  of  the  reverend  elders 
declaring  the  deep  and  afflictive  sense  of  some  votes  passed  in  May 
1670,  in  the  House  of  Deputies  (upon  the  return  of  part  of  a  Com- 
mittee chosen  by  the  honored  Court  to  inquire  into  the  causes  of 
God's  displeasure,)  which  they  conceive  to  reflect  great  reproach  and 
scandal  on  the  ministry  in  general,  and  that  demonstrated  by  an  act 
referring  to  the  Third  Church  in  Boston,  wherein  some  in  particular 
are  characterized  as  abettors  in  the  constituting  that  church,  and 
thereby  rendered  as  the  troublers  in  our  Israel,  and  as  the  Achans,  &c, 
being  an  act  infringing  of  church  and  gospel  liberties,  and  the  free 
exercise  of  all  ordinances  by  churches  within  themselves,  &c,  although 
it  must  be  asserted  that  the  acts  of  this  honoured  Court,  being  the 
supreme  authority,  are  not  liable  to  question  by  any,  and  that  free  de- 
bates are  the  indubitable  right  of  the  said  Court,  yet,  forasmuch  as  in 
an  hour  of  temptation  such  acts  may  pass  in  our  Court  as  may, 
according  to  principles  of  religion,  prudence  and  state  interest,  be 
reviewed,  and  upon  mature  deliberation  rectified,  —  in  this  case  the 
Court  conceives  it  duty  to  declare  that  forasmuch  as  several  expres- 
sions in  the  said  transactions  have  an  appearance  of  the  justness  of 
the  complaints  in  the  said  petitions,  and  that  they  may  not  leave  any 
just  ground  of  grievance  in  the  hearts  of  the  reverend  elders,  nor 
their  ministry  be  made  ineffectual  by  that  anti-ministerial  spirit  that 
too  much  runs  through  the  country,  the  Court  orders  and  declares, 
that  the  said  papers  referring  to  that  case  are  to  be  accounted  useless, 
and  not  to  be  improved  against  the  reverend  elders  as  the  cause  of 
God's  displeasure  against  the  country,  or  to  be  made  public.  And 
whereas  many  have  taken  liberty  in  an  irregular  way  to  publish  the 
secrets  of  the  Court  in  that  case,  we  do  declare  such  are  to  be  account- 
able according  to  the  nature  of  the  fact. 

The  Court  doth  further  declare,  that  they  know  no  just  cause  of 
those  scandalizing  reflections  contained  in  the  said  papers  indefinitely 
against  magistrates,  elders  and  churches,  either  in  reference  to  the 
new  church  of  Boston  or  otherwise,  and  therefore,  till  they  be  further 
informed,  must  judge  them  innocent,  and  unduly  calumniated  and 
misrepresented,  and  do  hereby  profess  and  declare  with  the  reverend 
elders  in  their  address,  that  we  do  adhere  to  the  primitive  ends  of  our 
coming  hither,  retaining  the  sober  principles  of  the  Congregational 
way,  and  the  practice  of  our  churches  in  their  present  and  most 
athletic  constitutions.1 

:  \Gen.  Court  Records,  vol.   iv.  part  ii.  pp.  493-495-1 


oa 


V       *•       «^-\   ^^-L" 


u2 


^ 


SEVENTEEN  DEPUTIES  DISSENT. 


Ill 


This  action,  of  course,  was  not  unanimous.     Seventeen  depu- 
ties entered  their  dissent  from  it  in  the  following  paper:  1  — 

Boston  June  167 1 

We  whose  names  are  here  subscribed  doe  desire  our  dissents  may 
be  Entred  (according  to  the  libbertye  the  lawe  gives  us)  with  refference 
to  the  Voates  that  have  passed  in  the  Affirmitive  this  present  Courtt 
relateing  to  the  Addresse  of  the  Elders 
Richard  Waldern       Anthony  Stoddard     Richard  Beeres 
Edw.  Johnson  Edward  Hutchinson  John  Wayte 

Peter  Tillton  Samll  Wheelwright 

Richard  Cooke  Humphry  Davie 

Tho:  Clarke  Daniell  ffisher 

Oliver  Purchis 
Joshua  ffisher  2 


Samuell  Smith 
Henry  Bartholmew 
Thomas  Clarke 


The  Rev.  Dr.  Wisner,  in  commenting  upon  these  events  in 
his  Historical  Discourses,  says  :  — 

Thus  the  new  church,  and  its  friends  through  the  colony,  achieved 
a  public  and  final  triumph  :  a  triumph  to  be  regretted,  as  involving  the 
consummation  of  a  wide  and  pernicious  departure  from  the  primitive 
Gospel  discipline  of  the  New  England  churches  ;  to  be  rejoiced  in,  as 
conferring  the  rights  of  freemen  to  many  who  had  been  unjustly 
deprived  of  them,  and  laying  the  foundation  of  all  the  good  to  be 
effected,  in  the  hands  of  Providence,  by  this  church. 


1  Mass.  Archives,  vol.  x.  p.  201. 

2  The  following  is  a  list  of  the  Deputies 
of  1 67 1.  We  give  the  names  as  spelled 
in  the  General  Court  Records.  Those 
who  voted  against  the  report  are  marked 
in  italics,  members  of  the  Third  Church 
in  small  capitals. 

Mr  Edmond  Batter,  Mr.  Hen  Bar- 
tholmew, Salem ;  Capt  Jno  Allen,  Mr 
Wm  Stiltson,  Charles  Town  ;  Capt 
Roger  Clap,  Left  Jno  Capen,  Dorches- 
ter ;  Capt  Tho  Clarke,  Mr  Antho  Stod- 
dard, Boston ;  Capt  Isack  Johnson,  Rox- 
bury;  Capt  Hugh  Mason,  Left  Rich 
Beers,  Water  Toune  ;  Mr  Edw  Oakes, 
Mr  Joseph  Cooke,  Cambridge  ;  Leift 
Olliver  Purchis,  Lynn  ;  Capt  Jno  Apple- 
ton,  Left  Sam  Appleton,  Ipswich  ;  Mr 
Jno  Richards,  Mr  Tho  Clarke,  Newbery  ; 
Left  John  Holbrooke,  Weymouth  ;  Capt 
Joshua  Hubbard,  Hingham  ;  Capt  Timo 
Wheeler,  Concord  ;  Left  Joshua  Fisher, 
Ensig  Dani  Fisher,  Dedham  ;  Capt  Wm 
Davis,  Mr  Geo  Colton,  Springfeild  ;  Mr 


Sam  Dolton,  Hampton  ;  Mr  Rich  Swan, 
Rowley ;  Capt  Richard  Bracket,  Brain- 
try;  Capt  Richard  Walderne,  Left  Rich 
Cooke,  Dover ;  Mr  Humphrey  Davy, 
Capt  Edw  Johnson,  Wooborne  ;  Mr 
Elias  Stileman,  Portsmouth  ;  Capt  Nath 
Saltonstall,  Haverill  ;  Capt  John  Waite, 
Maulden ;  Left  Wm  Clarke,  Mr  Wm 
Holton,  Northampton  ;  Left  Sam  Smith, 
Mr.  Peter  Tilton,  Hadley ;  Capt  Tho 
Savage,  Andover  ;  Capt  Edw  Hutchin- 
son, Kittery ;  Mr  Arthur  Angier,  Scar- 
borow;  Capt  John  Hull,  Westfeild; 
Mr  Nico  Broune,  Redding ;  Mr  Tho 
Brattle,  Lancaster ;  Mr  Tho  Fiske, 
Wenham  ;  Mr  Hezekiah  Usher,  Billi- 
rekey  ;  Mr  Sam  Wheelewright,  Yorke  ; 
Mr  Wm  Sarjant,  Glocester ;  Mr  Tho 
Hincksman,  Chelmsford 

It  is  noticeable  that  William  Clarke 
and  William  Holton,  of  Northampton, 
who  signed  Mr.  Russell's  memorial  in 
1670,  did  not  put  their  names  to  the 
paper  dissenting  from  the  report  of  1671. 


I  12 


HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 


Whether  or  not  we  can  fully  sympathize  with  the  excellent 
pastor  in  all  the  regret  which  he  expresses  at  the  consummation 
of  what  he  calls  a  departure  from  the  primitive  discipline  of  the 
New  England  churches,  and  in  his  estimate  of  the  results  which 
followed  the  adoption  of  the  half-way  covenant,  we  can  heartily 
rejoice  with  him  in  the  victory  which  was  gained  for  the  cause 
of  religious  liberty  ;  and  we  see  occasion  for  congratulation  to 
the  Third  Church,  that  in  this  early  conflict  for  freedom  and  for 
the  right,  the  honor  of  the  front  rank  and  of  the  most  exposed 
position  was  accorded  to  its  fathers  and  founders. 


"  '  • 

- 


T 


CHAPTER    III. 

i 669-1 674. 

ORGANIZATION. 

HE  Brethren  which  came  off  from  the  First  Church  in 
Boston,  New  England,  and  laid  the  Foundation  of  the 
Third  Church,  partly  on  May  12.  1669,  partly  on  May  16.  1669 
were  those  underwritten  :  "  2 

William  Davis,  Hezekiah  Usher,  John  Hull,  Edward  Rayns- 
ford,  Peter  Brackett,  Jacob  Eliot,  Peter  Oliver,  Thomas  Brattle, 
Edward  Rawson,  Joshua  Scottow,  Benjamin  Gibbs,  Thomas 
Savage,  Joseph  Rock,  Theodore  Atkinson,  John  Wing,  Richard 
Trewsdale,  Theophilus  Frary,  Robert  Walker,  John  Alden, 
Benjamin  Thurston,  William  Salter,  John  Morse,  Josiah  Belcher, 
Seth  Perry,  James  Pemberton,  William  Dawes,  Joseph  Davis, 
Joseph  Belknap. 

We  will  give  a  brief  account  of  each  of  these  brethren,  in  the 
order  in  which  their  names  stand  on  the  church  register :  — 

William  Davis :  apothecary  ;  artillery  company,  1643  ;  free- 
man, 1645  ;  joint  commissioner  with  John  Leverett  to  the  Dutch 
governor  of  New  York,  1653  ;  captain  of  the  artillery  company, 
1664,  1672 ;  commander  of  a  company  in  the  Indian  wars  ;  rep- 
resentative. "A  man  of  wealth,  enterprise  and  discretion." 
His  first  wife  was  Margaret,  daughter  of  William  Pynchon,2  of 

1  The  register  of  the  Third  Church  2  For  a  sketch  of  William  Pynchon, 
opens  with  this  heading.  see  Andover  Review  for  September,  18S6. 


114  HISTORY  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

Springfield  ;  his  second,  Huldah,  daughter  of  the  Rev.  Zech- 
ariah  Symmes,  of  Charlestown,  was  living  in  1670,  but  died 
before  the  wives  of  the  seceding  brethren  gained  admittance  to 
the  new  church.     William  Davis  died  May  24,  1676. 

Hezekiah  Usher :  merchant,  bookseller ;  member  of  the  ar- 
tillery company ;  representative.  "  He  was  agent  for  the 
Society  for  Propagating  the  Gospel  among  the  Indians  ;  and 
it  was  through  him  that  types  and  paper  were  procured,  by 
which  Green,  at  Cambridge,  printed  the  great  Indian  Bible  in 
1660-63."  He  went  to  London  for  this  purpose  in  the  winter 
of  1657-58.  His  second  wife,  Elizabeth,  was  a  daughter  of  the 
Rev.  Zechariah  Symmes.  She  died  while  the  church  stand- 
ing of  the  wives  of  the  dissenting  brethren  was  in  a  state  of 
suspense.  His  third  wife,  Mary,  daughter  of  William  Alford, 
became  a  member  of  the  Third  Church  in  1675,  and  after  his 
death,  in  1676,  married  the  Rev.  Samuel  Nowell.  His  son, 
Hezekiah,  married  Bridget,  widow  of  the  Rev.  Leonard  Hoar. 

John  Hull :  silversmith,  mint-master,  and  treasurer  of  the 
colony;  captain  of  the  artillery  company,  1671,  1678  ;  assistant, 
1680  to  1685.1  His  wife,  Judith,  was  a  daughter  of  Edmund 
Quincy,  the  emigrant.  Their  only  child,  Hannah,  married 
Samuel  Sewall  in  1675.  John  Hull  died  in  1683.  Mrs.  Hull 
became  a  member  of  the  Third  Church  in  1674,  and  died  in 
1695. 

Edward  Raynsford  :  came  in  the  fleet  with  Winthrop ;  a 
brother  of  Lord  Chief  Justice  Raynsford,  the  immediate  suc- 
cessor of  Sir  Matthew  Hale  ;2  "one  of  the  substantial  men  in 
the  town,  and  is  often  mentioned  in  its  history  ; "  deacon  in  the 
First  Church.     His  wife,  Elizabeth,  and  his  daughter,  Ranis, 

1  Cotton  Mather,  in  his  Life  of  the  -  Lord  Campbell  says  of  Sir  Richard 
Rev.  John  Wilson,  says  :  "  Beholding  Raynsford  :  "  He  was  a  man  of  good 
a  young  man,  extraordinarily  dutiful  in  family,  fair  estate,  decent  character,  and 
all  possible  ways  of  being  serviceable,  agreeable  manners,  with  a  sufficient  por- 
unto  his  aged  mother,  then  weak  in  body,  tion  of  understanding  and  learning  to 
and  poor  in  estate,  he  [Mr.  Wilson]  de-  keep  him  above  contempt.  Descended 
clared  unto  some  of  his  family  what  he  from  the  Raynsfords  of  Raynsford,  in  the 
had  beheld  ;  adding  therewithal,  I  charge  county  of  Lancaster,  he  was  of  a  branch  of 
you  to  take  notice  of  what  I  say  ;  John  the  family  settled  at  Dullington,  in  North- 
Hull  (for  that  was  his  name)  shall  grow  amptonshire.  His  relations  were  strong 
rich,  and  live  to  do  God  good  service  in  Cavaliers,  and  he  himself  entertained  in 
his  generation  !  It  came  to  pass  accord-  his  heart  a  thorough  hatred  of  Round- 
ingly,  that  this  exemplary  person,  became  heads."  According  to  Hull,  he  was  a 
a  very  rich,  as  well  as  emphatically  a  bitter  enemy  of  the  latter.  He  became 
good  man,  and  afterwards  diedamagis-  lord  chief  justice  in  1676,  and  was  suc- 
trate  of  the  colony."  ceeded   by  the  infamous  Scroggs. 


THE   FOUNDERS   OF   THE   CHURCH.  115 

wife  of  Josiah  Belcher,  became  members  of  the  Third  Church 
in  1674.  He  died  in  1680.  "An  island  in  the  harbor  still 
preserves  in  its  name  the  record  of  his  former  ownership."  His 
wife  died  in  1688. 

Peter  Brackett :  artillery  company,  1648;  representative  for 
several  years  for  Braintree,  and  afterward  for  Scarborough.  His 
last  wife,  Mary,  widow  of  the  first  Nathaniel  Williams,  became 
a  member  of  the  Third  Church  in  1674.     He  died  in  1688. 

Jacob  Eliot  :  son  of  the  first  Jacob,  who  was  brother  of  the 
Rev.  John  Eliot,  "the  Apostle  to  the  Indians;"  "captain,  in 
high  esteem ;"  selectman  ;  deacon  for  a  short  time  in  the  First 
Church,  in  which  his  father  had  been  ruling  elder.  He  mar- 
ried Mary  (Powell),  widow  of  William  Wilcox  ;  she  became  a 
member  of  the  new  church,  with  the  wives  of  the  seceding 
brethren,  in  1674.     He  died  in  1693.     She  survived  until  1707. 

Peter  Oliver:  son  of  Thomas  Oliver,  who  came  to  New  Eng- 
land in  163 1,  and  was  ruling  elder  in  the  First  Church  from 
1632  until  his  death  in  1657.  Peter  Oliver  was  an  eminent 
merchant  ;  he  was  chosen  captain  of  the  artillery  company  in 
1669,  when  the  excitement  about  the  new  church  was  at  its 
height.  He  died  April  11,  1670,  —  the  first  on  the  long  roll  of 
the  Old  South  membership  to  enter  into  the  fellowship  of  the 
"  church  of  the  firstborn  "  above.  His  wife,  Sarah,  daughter  of 
John  Newdigate,  became  a  member  of  the  Third  Church  in 
1674,  and  died  in  1692. 

Thomas  Brattle :  merchant  ;  representative ;  one  of  the 
wealthiest  men  of  the  day.  His  son,  Thomas,  who  owned  the 
covenant  in  1680,  was  treasurer  of  Harvard  College  from 
1693  to  1 71 3.  His  wife,  Elizabeth,  was  daughter  of  William 
Tyng;  she  joined  the  new  church  in  1672.  He  died  April  5, 
1683.  Mrs.  Brattle  died  very  suddenly,  at  the  marriage  of 
Daniel  Quincyand  Anna  Shepard,  which  was  solemnized  at  her 
house,  November  9,  1682.1 

Edward  Rawson  :  came  to  New  England  in  1637,  and  settled 
in  Newbury,  where  he  was  chosen  town  clerk  and  representa- 
tive ;  removed  to  Boston,  1650,2  and  was  secretary  of  the  colony 
from  that  year  until  1686.     He  was  the  agent  in  New  England 

1  The  Old  South  has  in  its  possession  2  Edward  Rawson  sold  land  in  New- 

the  tombstone  of  Ann,  or  Anna,  Quincy,  burvport,  in  1651,  to  William  Pillsbury, 

sister  of  Daniel  Quincy,  mentioned  in  the  to   whose   descendants    it   still  belongs, 

text.     She  died  at  the  house  of  her  uncle  The  house  now  standing  on  it,  No.  265 

(by  marriage),  John  Hull,  Sept.  3,  1676.  High  Street,  was  built  in  1700. 


Il6  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD   SOUTH  CHURCH. 

for  the  first  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel,  from 
165 1  perhaps  until  his  death.  He  died  August  27,  1693.  His 
mother,  Margaret,  was  a  sister  of  the  Rev.  John  Wilson,  first 
minister  of  the  First  Church.  His  wife,  Rachel,  became  a 
member  of  the  Third  Church  in  1674,  and  died  in  1677. 

Joshua  Scottow :  came  from  England  1  with  his  mother,  Tho- 
masine  Scottow,  who  joined  the  First  Church  in  1634  ;  ensign  in 
the  artillery  company  in  1657;  captain  in  the  militia;  a  mer- 
chant of  high  standing ;  a  great  proprietor,  after  Philip's  war,  at 
Scarborough,  where  he  was  captain  of  the  garrison  and  magis- 
trate. He  died  in  1698.2  His  wife,  Lydia,  and  his  five  daugh- 
ters, Elizabeth,  Lydia,  Rebecca,  Sarah,  and  Mary,  became 
members  of  the  Third  Church.3 

Benjamin  Gibbs :  merchant;  artillery  company,  1666;  cap- 
tain in  Philip's  war.  He  married  Lydia,  daughter  of  Joshua 
Scottow  ;  after  his  death,  she  became  the  wife  of  Anthony 
Checkley,  merchant  and  attorney-general,  and,  later,  of  William 
Colman. 

Thomas  Savage  :  born  in  Taunton,  Somerset,  England.  Came 
to  Boston  in  the  Planter  in  1635,  at  the  age  of  twenty-seven.4 
He  married,  in  1637,  Faith,  daughter  of  William  and  Ann 
Hutchinson,  and,  as  was  natural,  he  became  an  earnest  follower 
of  Mrs.  Hutchinson,  and  of  her  brother-in-law,  the  Rev.  John 
Wheelwright.  He  was  one  of  those  who  were  ordered  by  the 
General  Court,  November  20,   1637,  to  surrender  their  arms,5 

1  Mr.  Scottow  came  from  the  east  coast  geon."  He  lived  in  Scarborough  for  some 
of  England,  probably  from  Norfolk,  years,  and  a  letter  of  his,  calling  for  re- 
Scothowe  signifies  "  the  lot  or  portion  on  inforcements  against  the  Indians,  dated 
the  hill,"  and  this  describes  the  little  September  26,  1689,  and  addressed  to 
Norfolk  village  which,  six  or  seven  hun-  Benjamin  Church,  is  in  the  Mass.  Ar- 
dred  years  ago,  gave  its  name  to  the  chives.  He  made  his  will  in  London, 
family  of  De  Scottowes,  who  were  the  November  14,  1698,  and  it  was  proved 
lords  of  the  manor  there,  and  patrons  of  there  September  4,  1699. 

the  living.  4  In  the  Historical  Catalogue  of  the  Old 

2  The  tombstones  of  Joshua  Scottow  South  Church  —  following  Dr.  Wisner  — 
and  John  Alden  have  recently  been  placed  Thomas  Savage,  Jr.,  instead  of  his 
in  the  portico  of  the  present  meeting-  father,  is  named  as  one  of  the  founders, 
house  of  the  Old  South,  in  Boylston  5  The  entire  membership  of  the  First 
Street,  and  on  Sunday  evening,  October  Church,  with  the  exception  of  Mr.  Wilson, 
26,  1884,  addresses  were  made,  which  Governor  Winthrop,  and  a  few  others, 
have  been  published,  giving  an  account  were  in  sympathy  with  Mrs.  Hutchinson, 
of  these  and  other  prominent  members  Four  of  those  who  were  disarmed  under 
of  the  church  in  the  past.  the  order  of  1637  lived  to  be  founders  of 

3  Thomas  Scottow,  son  of  Joshua,  the  Third  Church,  —  Edward  Raynsford, 
graduated  at  Harvard  College  in  1677.  Thomas  Savage,  John  Sanford,  and  Wil- 
In  his  will  he  called  himself  a  "  chirur-  liam  Salter.     The  fathers  of  Peter  Oliver 


THE  FOUXDERS.  \\J 

and  he  joined  William  Coddington  and  others  in  the  purchase 
of  Rhode  Island,  removing  thither  in  1638,  but  returning  to 
Boston  after  a  few  months.  From  this  time  he  was  almost  con- 
stantly in  public  office,  and  was  especially  prominent  in  the 
military  affairs  of  the  town.  He  was  one  of  the  original  mem- 
bers of  the  artillery  company,  and  five  times  was  chosen  its 
captain.  "  Representative,  speaker,  assistant,  noted  as  a  stanch 
soldier,"  says  his  descendant,  Mr.  James  Savage.1  His  first 
wife  died  in  1652,  and  in  the  same  year  he  married  Mary,  one 
of  the  numerous  daughters  of  the  excellent  minister  of  Charles- 
town,  Mr.  Symmes.  She  came  into  the  membership  of  the 
new  church  in  1674.  Her  second  husband  was  Anthony  Stod- 
dard, who  died  in  1687  ;  she  survived  until  17 10. 

Joseph  Rock  :  freeman,  1652;  merchant.  He  married  Eliza- 
beth, daughter  of  John  Coggan,  who  brought  him  a  good  estate. 
She  became  a  member  of  the  Third  Church  in  1674.  His 
second  wife,  Mary,  was  a  daughter  of  the  Rev.  John  Wilson,  of 
the  First  Church,  and  widow  of  the  Rev.  Samuel  Danforth,  of 
Roxbury.     Joseph  Rock  died  in  1683  or  1684. 

Theodore  Atkinson  :  felt-maker ;  came  from  England  with 
John  Newdigate  ;  artillery  company,  1644;  he  died  in  1701. 
His  second  wife,  Mary,  daughter  of  the  Rev.  John  Wheelwright, 
and  widow  of  Edward  Lyde,  joined  the  Third  Church  in  1673, 
and  died  in  171 2.  Her  sister,  Hannah,  was  the  first  wife  of 
Anthony  Checkley. 

John  Wing :  son  of  Robert  Wing,  who  came  in  the  Francis, 
1634;  artillery  company,  1671,  and  captain,  1693.  "He  was  a 
very  thrifty  man,"  and  owned  a  good  deal  of  real  estate  "  near 
the  midst  of  the  town."  He  died  in  1703.  His  wife,  Jehosheba, 
daughter  of  James  Davis,  joined  the  Third  Church  in  1670. 

Richard  Trewsdale  :  called,  on  joining  the  First  Church,  1634, 
"  servant  to  our  teacher,  John  Cotton  ; "  butcher ;  freeman, 
1635  ;  was  chosen  deacon  in  the  First  Church  in  1650.2     He 

and   Jacob   Eliot  were   also   among  the  according  to  Stukeley,  a  "  Sir  John  Trues- 

proscribed   members,  in  what  has  been  dale,  then  parson  of  Boston."     In  1642, 

called  the  New  England  coup  d'etat.  the  Trewsdale  family  was  taxed  in  Freis- 

1  Thomas  Savage  and  Jeremiah  ton,  a  hamlet  three  miles  from  Boston. 
Houchin  were  delegates  from  the  First  Although  Richard  Trewsdale  held  a  de- 
Church  to  the  Synod  of  1662,  together  pendent  position  when  he  first  came  to 
with  the  elders.  the  colony,  he  must  have  been  a  man  of 

2  The  Trewsdales  were  a  family  of  ability  and  character,  or  he  would  not 
respectability  in  Lincolnshire.  In  1309,  have  been  chosen  deacon  in  the  First 
when  the  first  stone  of  the  steeple  of  St.  Church.  His  name  has  the  prefix  of  Mr. 
Botolph's  Church  was   laid,  there   was,  in  Mrs.  Norton's  first  deed  of  trust. 


Il8  HISTORY  OF   THE    OLD   SOUTH  CHURCH. 

was  not  one  of  the  dissenting  brethren  at  first ;  but  as  the 
controversy  went  on,  he  was  led  to  espouse  their  cause.  He  died 
in  1 67 1,  leaving  a  wife,  Mary,  whose  name  does  not  appear  on 
the  rolls  of  the  Third  Church.1 

Theophilus  Frary :  came  from  England  with  his  father,  John 
Frary,  one  of  the  first  settlers  of  Dedham  and  of  Medfield ;  cap- 
tain of  the  artillery  company,  1682;  representative.  "During 
more  than  thirty  years,  he  was  frequently  called  to  serve  the 
town  as  selectman  and  in  minor  offices,  to  arbitrate  in  the  divi- 
sion of  estates,  and  to  be  feoffee,  to  hold  in  trust  property  for 
others."  He  died  in  1700.  His  first  wife  was  Hannah,  daugh- 
ter of  the  first  Jacob  Eliot.  She  joined  the  church  in  Dedham, 
1656,  and  became  a  member  of  the  Third  Church,  Boston,  in 
1674  ;  she  died  previously  to  1690,  in  which  year  Mr.  Frary  was 
married  by  Judge  Sewall  to  Mary  (Allen),  widow  of  Nathaniel 
Greenwood. 

Robert  Walker :  freeman,  1634.  He  died  in  1687,  at  which 
date  Judge  Sewall  writes  :  "  He  was  a  very  good  man,  and  con- 
versant among  God's  New  England  people  from  the  beginning." 
His  wife,  Sarah,  became  a  member  of  the  Third  Church  in  1674, 
and  died  in  1695.  Their  son,  the  Rev.  Zechariah  Walker, 
preached  for  a  time  at  Stratford,  and  afterward  at  Woodbury, 
Connecticut. 

John  Alden :  eldest  son  of  John  Alden  and  his  wife,  Priscilla 
Mullens,  both  of  whom  came  to  Plymouth  in  the  Mayflower,  in 
1620.  He  was  a  shipmaster,  and  sailed  for  several  years  in  the 
employ  of  John  Hull.  A  leading  and  much-respected  citizen. 
He  married  for  his  second  wife,  in  1660,  Elizabeth,  daughter  of 
William  Phillips,  and  widow  of  Abiel  Everill,  who  became  a 
member  of  the  Third  Church  in  1674.  She  died  in  1696,  and 
her  husband  in  1702. 

Benjamin  Thurston  :  freeman,  1665.  He  died  in  1678  (No- 
vember 10),  and  Judge  Sewall  then  speaks  of  him  as  one  of  his 
"special  friends."  His  wife  was  Elishua  (sometimes  called 
Elizabeth),  daughter  of  Robert  and  Sarah  Walker.  She  became 
a  member  of  the  Third  Church,  with  her  mother  and  others, 
wives  of  the  dissenting  brethren,  in  1674. 

1  In    Mary    Trewsdale's    nuncupative  Third  Church  ^10;   Mrs.  Maria  Mather, 

will,  proved  November  26,  1674,  there  are  £z,  ;  Mr.  Seaborn  Cotton,  ^5  ;    the  Rev. 

bequests  as  follows  :    Harvard  College,  John  Cotton,  ^5  ;  the  town  of   Boston, 

^40  ;    the   Rev.  Thomas  Thacher,  ^5 ;  ^5.    A  nephew,  Richard  Trewsdale,  died 

the  poor  of  the  First  Church,  £t>  ;  the  in  Roxbury  in  1677. 


THE  FOUNDERS.  1 19 

William  Salter  :  admitted  to  membership  in  the  First  Church, 
1635;  freeman,  1636;  shoemaker.  He  owned  Spectacle  Island, 
in  Boston  harbor.  He  died  in  1675.  His  wife,  Mary,  became 
a  member  of  the  Third  Church  in  1674. 

John  Morse:  freeman,  1669.  One  of  the  original  proprietors 
of  Mendon,  where  lands  were  assigned  to  him  in  1667  and  1668. 
He  died  in  1678  or  1679.  His  wife,  Elizabeth,  daughter  of 
Zaccheus  Bosworth,  joined  the  Third  Church  in  1670.  The 
name  of  her  second  husband  was  Button. 

Josiah  Belcher :  son  of  Gregory  Belcher,  of  Braintree,  and 
afterward  of  Boston  ;  married  Ranis,  daughter  of  Edward  Rayns- 
ford,  who  survived  him.     He  died  in  1683. 

Seth  Perry  :  artillery  company,  1662  ;  freeman,  1666  ;  tailor. 
His  wife,  Dorothy,  daughter  of  Michael  and  Abigail  Powell, 
joined  the  Third  Church  in  1670,  and  died  in  171 1. 

James  Pemberton :  freeman,  1648 ;  brewer,  near  the  town 
clock.  He  died  in  1696.  His  wife,  Sarah,  became  a  member 
of  the  Third  Church  in  1674,  and  died  in  1709. 

William  Dawes  :  came  to  New  England  in  1635  ;  first  settled 
at  Braintree;  freeman,  164.6)  moved  to  Boston  about  1652,  and 
bought  an  estate  in  what  is  now  Sudbury  Street;  mason  and 
builder.  He  died  in  1704,  and  Judge  Sewall  records  of  him: 
"  A  good  old  man,  full  of  days,  is  got  well  to  the  end  of  his 
weary  race."  His  wife,  Susanna,  daughter  of  John  Mills,  of 
Braintree,  became  a  member  of  the  Third  Church  in  1674. 

Joseph  Davis :  we  know  nothing  of  him,  except  that  probably 
he  married  Sarah  Chamberlain,  in  Roxbury,  in  1670.  He  was 
perhaps  the  youngest  of  the  dissenting  brethren.  Sarah  Davis 
owned  the  covenant  in  1680. 

Joseph  Belknap :  artillery  company,  1658  ;  freeman,  1665. 
"Took  dismission  to  Hatfield,  there  lived  in  good  esteem  from 
1682  to  1696,  then  came  back  to  Boston,  and  died,  14  November 
171 2,  aged  eighty-two."  He  married  Ruth,  daughter  of  Peter 
Brackett. 

Two  other  men,  John  Tappan  and  John  Sanford,  should  be 
mentioned  among  the  founders  of  the  Third  Church,  although, 
for  some  reason  which  we  cannot  explain,  their  names  do  not 
appear  in  the  list  of  members.  They  both  signed  a  letter,  as 
we  shall  see,  addressed  by  the  church  to  Mr.  John  Hull,  upon 
his  departure  for  England  late  in  the  year  1669.1    John  Tappan, 

1  Edward  Alline  signed  the  letter  to  ing  for  dismission  (see  ante,  pp.  27,  28), 
the  First  Church,  August  10,  166S,  ask-     but  his  name  does  not  appear  in  the  list 


120  HISTORY  OF   THE    OLD   SOUTH   CHURCH. 

who  was  a  felt-maker  or  hatter,  died  September  14,  1678.  His 
wife,  Mary,  who  afterward  married  Dr.  William  Avery,  joined 
the  church  in  1674,  with  the  wives  of  the  other  dissenting 
brethren.  John  Sanford,  a  schoolmaster,  died  February  10, 
\6y6-y,  and  left  property  to  the  church.  His  wife,  Sarah, 
became  a  member  in  1676. 

Among  those  who  joined  the  church  immediately  after  its 
organization,  and  who  thus  came  into  the  fellowship  of  its  suf- 
ferings, were  John  Mellowes,  Daniel  Henchman,  James  Hill, 
Jonathan  Jackson,  and  Ambrose  Dawes.1 

The  faithful  women  who  had  to  wait  more  than  five  years 
before  they  could  become  members  of  the  new  church,  and  who 
for  a  long  time  had  no  regular  church  standing  whatever,  de- 
serve to  be  enrolled  among  the  founders,  and  they  should  ever 
be  remembered  at  the  Old  South  with  grateful  respect  and 
admiration  for  what  they  did  and  for  what  they  suffered.  We 
have  mentioned  most  of  them  in  connection  with  their  hus- 
bands ;  there  were  others  who  also  deserve  our  notice. 

Margaret  Thacher  was  the  only  child  of  Henry  Webb,  a 
merchant,  who  left  a  very  considerable  property  for  those  days,2 
and  widow  of  Jacob  Sheaffe,  also  a  prominent  and  wealthy  mer- 
chant. She  was  born  at  Salisbury,  in  England,  and  was  baptized 
there  September  25,  1625.  She  was  married  to  Jacob  Sheaffe, 
by  special  license,  in  the  autumn  of  1642.  He  died  in  1659,  and 
several  years  later  she  became  the  second  wife  of  the  Rev. 
Thomas  Thacher. 

Sarah  Mather,  widow  of  the  Rev.  John  Cotton,  of  St.  Bo- 
tolph's,  Boston,  Lincolnshire,3  and  afterward  of  the  First  Church, 
Boston,  who  died  December  23,  1652  :  On  the  26th  of  August, 
1656,  she  was  married  by  Governor  Endicott  to  the  Rev.  Richard 
Mather,  minister  of  the  First  Church,  Dorchester,  as  his  third 
wife.  He  died  April  22,  1669.  He  was,  as  we  have  seen,  a 
leading  synodist,  and  sympathized  warmly  with  the  dissenting 

of  members.     Sewall  speaks  of  him  in  churches  out  of  town,  or  were  admitted 

1677,  as  one  of  those  who  sustained  the  on  confession  of  their  faith, 

neighborhood  prayer-meeting,  in  which  2  Mr.  Webb  gave  to  Harvard  College 

several    of   the   founders   of    the   Third  the  valuable  estate  in  Washington  Street, 

Church  and  he  himself  were  so  much  Boston,  upon  which  the  store  of  Little, 

interested.     See    Sewall  Papers,  vol.  i.  Brown  &  Co.  stands, 

pp.  31,  32,  41.  3  Mrs.  Mather,  to  the  time  of  her  death, 

1  These,  and  all  others  who  joined  be-  was  in  "  receipt  of  profits  from  her  own 

fore  the  reconciliation  of  the  First  and  estate  in  England."  —  Thompson's  His- 

Third    churches,    probably    came    from  tory  of  Boston,  p.  424. 


MR.   AND   MRS.   NORTON.  121 

brethren  in  their  long  and  painful  struggle ;  he  was  moderator 
of  the  council  of  fifteen  churches  called  by  them,  and  was 
stricken  by  mortal  illness  before  its  deliberations  were  con- 
cluded, or  the  Result  was  drawn  up  ;  it  was  natural,  therefore, 
that  his  widow,  on  moving  back  to  town,  should  cast  in  her  lot 
with  them  and  theirs.  She  joined  their  communion  March  5, 
1674-5,  and  although  she  cannot  technically  be  included  among 
the  founders,  she  was  certainly  one  of  the  earliest  friends  of  the 
new  church. 

Mary  Norton,  widow  of  the  Rev.  John  Norton,  of  the  First 
Church,  "a  gentlewoman,"  according  to  the  Magnalia,  "both 
of  good  estate  and  of  good  esteem,"  was  the  third  daughter 
and  fourth  child  of  John  Ferneley,  of  West  Creting,  Suffolk, 
England,  by  his  wife  Temperance,  daughter  of  Sir  Miles  Corbet. 
She  was  born  October  2,  1602,  and  was  baptized  at  West 
Creting  nineteen  days  later.  She  came  to  New  England  with 
her  husband  in  1635.1  The  house  in  Ipswich,  which  was  their 
first  American  home,  is  still  standing,  and  we  have  given  a 
view  of  it  at  the  head  of  our  second  chapter.  Mr.  Norton  was 
educated  at  Peterhouse,  Cambridge,  but,  becoming  dissatisfied 
with  the  English  Church,  he  determined  to  cast  in  his  lot  with 
the  Puritan  emigrants.  He  arrived  at  Plymouth  in  the  same 
ship  with  Governor  Winslow,  and  was  urged  to  settle  there,  but 
declined  to  do  so.     In    1638  he  was  ordained   teacher   of  the 

1  Where  Mrs.  Norton  was  married  is  remote  character."      And  further :    "  As 

not  known,  "  but  certainly  not  at  West  for  herself,  it  will  be  seen  that  her  im- 

Creting,   nor   at   Hitchin,    the   registers  mediate    connections   were   of  the   most 

of    which    places    have    been    carefully  respectable  character,  and,  although  she 

searched."     Her  older  sister,  Catherine,  could  boast  of  no  '  noble  blood '  in  her 

was  wife   of  a  vicar  of  Hitchin,  Herts,  veins,  she  could  point  with  some  degree 

probably  the  Rev.  Stephen  Pierce,  D.  D.  of  family  pride  to  the  facts  that  two  of 

Colonel  Joseph  L.  Chester,  at  the  request  her   great-aunts    [daughters   of   William 

of  Mr.  Joseph  Ballard,  of  Boston,  made  and    Agnes    (Daundy)    Ferneley]    were 

investigations  in  England  concerning  the  wives  of  two  of  the   most  eminent  men 

ancestry  of  Mrs.  Norton,  and  the  result  is  of  their  day,  —  Sir  Nicolas  Bacon  and  Sir 

embodied  in  a  paper  in  the  possession  of  Thomas  Gresham,  —  and  that   her  own 

the  New  England  Historic  Genealogical  cousin   was    that   famous   Miles    Corbet 

Society.     In  this  paper  Colonel  Chester  whose   name  was  once  powerful  in  the 

says :    "  I  have  been  thus  particular  in  land,  and  whose  memory,  in  spite  of  his 

following  out  the  history  of  the  different  execution  as  a  'traitor  '  and  a  'regicide,' 

branches  of  this  once  prolific  family  [the  is  to  this  day  precious  to  the  descendants 

Ferneleys]  to  their  entire  extinction,  cer-  of   the  very  people  who  once  cried  for 

tainly  in  the  male  line,  in  order  to  show  his  head." 

that  there  can  be  no  person  living  at  the         See  Boston  Daily  Advertiser,  July  10, 

present  day  whose  connection  with  Mrs.  1876,  for  a  letter  from  Mr.  Joseph  Bal- 

Mary  Norton  must  not  be  of  the  most  lard  about  Mrs.  Norton  and  her  ancestry. 


122  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

church  in  Ipswich.  He  was  called  to  Boston  on  the  death  of 
Mr.  Cotton,  and  after  long  delay,  in  consequence  of  the  unwil- 
lingness of  his  people  to  give  him  up,  he  was  installed  teacher 
of  the  First  Church  in  the  summer  of  1656.  In  1662  he  went 
to  England  with  Simon  Bradstreet,  on  an  important  mission  in 
behalf  of  the  colony.1  He  died  suddenly  in  April  of  the  follow- 
ing year.  His  widow,  in  becoming  one  of  the  chief  benefactors 
of  the  new  church,  knew  that  she  was  promoting  a  cause  which 
would  have  been  dear  to  her  husband's  heart  if  he  had  been 
alive.  Speaking  of  Mr.  Norton  in  connection  with  the  Cam- 
bridge Platform  of   1647,  Cotton  Mather  says  :  — 

Into  that  platform  he  would  fain  have  had  inserted,  certain  propo- 
sitions concerning  the  watch  which  our  churches  are  to  have  over  the 
children  born  in  them,  which  propositions  were  certainly  the  first  prin- 
ciples of  New  England  ;  only  the  fierce  oppositions  of  one  eminent 
person,  caused  him  that  was  of  a  peaceable  temper,  to  forbear  urging 
them  any  further ;  by  which  means,  when  those  very  propositions 
came  to  be  advanced  and  embraced  in  another  Synod  [1662],  more 
than  twice  seven  years  after,  many  people  did  ignorantly  count  them 
novel  ties.2 

Mr.  Thacher  also  should  be  included  among  the  founders  of 
the  Third  Church,  and  therefore  referred  to  particularly  at  this 
time.  He  had  been  in  full  sympathy  with  the  dissenting  breth- 
ren, and  their  hearts  had  for  some  time  been  united  upon  him 
as  one  of  the  ministers  of  the  new  church.  In  anticipation  of 
their  call  he  took  letters  of  dismission  (October  9,  1669)  to  the 
Charlestown  church,  whose  pastors  undoubtedly  understood  his 
purpose  in  joining  their  communion.3  This  was  shrewdly 
managed,  as  was  every  movement  made  by  the  brethren,  during 
the  long  progress  of  this  controversy.  If  Mr.  Thacher  had 
waited  until  the  day  of  installation  drew  near,  and  then  asked 
for  a  dismission  from  the  First  Church,  his  request  would  have 
been  denied,  and  he  could  not  have  been  settled  in  the  ministry 
of  the  new  church.  His  formal  call  to  the  pastorate  was  not 
voted  until  after  his  admission  to  membership,  upon  a  letter  of 
recommendation  from  the  church  in  Charlestown. 

1  They  sailed    February    10,  and    re-  Church  in  Boston,  with  Mr.  Davenport, 

turned  September  3,  making  both  pas-  in  1668. 

sages  in  the   Society,  a  new  vessel  be-         ~  Mogilalia  (book  iii.),  vol.  i.  p.  291. 
longing  to  John  Hull,  who  accompanied         3  "  1669.  Oct.  24.     Revd.  Mr.  Thomas 

them.     William    Davis   went   over  with  Thatcher  [admitted]  by  a  Letter  of  Dis- 

them,  but  came  back  three  months  earlier,  mission  from  the  first  church  in  Boston." 

in  the  same  vessel  with  the  Rev.  James  — Records  of  the  First  Church  hi  Charles- 

Allen,  who  was  settled   over   the    First  town. 


THE  REV.    THOMAS   THACHER. 


123 


Thomas  Thacher,  son  of  the  Rev.  Peter  Thacher,1  was  born 
May  1,  1620,  at  Milton  Clevedon,  Somersetshire,  as  is  supposed, 
where  his  father  was  vicar,  but  the  record  of  his  baptism  has 
not  yet  been  found.  In  1622  his  father  became  rector  of  St. 
Edmund's,  Salisbury,  and  in 
this  venerable  cathedral  city 
Thomas  spent  his  youth  and 
received  his  early  academic 
training.  He  gave  evidence 
of  decided  piety,  and  he 
would  have  been  sent  to  Ox- 
ford or  Cambridge,  to  fit  for 
the  ministry,  but  he  could  not 
conscientiously  make  the  re- 
ligious subscriptions  required 
at  these  universities.  He  was 
now  fifteen  years  of  age,  and 
with  the  consent  of  his  par- 
ents he  resolved  to  come  to 
America.  They  expected  to 
follow  him,  for  his  father  was 
a  Puritan  in  spirit,  but  the  death  of  his  mother  soon  after  broke 
up  this  plan.2 

Thomas  embarked  at  Southampton  in  the  James,  in  company 
with  the  Rev.  Anthony  Thacher,  his  uncle,  the  Rev.  John 
Avery,  a  cousin,  and  their  families,  and  reached  Boston  June 
4,  1635.  From  Boston  the  party  went  to  Ipswich,  where  many 
of  their  fellow-passengers  were  intending  to  settle.  Two  months 
later,  Mr.  Avery  received  an  invitation  to  preach  at  Marblehead, 
and  with  his  wife  and  six  children,  together  with  Mr.  and  Mrs. 


-     § 


7K.<n«Af71i«_cJL*. 


1  The  Rev.  Peter  Thacher,  of  Milton 
Clevedon  and  Salisbury,  was,  perhaps,  a 
son  of  the  Rev.  Peter  Thacher  who  was 
instituted  vicar  of  Queen  Camel,  Somer- 
set, in  1574,  and  continued  in  that  cure 
until  his  death  in  1624.  His  descendant, 
the  Hon.  Peter  Thacher,  of  Boston,  has 
collected  and  printed  much  valuable  in- 
formation about  the  family,  and  we  are 
indebted  to  him  for  many  suggestions  in 
reference  to  it.  We  present  at  the  head 
of  this  chapter  a  view  of  Milton  Cleve- 
don Church,  and  on  p.  248  one  of  the 
Rev.  Peter  Thacher's  tomb  in  Salisbury. 


2  Cotton  Mather  says  that  "he  con- 
scientiously declined  his  father's  offer, 
and  chose  rather  to  venture  over  the 
Atlantic  ocean,  and  content  himself  with 
the  meannesses  of  America,  than  to 
wound  his  own  conscience  for  the  aca- 
demical privileges  of  England.  When 
his  parents  discerned  his  inclination,  they 
permitted  his  removal  to  New  England  : 
intending  themselves  within  a  year  or 
two,  with  their  family,  to  have  removed 
thither  after  him  :  which  intention  was 
prevented  by  the  death  of  his  mother, 
before  it  could  be  effected." 


124  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

Anthony  Thacher  and  their  four  children,  he  embarked  at  Ips- 
wich in  a  pinnace  belonging  to  Isaac  Allerton.  On  the  follow- 
ing day  (August  16),  the  vessel  was  wrecked  on  a  ledge  off  Cape 
Ann,  during  a  storm  of  almost  unprecedented  severity,  and  of 
the  twenty-three  persons  on  board  all  except  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Thacher  were  drowned.  The  two  survivors  were  cast  on  a 
barren  islet,  now  known  as  Thacher's  Island.1  Providentially, 
Thomas  Thacher  had  not  taken  passage  with  his  relatives  on 
this  disastrous  trip,  preferring,  for  some  reason,  to  make  the 
journey  by  land,  and  so  he  escaped. 

Cotton  Mather  says  :  "  A  day  or  two  before  that  fatal  voyage 
from  Newberry  to  Marblehead,  our  young  Thacher  had  such  a 
strong  and  sad  impression  upon  his  mind,  about  the  issue  of  the 
voyage,  that  he,  with  another,  would  needs  go  the  journey  by 
land,  and  so  he  escaped  perishing  with  some  of  his  pious  and 
precious  friends  by  sea." 

For  the  purpose  of  continuing  his  studies,  he  entered  the 
family  of  the  Rev.  Charles  Chauncy,  minister  of  Scituate,  after- 
ward president  of  Harvard  College.2  Under  the  tuition  of  this 
eminent  scholar,  he  became  proficient  not  only  in  Latin  and 
Greek,  but  also  in  Hebrew,  Syriac,  and  Arabic.  He  was  well 
skilled,  we  are  told,  in  the  arts,  especially  in  logic,  and  under- 
stood mechanics,  both  in  theory  and  practice.  As  was  not  un- 
common at  that  time,  he  studied  medicine  as  well  as  theology, 
and  he  gained  a  high  reputation  in  both  professions.  He  was 
the  author  of  the  first  medical  tract,  or  broadside,  ever  published 
in  Massachusetts,  "  A  Brief  Rule  to  guide  the  Common  People 
of  New  England  how  to  order  themselves  and  theirs  in  the  Small 
Pox  or  Measles,"  printed  in  1677  ;3  and  he  is  said  to  have  pre- 
pared a  Hebrew  lexicon. 

Mr.  Thacher  married,  May  11,  1643,  Elizabeth,  daughter  of 
the  Rev.  Ralph  Partridge,  of  Duxbury,  and  on  the  2d  of  Jan- 
uary, 1644,  he  was  ordained  minister  of  the  church  in  Weymouth. 
He  remained  there  for  twenty  years,  but  "  by  a  concurrence  of 

1  Mr.  Anthony  Thacher,  who,  in  Eng-  were  first  exhibited  December  21,  177 1. 

land,  had  served  as  his  brother's  curate  See  Boston  Gazette. 

at    Salisbury,   preached    for   a    time    at  -  Harvard  College   dates   from   1636, 

Marblehead,  and  afterward  at  Yarmouth,  but  its  first  president,  Mr.  Dunster,  did 

The  island  on  which  he  was  saved  was  not  take  office  until  1640. 

granted   to    him.     An   adjacent  rock  or  3  For  a  fac-simile  of  this  broadside,  see 

islet  received  the  name  of  Avery's  Fall.  Memorial  History  of  Boston,  vol.  iv.  p. 

The  two  lighthouses  on  Thacher's    Isl-  436.     The  author  modestly  says :  "lam, 

and  are  well  known   to   those  who   are  though  no  physician,  yet  a  well  wisher  to 

familiar  with  the  coast.    The  lights  there  the  sick." 


THE   REV.    THOMAS    THACHER.  1 25 

many  obliging  circumstances  "  (to  quote  the  words  of  Cotton 
Mather),  he  resigned  his  charge,  and  removed  to  Boston.  "  He 
who  holds  the  stars  in  his  right  hand,  had  a  purpose  of  ser- 
vice to  be  done  for  his  name,  in  that  populous  town,  by  the 
talents  of  this  his  good  and  faithful  servant."  His  wife  died 
June  2,  1664  (at  Weymouth),1  and  soon  after  he  married  Mrs. 
Sheaffe.  He  became  a  member  of  the  First  Church  August 
4,  1667,  and  preached  occasionally  in  the  town  and  elsewhere, 
but  for  the  most  part  he  was  engaged  as  a  practising  phy- 
sician. 

The  selection  of  Mr.  Thacher  as  minister  of  the  new  church 
was  a  most  judicious  one.  It  not  only  indicated  a  purpose  on 
the  part  of  the  brethren  to  maintain  the  high  standard  of  ability 
and  scholarship  which  had  heretofore  distinguished  the  pulpit 
of  Boston,  but  it  greatly  strengthened  their  position  and  their 
cause  with  the  churches  throughout  the  colony. 

We  shall  see  that  when  Mr.  Thacher  was  inducted  into  the 
pastorate  he  was  ordained,  and  not  simply  installed.  He  had 
been  practically  a  layman  for  several  years,  a  private  member 
of  the  First  Church,  and  a  physician.  Many  of  the  early  New 
England  ministers,  who  had  taken  orders  in  the  English  Church, 
were  ordained  again  when  they  entered  upon  their  pastoral 
duties  here.  Mr.  Skelton  and  Mr.  Higginson  were  ordained  at 
Salem  in  1629.  Mr.  Davenport  was  ordained  in  New  Haven, 
and  again  when  he  came  to  Boston.  The  Rev.  George  Phillips, 
of  Watertown,  told  the  people  there  that  if  they  would  have  him 
stand  minister  by  that  calling  which  he  received  from  the  prel- 
ates in  England  he  would  leave  them.  Mr.  Cotton  would  not 
baptize  his  own  child,  born  at  sea,  because,  as  he  said,  there  was 
no  settled  congregation  there,  and  "  because  a  minister  hath  no 
power  to  give  the  seals  but  in  his  own  congregation."  In  other 
words,  to  be  a  minister,  a  man  must  be  a  pastor.  In  taking  this 
position,  the  early  New  England  ministers  did  not  reflect  upon 
their  first  ordination  vows,  or  discredit  their  previous  ministry, 
when  they  entered  upon  new  pastoral  relations,  as  those  clergy- 

1  The  Hon.  Peter  Thacher  thinks  that  daughter  Elisabeth  Thacher,  all  my 
his  ancestor  must  have  received  a  good  houses  and  lands  in  Old  England,  to  her 
property  from  his  first  wife,  who  was  and  her  heirs  for  ever."  The  library, 
residuary  legatee  under  the  will  of  her  consisting  of  400  volumes,  became  Mr. 
father,  the  Rev.  Ralph  Partridge.  She  Thacher's.  The  will  was  allowed  at 
had  a  life  interest  in  his  real  estate  in  Plymouth,  May  4,  1658.  John  Alden, 
New  England,  and  inherited  absolutely  the  Plymouth  pilgrim,  was  one  of  the  ap- 
his English   property.     "  I  give   to   my  praisers. 


126  HISTORY  OF   THE    OLD   SOUTH   CHURCH. 

men  must  do  now  who  seek  to  enter  the  Anglican  or  Roman 
ministry  from  other  Christian  denominations.1 

The  basis  of  union  upon  which  the  brethren  came  together  in 
the  fellowship  of  the  new  church  was  not  a  formal  expression  of 
doctrinal  belief,  but  a  glowing  avowal  of  covenant  obligation. 
They  desired  not  so  much  uniformity  as  unity  ;  and  for  the 
attainment  of  this  end,  not  subscription  to  a  dogmatic  state- 
ment, but  a  confession  of  attachment  and  loyalty  to  a  personal 
and  living  Christ  —  Mediator,  Prophet,  Priest,  and  King  —  was 
the  great  prerequisite.  They  "  built  upon  the  foundation  of 
the  apostles  and  prophets,  Jesus  Christ  himself  being  the  chief 
corner-stone."  They  mutually  promised  to  endeavor  to  establish 
among  themselves,  and  to  transmit  to  their  posterity,  "  all  the 
holy  truths  and  ordinances  of  the  gospell  committed  to  the 
churches  in  faith  and  observance ; "  but  they  did  not  undertake 
to  draw  out  these  holy  truths  and  ordinances  into  precise  and 
technical  definitions  and  regulations,  by  which  they  were  to  be 
bound  together,  and  to  which  their  posterity  was  to  be  rigidly 
held.  The  natural  effect  of  elaborately  wrought  creeds,  as  tests 
and  bonds  of  fellowship,  compared  with  the  confessions  which 
have  come  down  to  us  from  the  early  Christian  centuries,  is  to 
separate  one  from  another,  not  only  contemporaneous  sister 
churches,  but  the  successive  generations  of  Christian  believers. 
The  fathers  of  the  Third  Church  could  not  in  the  seventeenth 
century  have  framed  a  doctrinal  system  to  which  those  who  suc- 
ceed them  in  the  membership  in  the  nineteenth  century  would 
be  able  to  give  an  intelligent  and  unqualified  and  honest  assent ; 
but  the  foundation  on  which  they  builded  —  the  Rock  of  Ages, 
"  Jesus  Christ,  the  same  yesterday,  and  to-day,  and  forever"  —  is 
still  the  "head  of  the  corner,"  and  will  so  stand,  as  we  pray  and 
believe,  to  the  end  of  time.  The  "perpetual  covenant"  to  which 
they  subscribed  was  as  follows :  — 

The  Covenant  made  by  the  third  Church  in   Boston,  Gathred   at 
Charlestown  on  12th  day  of  3rd  moneth  1669. 

1  The  celebrated  nonconformist  clergy-  ordained  ? "     "  Hurt,  my  lord,"  said  Mr. 

man,   John    Howe,  who  lost   his  pulpit  Howe,    "  it   is   shocking ;    it    hurts    my 

under  the  Act  of  Uniformity,  was  urged  understanding;   it   is   an   absurdity:  for 

by  the  Bishop   of   Exeter   to   submit  to  nothing  can  have  two  beginnings.      I  am 

episcopal    ordination,   so   that  he  might  sure,  I  am  a  minister  of  Christ,  and  am 

receive  preferment  in  the  Church  of  Eng-  ready  to  debate  that  matter  with   your 

land,  but  declined.     "  Pray,  sir,"  said  the  lordship.     I   can't   begin   again  to  be  a 

bishop,  "  what  hurt  is  there  in  being  twice  minister." 


THE   CHURCH  COVENANT.  1 27 

We,  whose  names  are  underwritten,1  being  called  of  God  to  joine 
together  into  a  Church,  in  heart-sense  of  our  unworthinesse  thereof, 
disability  thereunto,  and  aptnes  to  forsake  the  Lord,  cast  off  his  gov- 
ernment and  neglect  our  duety  one  to  another ;  Do  in  the  name  of 
Jesus  Christ  our  Lord,  trusting  only  in  his  grace  and  help,  sollemnely 
bind  ourselves  together  as  in  the  presence  of  God, 

Constantly  to  walk  together  as  a  Church  of  Christ,  according  to 
all  those  holy  rules  of  Gods  word  given  to  a  church  body  rightly  estab- 
lished, so  far  as  we  already  know  them,  or  they  shal  be  hereafter 
farther  made  known  unto  us. 

And  particularly,  —  We  do  first  of  all  according  to  the  tenor  of 
the  everlasting  Covenant  give  up  ourselves  and  our  offspring  unto 
God  our  cheif  yea  onely  good ;  unto  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  as  the 
onely  mediator  our  onely  spirituall  head  and  Lord,  receiving  and  rely- 
ing on  him  not  only  as  our  high  preist  for  satisfaction  and  Intercession, 
but  also  as  our  prophet  to  teach,  and  King  to  reigne  over  us ;  and 
unto  the  holy  Spirit  to  be  a  temple  to  him  that  by  his  dwelling  and 
working  in  us,  we  may  have,  and  be  established  in  fellowship  with 
God  in  Christ  and  one  with  another. 

And  for  the  furtherance  of  this  blessed  fellowship  we  do  likwise 
promise  to  indeavour  to  establish  among  ourselves  and  conveigh  down 
to  our  posterity,  all  the  holy  trueths  and  ordinances  of  thegospell,  com- 
mitted to  the  churches  in  faith  and  observance,  opposing  to  the 
utmost  of  our  church  power,  whatsoever  is  diverse  therefrom  or  con- 
trary thereunto.  —  Also  we  do  give  up  ourselves  one  unto  another  in 
the  Lord,  and  by  the  will  of  God ;  hereby  promising  to  cleave  one  to 
another  as  fellow  members  of  the  same  body  in  brotherly  love  and 
holy  watchfulnesse  unto  mutuall  aedification  in  Christ  Jesus,  and  to  be 
subject  in  and  for  the  Lord  to  all  the  administrations  and  censuers  of 
the  congregation,  so  far  as  the  same  shall  be  ordered  according  to  the 
rules  of  God's  most  holy  word 

And  finally  we  do  hereby  Covenant  and  promise  through  the  help 
of  the  same  grace,  to  hold  promote  and  maintein  sisterly  fellowship 
and  communion  with  all  the  churches  of  Saints  in  all  those  holy  ways 
of  order  appointed  between  them  by  our  Lord  Jesus  to  the  utmost- 
especially  with  those  among  whome  the  Lord  hath  set  us,  that  the 
Lord  may  be  one  and  his  name  one,  in  all  these  Churches  throughout 
all  generations,  to  his  aeternall  glory  in  Christ  Jesus.  —  And  now  the 
good  Lord  be  mercifull  unto  us,  Pardoning  according  to  the  greatnes 
of  his  grace,  as  all  our  past  sins,  so  especially  our  church  sins  in 
negligence  and  unfruitfulnesse  of  former  injoyments;  and  accept,  as  a 
sweet  savour  in  Christ  Jesus,  this  our  offering  up  ourselves  unto  him 
in  this  work ;  filling  this  his  house  with  his  own  glory ;  making  us 
faithful  to  himself  and  one  unto  another,  according  to  himself,  for  his 
holy  names  sake,  Amen. 

1  [No  names  are  subscribed  to  this  covenant  in  the  record  book.] 


128  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

At  what  precise  date  this  covenant  was  drawn  up,  and  by 
whom,  we  cannot  say.  It  bears  evidence  of  having  been  written 
by  the  Rev.  Thomas  Thacher,  and  as  his  ministry  did  not  begin 
until  the  winter  following  the  gathering  of  the  church,  it  is  prob- 
able that  it  was  not  adopted  and  subscribed  to  until  after  his 
installation  and  the  completion  of  the  new  meeting-house.  In 
view  of  the  circumstances  under  which  the  brethren  withdrew 
from  the  First  Church,  and  of  what  the  feelings  towards  them 
of  the  leading  members  of  that  church  seem  to  have  been,  there 
is  something  pathetic  in  the  reference  to  "  church  sins  in  negli- 
gence and  unfruitfulnesse  of  former  injoyments." 

There  was  a  renewal  of  active  opposition  to  the  Third  Church 
when  it  took  measures  for  the  erection  of  a  meeting-house.  The 
governor,  the  major-general,  and  Mr.  Edward  Tyng,  as  magis- 
trates resident  in  the  town,  fearing  "a  sudden  tumult,"  sought 
to  postpone  action  until  the  next  meeting  of  the  General  Court, 
and  warned  the  brethren  who  had  the  work  in  charge  to  desist 
for  the  present.  They  also  called  a  meeting  of  the  council ; 
but  as  the  majority  of  the  members  were  on  the  other  side,  the 
result  was  not  satisfactory  to  them.  The  subject  now  came  up 
in  town  meeting.  A  committee,  the  majority  of  whose  mem- 
bers were  hostile  to  the  new  church,1  reported  an  instruction 
for  the  selectmen,  the  purpose  of  which  was  to  delay  the  work 
of  building,  but  this  instruction  was  voted  down  by  "  a  cloud  of 
witnesses."  The  progressive  men  evidently  were  in  favor  with 
the  people.  At  the  annual  town  meeting  in  1669,  Thomas 
Savage  was  chosen  moderator ;  and  of  the  seven  selectmen 
elected,  three,  Hezekiah  Usher,  Edward  Raynsford,  and  Peter 
Oliver,  were  members  of  the  new  church,  and  a  fourth,  John 
Joyliffe,  was  undoubtedly  in  sympathy  with  it,  as  he  became 
a  member  soon  after.2  Mr.  Joyliffe  was  also  chosen  recorder, 
and  the  same  year  Mr.  Oliver  was  elected  to  the  command  of 
the  artillery  company.  The  town  had  provided  a  site  for  the 
new  meeting-house,  as  it  had  done,  in  the  first  instance,  for  the 
houses  of  worship  of  the  First3  and  Second  churches,  and  as 

1  This  committee  consisted  of  Thomas  John  Richards.  Mr.  Lake  and  Mr. 
Savage,  Thomas  Clarke,  Edward  Hutch-  Richards  belonged  to  the  Second  Church, 
inson,  Anthony  Stoddard,  Jeremiah  3  The  First  Church  sold  its  first  meet- 
Houchin,  and  John  Wiswell,  all,  except  ing-house,  with  the  land  on  which  it 
Mr.  Savage,  members  of  the  First  stood,  to  Robert  Thompson,  of  London, 
Church.  for   ^300.      The   town  united  with   the 

2  The  other  selectmen  chosen  in  1669  church  in  the  conveyance.  See  Hist,  and 
were  Thomas  Lake,  James  Oliver,  and  Gen.  Register,  vol.  xiv.  pp.  152,  153. 


SITE   FOR    THE   MEETING-HOUSE.  1 29 

was  the  custom  in  all  the  towns.  This  site,  "nigh  the  wind- 
mill," "was  no  way  judged  convenient  "  by  the  majority  of  the 
selectmen,  and  was  not  accepted  by  the  brethren,  because 
another  lot  had  been  provided  by  one  of  their  own  fellowship.1 
One  of  the  windmills  stood  on  or  near  the  Common ;  another,  a 
new  one,  was  on  the  South  Cove.  Whether  it  was  proposed  by 
the  town  that  the  new  meeting-house  should  be  placed  upon  the 
Common,  or  at  or  near  the  junction  of  what  are  now  called 
Summer  and  South  streets,  —  perhaps  on  the  spot  where  the 
New  South  meeting-house  was  afterward  built,  —  it  is  im- 
possible for  us  to  say.  On  the  1st  of  April,  1669,  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  new  church  accepted  a  deed  for  and  took  pos- 
session of  a  piece  of  ground  almost  central  as  between  these 
two  localities,  and  on  the  26th  of  July  they  asked  the  formal 
concurrence  of  the  selectmen  in  the  choice  they  had  made. 
The  selectmen,  however,  as  a  board,  declined  to  express  an 
opinion  in  the  matter.  All  this  will  appear  in  the  Third  Church 
Narrative,  to  which  we  shall  return  presently. 

The  site  upon  which  the  new  meeting-house  was  to  be  placed 
had  already  become  memorable  in  the  history  of  the  town.  It 
was  part  of  the  estate,  on  the  main  street  leading  to  Roxbury, 
upon  which  John  Winthrop,  the  first  governor,  the  American 
Nehemiah,  as  Cotton  Mather  calls  him,  lived  and  died,  and  was 
known  as  the  Green.  The  Third  Church  ultimately  came  into 
possession  of  all  this  property,  except  the  north  corner,  on  the 
lane  leading  to  the  spring,  upon  which  the  mansion  house  stood. 
In  the  autumn  of  1639  the  governor  was  seriously  embarrassed 
in  his  financial  affairs,  in  consequence  of  the  malfeasance  of 
his  bailiff  in  England,  and  in  1643  he  found  himself  obliged  to 
convey  his  mansion  house,  together  with  his  farm  in  Charles- 
town  called  Ten  Hills,  to  William  Tyng  and  others,2  "for  and  in 
consideration  of  divers  sums  of  money  wherein  he"  stood  "in- 
debted to  them  and  divers  others."  The  instrument  was  called 
an  absolute  deed  of  sale,  but  probably  it  was  only  a  mortgage, 

1  We  learn  of  this  designation  by  the  ity,    as     all    the    other    Congregational 

town  of  a  site  for  the  new  meeting-house  churches  in  Boston  had    done   or   were 

from   the  Third  Church   Narrative.     If  doing. 

the  church  had  received  a  piece  of  land  '2  The  other  grantees  were  Thomas 
as  a  grant  from  the  town,  instead  of  pro-  Allen,  Richard  Dummer,  Edward  Gib- 
viding  the  necessary  ground  for  itself, —  bons,  Robert  Sedgwick,  Valentine  Hill, 
a  very  unusual  course  in  those  days,  —  it  Richard  Russell,  Benjamin  Gillam,  Ed- 
would  not  have  been  harassed  with  vex-  mund  Angier,  and  Richard  Parker.  The 
atious  suits  at  law,  when,  two  centuries  deed  was  dated  September  26,  1643. — 
later,  it  decided  to  move  to  another  local-  Suffolk  Deeds,  lib.  i.  p.  45. 


130 


HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD   SOUTH  CHURCH. 


as  two  months  later  Governor  Winthrop  conveyed  to  his  son 
Stephen,  who  was  living  in  England  and  was  an  officer  in  the 
parliamentary  army,  "  all  that  my  lott  or  parcell  of  land  in 
Boston  aforesaid  called  the  Greene  lycing  by  the  Spring,"  1  not 
excepting  the  mansion  house,  or  the  land  on  which  it  stood.2 

This  corner,  however,  became  permanently  separated  from  the 
rest  of  the  estate.  In  1654  Stephen  Winthrop  sold  it  to  Amos 
Richardson,  who,  in  1679,  conveyed  it  to  his  son-in-law,  Timothy 
Clarke.3  In  the  deed  of  1643,  from  John  Winthrop  to  his  son 
Stephen,  there  is  the  following  reservation  :  "  Provided  alwayes, 
that  I  the  said  John  Winthrop  and  Margaret  my  wife  may  have 
and  use  one  halfe  of  the  said  parcell  of  land  called  the  Greene 
and  one  halfe  of  the  buildings  to  be  there  uppon  erected  for  the 
terme  of  our  lives  and  of  the  longer  liver  of  us,  so  as  we  shall 
not  lett  or  dispose  of  it  or  any  part  thereof  to  any  other."  4 
From  all  this  we  are  led  to  believe  that  the  governor  in  his  re- 
duced circumstances  built  a  new  house,  much  smaller  than  the 
mansion  which  he  had  been  obliged  to  vacate  ;  that  in  this  house 
he  died ;  that  here  dwelt  the  Rev.  John  Norton,  and  his  widow 
after  him  ;  and  that  this  house  became  the  first  parsonage  of  the 
South  Church.     Dr.  Wisner,  writing  in  1830,  said  that  it  "stood 


1  Of  Spring  Lane  Drake  has  given  us 
a  delightful  sketch.  It  recalls,  he  says, 
"  the  ancient  spring-gate,  the  natural 
fountain  at  which  Winthrop  and  Johnson 
stooped  to  quench  their  thirst,  and  from 
which,  no  doubt,  Madam  Winthrop  and 
Anne  Hutchinson  filled  their  flagons  for 
domestic  use.  The  gentlemen  may  have 
paused  here  for  friendly  chat,  if  the  rigor 
of  the  governor's  opposition  to  the  schis- 
matic Anne  did  not  forbid.  The  hand- 
maid of  Elder  Thomas  Oliver,  Win- 
throp's  next  neighbor  on  the  opposite 
corner  of  the  spring-gate,  fetched  her 
pitcher,  like  another  Rebecca,  from  this 
well ;  and  grim  Richard  Brackett,  the 
jailer,  may  have  laid  down  his  halberd  to 
quaff  a  morning  draft." 

2  This  deed  was  dated  November  12, 
1643,  but  it  was  not  recorded  until  March 
26,  1648,  about  a  year  before  Governor 
Winthrop  died.  It  was  "  for  divers  good 
causes  and  valuable  considerations."  — 
Suffolk  Deeds,  lib.  i.  p.  102. 

3  In  Colonel  Stephen  Winthrop's  deed, 
February  20,  1654,  the  land  is  described 
as   "  one  peece  of   ground  towards   the 


streete  of  twenty-two  ffoote  and  fiffty 
lower  foote  backwards  lyeing  and  bound- 
ed westward  to  the  streete  that  Goes 
from  Boston  to  Roxbury  towards  the 
North  East  to  the  way  Going  to  the 
Comon  Spring,  and  on  the  South  lyeth 
the  said  Colonells  house  and  land."  — 
Suffolk  Deeds,  lib.  iii.  p.  487  a. 

In  Amos  Richardson's  deed,  Sep- 
tember 11,  1679,  the  consideration  men- 
tioned is  his  love  and  good-will  for  his 
beloved  daughter  Sarah.  The  property  is 
described  as  lately  in  the  tenure  and  oc- 
cupation of  Sarah  Pickering,  and  as 
bounded  on  the  south  east  and  south- 
west by  "  the  land  formerly  Mr.  John 
Norton's,  now  in  the  tenure  and  improve- 
ment of  Mr.  Samuel  Willard."  —  Suffolk 
Deeds,  lib.  xi.  p.  225. 

In  a  plan  of  the  Old  South  property 
made  by  Thomas  Dawes  in  1770,  the 
depth  of  this  corner  lot  (then  owned  by 
Stephen  Deblois)  is  given  as  sixty-three 
feet,  nine  inches,  on  the  south,  adjoining 
the  land  of  the  church. 

4  Margaret  Winthrop,  third  wife  of  the 
governor,  died  June  14,  1647. 


GOVERNOR    WINTHROP' S  ESTATE.  131 

on  the  spot  now  occupied  by  the  north  end  of  South  Row. 
It  was  of  wood,  two  stories  high,  with  the  end  towards  the 
street."  1 

On  the  26th  of  March,  1659,  Judith  Winthrop,  widow,  and 
two  others,  executors  of  Stephen  Winthrop,  of  Westminster,  in 
the  county  of  Middlesex,  parties  of  the  first  part  in  a  tripartite 
indenture,  conveyed  to  the  Rev.  John  Norton,  "  Teacher  to  the 
Church  at  Boston,"  for  the  consideration  of  two  hundred  pounds, 
lawful  money,  a  house  and  about  an  acre  of  land,  then  in  the 
tenure  and  occupation  of  Mr.  Norton,  bounded  on  the  west  by 
the  highway  from  Boston  to  Roxbury ;  on  the  north  by  the 
ground  of  Amos  Richardson,  the  highway  there  leading  to  the 
spring,  and  the  ground  late  of  William  Tilly  ;  on  the  east  by 
the  ground  late  of  William  Hibbins  and  Robert  Knight ;  and  on 
the  south  by  the  highway  to  the  seaside.  John  Leverett,  then 
in  London,  was  joined  with  Mr.  Norton  as  a  party  of  the  second 
part  in  this  indenture,  and  is  mentioned  with  him  in  the  receipt 
for  the  purchase -money  of  even  date  with  the  deed.2  We 
suppose  that  he  acted  as  Mr.  Norton's  representative  in  the 
purchase  of  the  property  and  in  making  payment  for  it.  He 
afterward  executed  a  release.  The  parties  of  the  third  part  were 
William  Davis,  described  as  an  apothecary,  and  Peter  Oliver,  as 
a  baker,  who  were  appointed  attorneys  to  make  delivery  of  the 
property  in  behalf  of  Colonel  Winthrop' s  executors,  and  who 
gave  possession  of  it  to  Mr.  Norton,  July  26,  1659,  in  the  pres- 
ence of  William  Crowne,  James  Penn,  James  Johnson,  Thomas 
Marshall,  Richard  Trewsdale,  and  Amos  Richardson.  Here  Mr. 
Norton  lived  until  his  death  in   1663,3  and  here  his  widow  was 

1  In   Mr.  Dawes's  plan   of   1770,  two  hand,  who  deceas'd  in  the  very  house  I 

gateways  are  shown  on  the  front  line  of  dwell  in  the  26th  of  March  after." 

the  church's  land  :  one  close  to  the  south-  2  The  witnesses  to  the  deed  and  to  the 

ern  boundary  of  the  land  of  Gilbert  De-  receipt  were  Samuel  Bellingham,  Edward 

blois,  the  other  about  half-way  between  Tyng,  Samuel  Bradstreet,  George  Peryer, 

this  boundary  and  the  north  side  of  the  scrivener,  Thomas  Massam,  and  Richard 

meeting-house.  Marshall,    "servant   to   said   scrivener." 

For    the    identification    of   the    South  Both   documents    are    before   us,  as  we 

parsonage  with  the  house  in  which  Gov-  write.    Edward  Tyng  made  oath  to  them, 

ernor  Winthrop  lived  and  died,  see  Sewall  as  a  witness,  before  John  Endicott  and 

Papers,  vol.  ii.  p.  418.  Simon  Bradstreet,  July  27, 1659,  and  they 

Mr.  Prince,  in  the  advertisement  to  the  were  recorded  by  Edward  Rawson  on  the 

second  volume  of  his  Annals,  says  that  following  day.     Lib.  iii.  pp.  257-262. 

he  has  lately  received  an  authentic  and  3  Cotton    Mather,    in    the    Magnalia, 

valuable  journal  of  events  relating  to  the  speaks  of  "  a  worthy  minister  of  the  gos- 

Massachusetts   colony,  from   March    29,  pel,  Mr.  Samuel  Willard,  now  living  in 

1630,  to  January  11,  1648-9,  "  all  wrote  the  same  house  from  whence  Mr.  Norton 

with  the  said  Governor  Winthrop's  own  went  unto  '  that  not  made  with  hands.' " 


132  HISTORY  OF   THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

living  when  the  troubles  began  which  led  to  the  formation  of 
the  Third  Church. 

When  Samuel  Sewall  was  in  England,  in  1689,  he  paid  forty- 
pounds  to  the  heirs  of  Mr.  Stephen  Winthrop,  to  perfect  the 
title  to  this  property.     We  shall  refer  to  this  payment  again. 

Mr.  Norton,  by  his  will,  gave  to  his  wife  a  life  interest  in 
his  house  and  farm  at  Ipswich,  with  reversion  to  his  brother 
William.  The  estate  in  Boston  he  left  to  her  absolutely,  with 
the  understanding  between  them,  perhaps,  that  as  they  had  no 
children,  it  should  be  dedicated  to  religious  uses.1  All  question 
as  to  where  the  new  meeting-house  should  be  built  was  promptly 
settled  by  Mrs.  Norton's  offer  to  the  church  of  a  portion  of  this 
estate.  It  was  her  desire  and  intention,  no  doubt,  that  the 
whole  should  come  ultimately  into  the  possession  of  the  Third 
Church,  but  her  first  gift  was  somewhat  less  than  one  half  of 
the  property.  She  placed  her  contribution  of  land  by  the  side 
of  the  money  contributions  of  the  brethren.  The  value  of  her 
gift  at  the  time  did  not  exceed  the  value  of  what  was  given  by 
several  others,  nor  would  she  for  a  moment  have  claimed  that 
it  entitled  her  to  any  consideration,  or  that  it  endowed  her  with 
any  rights  or  powers,  beyond  and  above  the  other  contributors. 
Her  motive  and  purpose  in  giving  were  precisely  the  same  as 
theirs ;  the  only  difference  between  her  and  them  was  in  the 
nature  of  what  was  given.  Their  money  was  paid  into  the 
treasury  of  the  church,  and  came  at  once  under  its  control  and 
was  altogether  at  its  disposal.  Her  title  to  the  land  could  not 
pass  so  easily  ;  it  was  necessary  to  vest  it  in  somebody,  and  to 
define  the  uses  for  which  it  was  to  be  held.  These  uses  related 
exclusively  to  the  Third  Church  ;  and  to  secure  them,  she  se- 
lected, not  outside  parties,  but  representative  men  within  the 

In    the    Christian   History,  No.  9,  April  with   the   Memory   of   this   great  Man : 

30,  1743,  the  writer  quotes  a  paragraph  who  was  accounted  one  of  the  principal 

from  Mr.  Norton's  Heart  of  New  Eng-  Glories  of  Boston  and  New  England,  for 

land  Rent  (Cambridge,  1659),  and  then  Piety,  Wisdom   Parts  and  Learning,  in 

says  :  —  his  Day."  —  T/ie  Christian  History,  vol. 

"  It  is  some  pleasure  to  think  that  this  i.  p.  66. 
remarkable  Paragraph  is  now  transcribed  a  In  Mr.  Norton's  inventory,  which 
in  his  study,  where  'tis  probable  it  was  bears  the  signatures  of  John  Leverett, 
written,  Eighty  four  Years  ago  :  And  as  William  Davis,  and  Hezekiah  Usher,  and 
he  judiciously  and  piously  observes,  that  which  amounts  to  ^"2,095,  tne  Ipswich 
It  concerneth  New  England  always  to  property  is  valued  at  ,£450,  and  the  Bos- 
Remember  the  Purport  thereof  ;  It  is  ton  property  at  ^"300.  Mrs.  Norton  was 
also  a  Pleasure,  that  for  the  same  Design  made  sole  executrix  by  the  will,  and 
we  are  now  in  Providence  on  this  Oc-  Edward  Rawson  and  James  Penn  were 
casion  directed  to  revive  it ;  and  there-  appointed  overseers. 


MRS  NORTON'S  FIRST  DEED.  1 33 

church.  She  did  not  appoint  trustees  for  herself,  but  for  the 
church,  and  so  far  as  she  was  concerned  her  conveyance  was  not 
so  much  a  deed  of  trust,  as  a  deed  of  gift.1  She  considered,  no 
doubt,  when  she  executed  this  first  deed,  that,  in  effect,  she  was 
conveying  a  portion  of  her  land  to  the  church,  as  such.  When  she 
made  her  will,  eight  years  afterward,  she  bequeathed  the  remain- 
der, by  name,  to  the  Third  Church,  which  had  become  a  recog- 
nized organization.  Can  we  suppose  her  purpose  to  have  been 
to  establish  one  kind  of  possession  or  ownership  in  the  one 
case,  and  another  kind  in  the  other  ? 

The  deed  of  1669,  conveying  nearly  half  an  acre,  bounded  on 
the  south  and  west  by  what  we  know  as  Milk  and  Washington 
streets,  was  in  the  following  terms  :  — 

To  all  Christian  people  to  whome  these  presents  shall  come  I  Mary 
Norton  the  relict  widow  and  sole  executrix  to  the  last  will  and  testa- 
ment of  the  late  Reverend  my  deare  and  honoured  husband  Mr  John 
Norton  Teacher  of  the  first  church  in  Boston  in  the  county  of  Suffolke 
in  the  colony  of  the  Massachusets  in  New  England  send  greeting 
Know  yee  that  I  the  said  Mary  Norton  for  divers  good  causes  and  con- 
siderations mee  thereunto  mooving  and  more  especially  for  and  in 
consideration  of  that  endeared  affection  that  my  late  deare  husband 
in  his  life  Time  did  beare  and  myself  doe  beare  unto  his  and  my 
assured  friends  Captain  Thomas  Savage  Captain  William  Davis  Mr 
Hezekiah  Usher  Mr  Edward  Rawson  Mr  John  Hull  Mr  Peter  Olliver 
Mr  Joshua  Scottow  Mr  Edward  Raynsford  Mr  Richard  Trewsdall  and 
Mr  Jacob  Elliot  all  of  the  said  Boston  and  in  confidence  of  their  faith- 
fulnes  to  performe  that  trust  which  I  shall  repose  in  them  Have  ab- 
solutely given  granted  alliened  enfeoffed  and  confirmed  and  by  these 
presents  doe  fully  clearly  and  absolutely  give  grant  allien  enfeoffe  and 
confirme  unto  them  the  above  named  Thomas  Savage  William  Davis 
Hezekiah  Usher  Edward  Rawson  John  Hull  Peter  Olliver  Joshua 
Scottow  Richard  Treusdall  Edward  Raynsford  and  Jacob  Elliot  for 
the  use  and  uses  purpose  and  purposes  hearafter  mentioned  con- 
ditioned and  expressed  one  parcell  of  Land  scittuate  lying  and  being 
within  the  limitts  of  Boston  Towne  above  named  and  is  part  of  the 
Land  that  is  adjoyning  to  my  now  mansion  house  the  said  given  and 
granted  premisses  conteyning  by  estimation  ffifty  five  Poles  or  perches 
more  or  lesse  and  is  bounded  from  the  corner  post  next  Nathaniel 
Reynolds  along  the  high  streete  leading  from  Roxbury  to  Boston  seven 
length  of  Railes  being  seventy  nine  foote  and  a  half  from  thence  to 
the  midle  fence  now  standing  and  parting  of  orchard  and  that  pasture 
sixe  length  of  Railes  from  the  Lane  or  streete  leading  to  Mr  Peter 

1  It  is  indorsed  by  the  scrivener,  Mrs.  Norton's  Deed  of  Gift,  1669. 


134  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

01  livers  and  so  back  into  the  pasture  ninety  five  feete  the  said  sixe 
length  of  Railes  Conteyning  seventy  one  foote  or  thereabouts  from 
thence  to  the  dividing  fence  between  the  said  pasture  and  Mr.  Richard 
Peirce  his  garden  one  hundred  foote  and  alongst  the  said  fence  this 
lane  aforesaid  sixty  foote  and  from  thence  to  the  said  corner  aforesaid 
next  the  said  Nathaniel  Reynolds  his  dwelling  house  two  hundred 
thirty  eight  foote  and  one  halfe  bee  it  more  or  less  To  Have  and  to 
hold  the  above  granted  premisses  be  the  same  more  or  lesse  with  all 
the  priviledges  and  Appurtenanses  to  the  same  apperteyning  or  in  any 
wise  belonging  unto  them  the  said  Thomas  Savage  William  Davis 
Hezekiah  Usher  Edward  Rawson  John  Hull  Peter  Olliver  Joshua 
Scottow  Richard  Treusdall  Edward  Raynsford  and  Jacob  Elliot  and 
to  such  as  they  shall  associate  to  themselves  their  heires  and  suc- 
cessors forever  for  the  erecting  of  a  house  for  their  assembling  them- 
selves together  publickly  to  worship  God  as  also  the  erecting  of  a 
dwelling  house  for  such  minister  or  ministers  as  shall  bee  by  them  and 
their  successors  from  time  to  time  orderly  and  regularly  admitted  for 
the  Pastor  or  Teacher  to  the  said  church  or  Assembly  and  for  the 
accommodation  of  the  said  dwelling  house  for  the  minister  or  min- 
isters as  shall  from  time  to  time  so  be  chosen  as  aforesaid  and  for 
accomodation  of  the  meeting  house  with  convenient  passages  of  in- 
gresse  egresse  and  regresse  for  the  people  that  shall  there  from  time 
to  time  assemble  as  aforesaid  and  for  no  other  intent  use  or  purpose 
whatsoever  and  I  the  above  named  Mary  Norton  sole  executrix  as 
above  is  expressed  for  me  my  heires  executors  and  administrators  doe 
covenant  promise  and  grant  to  and  with  the  said  Thomas  Savage 
William  Davis  Hezekiah  Usher  Edward  Rawson  John  Hull  Peter  Olli- 
ver Joshua  Scottow  Richard  Trewsdall  Edward  Raynsford  and  Jacob 
Elliot  their  and  every  of  their  heires  executors  administrators  and 
assignes  by  these  presents  that  I  the  said  Mary  Norton  now  am  and  att 
the  ensealing  hereof  stand  and  be  the  true  and  propper  owner  of 
the  above  granted  premisses  and  that  I  have  good  right  full  power 
and  lawfull  authority  to  give  grant  bargaine  and  confirme  the  same 
unto  them  the  said  Thomas  Savage  William  Davis  Hezekiah  Usher 
Edward  Rawson  John  Hull  Peter  Olliver  Joshua  Scottow  Richard 
Trewsdall  Edward  Raynsford  and  Jacob  Elliot  their  heires  and  suc- 
cessors for  ever.  And  that  the  said  Thomas  Savage  William  Davis 
Hezekiah  Usher  Edward  Rawson  John  Hull  Peter  Olliver  Joshua  Scot- 
tow Richard  Trewsdall  Edward  Raynsford  and  Jacob  Elliot  and  Com- 
pany which  they  shall  associate  to  themselves  and  their  successors 
shall  and  may  at  all  times  and  from  time  to  time  for  ever  hereafter 
have  hold  possesse  and  enjoy  all  the  above  given  and  granted  prem- 
isses to  the  use  and  uses  intents  and  purposes  as  above  is  expressed 
without  the  lett  deniall  or  contradiction  of  me  the  said  Mary  Norton 
my  heires  executors  administrators  or  assignes  or  by  any  other  person 


THE   GREEN  AND   THE  FIRST   CHURCH.  1 35 

or  persons  whatsoever  having  clayming  or  pretending  to  have  or 
clayme  my  lawfull  rights  title  or  interest  therein  by  from  or  under  me 
or  by  from  or  under  my  late  Reverend  and  deare  husband  Mr  John 
Norton  deceased  or  any  of  his  estate  or  either  of  our  heires  executors 
administrators  or  assignes.  In  wittness  hereof  I  the  above  mentioned 
Mary  Norton  have  hereunto  put  my  hand  and  seal  this  ffirst  day  of 
Aprill  one  thousand  six  hundred  sixty  and  nine  being  the  one  and 
twentieth  yeare  of  the  reigne  of  our  Soveraigne  Lord  Charles  the 
Second  of  England  Scotland  France  and  Ireland  King  Defender  of 
the  Faith  etc  1669 

Mary  (Seal)  Norton 
Signed  Sealed  and  Delivered 
after  possession  was  given 
and  taken  of  the  within 

granted  premisses  in  the  Mrs  Mary  Norton  within 

presence  of  us  named  freely  acknowledged 

D.  Henchman  this  instrument   to  be   her 

John  Greenlefe  owne  act  and  deed  and  by 

Sollomon  Raynsford  her  signed  and  sealed  Aprill 

1  1669 
Before  Thomas  Danforth  Assistant 
B  :  6  :  folio  :  26  : 
Entered  and  Recorded  word  for  word  in  the  Booke  of  Records  for 
deeds  for  the  County  of  Suffolke  this  first  day  of  Aprill  1669 

As  Attests  Edward  Rawson  Recorder 

Thirty  years  before  this,  when  the  First  Church  was  about  to 
build  a  new  meeting-house  upon  a  new  site,  Governor  Winthrop 
offered  for  the  purpose  the  ground  which  the  Third  Church 
now  decided  to  occupy.  The  centre  of  trade  and  traffic  was  at 
the  head  of  the  present  State  Street,  near  the  meeting-house 
and  the  market-place,  as  it  is  in  many  old  English  towns  to-day, 
and  it  was  feared  by  some  that  to  remove  the  church  so  far  to 
the  south  as  the  Green  would  be  injurious  to  the  business  inter- 
ests of  the  town.  The  alternative  proposition  was  to  take  the 
land  in  Cornhill  Square,  belonging  to  Richard  Harding.1  The 
arguments  in  favor  of  the  Green  have  been  preserved  in  a 
paper  addressed  to  the  governor  and  others,  to  whom  the  ques- 
tion at  issue  had  been  referred.  Of  this  paper  Drake  says  : 
"  It  is  a  very  able  performance,  and  it  is  difficult  now  to  under- 
stand how  the  committee  could  come  to  a  decision  adverse  to  it."  2 

1  Mr.  Harding  had  been  disarmed  as  2  We  print  this  paper  here,  as  a  part  o£ 
one  of  the  followers  of  Mrs.  Hutchinson,  the  history  of  the  site  on  which  the  Old 
and  had  removed  to  Rhode  Island.  South  Church  worshipped  for  more  than 


136 


HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD   SOUTH  CHURCH. 


It  was  signed  by  Richard  Tuttell,  Jonathan   Negus,  John  Gal- 
lop, John  Mylam,  Matthew  Chaffie,  James  Johnson,  John  Oliver, 


two   centuries.     The   original    is   in   the 
Boston  Public  Library. 
To  our  Honoured  Governour,  and  Rev- 
erend   bretheren     Mr.    Colborne,  Mr. 
Gibones,  Mr.   Keayne,  and  Mr.  Ting, 
to  whom  the  care  of  placeing  the  meet- 
ing howse  for  the  best,  and  most  pub- 
lique  Advantage  is  committed. 
With  all  due  Acknowledgement  of  the 
power    committed  unto    your   Worship, 
and  our  Reverend  bretheren  together  with 
your  Worship,  for  the  dispose   of    this 
Businesse,  we  who  manifest  our  requests 
unto  you  by  our  names  here  underwrit- 
ten, have  (as  hoped  not  to  want  favoura- 
ble Acceptance  with  you ;  so)  conceived 
it  unsafe  for  us  to  omitt  any  Opportunity 
for   the  publique  weale  of   our  Towne, 
which  by  our  requests  might  any  way  be 
furthered,    and    least    we   should  seeme 
weake,  or  wilfull  in  our  motion,  we  desire 
your   favourable   consideration   of   some 
such  Reasons  as  may  conduce  to  helpe 
forward  a  right,  and  just  determination  of 
the  matter. 

The  places  in  difference  are  princi- 
pally that  of  Mr.  Hardings,  and  the 
Greene  :  we  conceive  that  the  Greene 
hath  most  fittnesse,  and  conveniency  for 
the  meeting  howse,  in  two  principall 
Respects.  I.  First  because  it  hath  singu- 
lar Accommodation  to  the  Ayre,  the  want 
of  free  accesse  whereof  hath  bin  deeply 
found'  in  the  ould  meeting-howse,  mak- 
ing burdensome  the  ordinances,  to  many 
(specially  weake)  hearers  by  faynting 
their  spirits  in  the  Summer  time  when 
there  is  most  concurse  of  people  :  and 
we  fear  a  greater  defect  here  of  if  the 
howse  stand  in  Mr.  Hardings  ground 
where  the  easterly,  and  Southeast  wind 
is  much  more  debarred.  If  it  be  sayd 
Mr.  Hardings  is  higher  ground  then  the 
greene,  and  so  more  obvious  to  the  Ayre, 
it  is  Answered,  though  it  be  higher 
(which  is  but  little)  yet  this  hath  a  farre 
greater  Advantage  for  the  aire  by  reason 
of  the  sudden  descents  of  the  earth  neare 
to  it,  and  it  standeth  open,  ready  to  en- 
tertayne  every  coole  breath  of  Aire  in 
the  summer,  whereas  the  other  place  is 


so  mussled,  and  overtopped  with  chimnyes 
on  every  side  allmost,  that  it  playnly  con- 
fessed! its  owne  disadvantage  in  com- 
parison. If  it  be  sayd  that  howsing 
will  in  time  be  as  neare  to  the  meeting 
howse  if  it  stand  uppon  the  greene,  as  it 
is  already  in  the  other  place :  we  An- 
swere,  that  needeth  not,  the  place  of  it- 
selfe  is  large  enough,  though  all  men 
round  about  should  build  upon  their  pro- 
prietyes,  and  an  inconveniencyfore  seene 
may  better  be  prevented,  then  that  which 
is  allready  extant,  can  be  remooved ; 
If  it  be  sayd  againe,  that  place  of  Mr. 
Hardings  will  have  the  Advantage  in 
the  winter,  it  is  Answered,  we  can  much 
more  easily  prevent  cold  then  heat,  be- 
sides the  whole  Towne  breaketh  the 
force  of  the  cold  northerly  winds  from 
the  Greene. 

2.  Secondly  we  conceive  if  the  meet- 
ing-howse stand  upon  the  greene  it  will 
much  promote  the  publique  welfare,  of 
our  Towne,  The  greatest  outward  hope 
of  our  outward  subsistance  is  by  Trad- 
ing :  Our  Lands  at  mount  Williston  are 
(as  it  were)  parted  from  us  :  other  Lands 
belonging  Lye  far  distant.  Now  we  con- 
ceive the  standing  of  the  meeting  howse 
upon  the  greene,  will  much  helpe  forward 
Trading,  by  procuring  more  convenient 
roome  for  Tradesmen,  for  by  this  meanes, 
as  the  market-place  and  wharfe,  and 
waterside,  will  sufficiently  commend  the 
present  situation  of  the  howses  of  the 
merchants  :  so  the  meeting  howse  will 
commend  the  street  toward  Mr.  Col- 
bornes  end,  and  that  which  goeth  to- 
wards the  hills,  if  it  stand  upon  the 
greene.  And  we  hope  our  Esteemed 
brethren  the  tradesmen  doe  more  Attend 
to  the  Enlargement  of  Trading  (which 
now  there  is  a  good  opportunity  of)  than 
some  particular  Advantage  to  them 
selves. 

The  cheifest  reason  which  hath  bin 
Alleadged  to  set  it  upon  Mr.  Hardings 
ground  is,  that  it  cannot  be  remooved 
out  of  the  market  place,  without  mani- 
fest injury  to  such  as  have  built,  and 
purchased  much  in  respect  to  it. 


THE   GREEN  IN  1639. 


137 


John  Davis,  Edmund  Jackson,  Joshua  Scottow,  Nicholas  Willis, 
George  Burden,  and  Edmund  Jackline.  It  begins  with  the 
following  personal  appeal  to  the  governor :  — 

To  our  Honoured  Governoicr. 

The  fruit  of  your  Worships  Liberall  Disposition  (which  the  God  of 
all  fulnesse  will  reward)  in  so  freely  offering  the  Greene  to  place  the 
meeting-howse  thereon  causeth  us,  as  thankefully  to  Acknowledge  it ; 


Ans:  we  durst  not  petition  to  put 
injury  upon  so  many  helpefull,  fayth- 
full,  and  Beloved  bretheren,  were  we 
so  convinced :  we  should  crosse  our 
former  Principles  of  advancing  mer- 
chandise, if  we  should  put  any  just  dis- 
couragements upon  merchants :  Say  the 
standing  of  the  meeting  howse  in  the 
market  place  hath  bin  to  the  young 
beginnings  of  Trading  as  a  nurse  to  a 
child,  or  as  a  prop  to  some  tender  plant, 
to  uphold  it  from  falling :  yet  once  in 
seaven  yeares,  without  the  nurse,  or 
prop,  the  child  will  goe,  the  tender  plant 
will  stand  Alone,  so  are  we  perswaded 
that  the  Lord  will  not  suffer  any  decay- 
ing in  Trading  to  be  found,  or  com- 
plained of  by  our  bretheren,  but  that  he 
who  hath  strengthened  their  hands,  and 
wayes,  will  not  withdraw  his  blessing 
from  them  though  the  meeting-howse 
stand  a  little  further  from  them  to  helpe 
forward  the  same  ends  in  another  place. 
Now  if  it  be  manifest  injury  to  them  to 
remove  it  to  the  greene,  for  further  and 
more  Publique  Advantage  :  then  it 
should  appeare  that  the  right  of  placeing 
it  here,  or  there  belongeth  to  them :  but 
it  is  the  Townes  right  to  order  the 
placeing  of  their  meeting  howse  for  their 
best,  and  most  Publique  Advantage,  and 
theirs  not  as  Tradesmen,  but  as  mem- 
bers of  the  church,  and  Towne,  had  the 
Towne  ever  promised,  eyther  that  the 
merchants  should  have  power  to  place 
the  meeting-howse,  or  that  it  should  for 
their  encouragement  stand  in  the  market 
place,  then  it  would  be  manifest  injury 
to  remoove  it  without  their  consent,  but 
this  never  was,  therefore  it  is  no  manifest 
injury  done  to  them  though  it  should  be 
set  upon  the  greene,  why  was  it  com- 
mitted to  the  whole  Towne  if  they  had 
not  liberty  to  agree  to  set  it  any  where 


for  the  best.  Againe  If  it  may  be 
pleaded  that  it  is  injury  to  them  if  it  be 
not  placed  for  their  Advantage,  because 
they  have  built,  and  bestowed  much 
cost:  it  may  (we  conceive  with  Submis- 
sion) much  more  be  pleaded  that  it  is  an 
injury  to  the  Towne,  if  it  be  not  placed 
for  the  most  Generall  advantage  of  Trad- 
ing, seing  they  have  built,  and  run  many 
hazards  in  the  hope  of  subsistance  by 
trading :  And  that  great  inconvenience 
of  heat  in  summer  will  much  more  un- 
comfortably be  susteyned  when  it  might 
so  seasonably  have  been  prevented.  We 
Yeild  it  maybe  some  seeming  present  in- 
conveniencye  to  tradesmen.  But  not  from 
any  Act  of  injustice  if  it  be  set  upon  the 
greene  :  we  shall  be  too  Tedious.  There- 
fore omitting  many  things  that  might  be 
alleadged  against  that  place  of  Mr.  Hoard- 
ings, concerning  the  swamp  on  the  back- 
side, demolishing  of  a  sufficient,  and 
chargeable  ^Edifice,  too  much  nearenesse 
to  the  prison,  to  the  ordinary,  to  greater 
danger  of  fyre  by  much  than  in  the  other 
place :  We  committ  the  things  we  have 
sayd  to  your  thoughts,  we  know  we 
speake  to  wiser  men  then  our  selves, 
and  yet  to  such  as  will  not  slight  us :  we 
doe  profess  (though  some  of  us  were 
not  present  when  it  was  committed  to 
your  worship,  and  our  Reverend  brether- 
en, to  determine,  nor  had  any  knowledge 
of  so  great,  and  weyghty  an  Occasion) 
yet  we  shall  by  the  Lords  helpe  sit  downe 
silent,  and  contented,  if  the  Lord  moove 
your  harts  to  agree  in  the  matter,  and 
shall  looke  at  it  as  an  hand  of  God :  yet 
we  acknowledge  it  is  our  farre  greater 
desire,  for  generall  satisfaction,  that  it 
might  be  put  to  the  providence  of  our 
wise  God  in  a  lott  (in  case  it  be  not 
agreed  to  stand  upon  the  greene)  where- 
by all  contentions   (we  are  perswaded) 


138  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD   SOUTH  CHURCH. 

so  heartily  to  perswade,  and  entreat  that  to  the  same  end  it  may  be 
improoved:  for  as  we  conceive  it  to  be  of  God  that  your  Worship 
should  offer  the  Towne  this  favour :  so  we  conceive  it  to  be  accord- 
ing unto  God,  that  so  great  a  benefitt  unto  the  Towne,  and  Country 
might  be  embraced,  which  we  earnestly  Desire,  and  Assure  our  selves, 
that  your  worship  will  not  lightly  esteeme  the  requests  of 

Your  ever 
Bounden, 

It  was  at  this  time  that  the  governor  was  overtaken  by  the 
financial  embarrassments  of  which  we  have  already  spoken. 
The  foregoing  address  certainly  conveys  the  idea  that  he  had 
offered  his  land  to  the  First  Church  as  a  free  gift,  and  this  he 
must  have  done  before  the  receipt  of  the  bad  news  from  Eng- 
land, which  made  it  impossible  for  him  to  carry  out  his  purpose. 
The  address  delicately  assumes  that  his  liberal  offer  was  still 
open.  It  was  intended,  no  doubt,  under  the  changed  conditions, 
to  pay  him  for  the  land,  if  it  should  be  taken  ;  and  when  the 
church  decided  not  to  take  it,  it  generously  presented  him  with 
two  hundred  pounds,  the  equivalent  of  what  the  purchase-money 
would  have  been,  so  that  he  was  not  allowed  to  suffer  by  the 
decision.  In  his  journal,  he  gives  the  reasons  why  Mr.  Hard- 
ing's land  was  chosen  in  preference  to  his  own  :  — 

Their  old  meeting-house  being  decayed,  and  too  small,  they  sold 
it  away,  and  agreed  to  build  another.  .  .  .  But  there  grew  a  great 
difference  among  the  brethren  where  this  new  one  should  stand. 
Some  were  for  the  green,  (which  was  the  governour's  first  lot,  and  he 
had  yeilded  it  to  the  church,  etc) ;  others,  viz.  the  tradesmen  espe- 
cially, who  dwell  about  the  market  place,  desired  it  might  stand  still 
near  the  market,  lest  in  time  it  should  divert  the  chief  trade  from 
thence.  The  church  referred  it  to  the  judgment  and  determination  of 
five  of  the  brethren,  who  agreed  that  the  fittest  place  (all  things  con- 
sidered) would  be  near  the  market ;  but,  understanding  that  many  of 
the  brethren  were  unsatisfied,  and  desired  rather  it  might  be  put  to  a 
lot,  they  declared  only  their  opinions  in  writing,  and  respited  the  full 
determination  to  another  general  meeting,  thinking  it  very  unsafe  to 

will  be  made  to  cease,  and  many  heart  and  covering  our  failings  in  matter,  or 

burnings  prevented  which  otherwise  may  manner   towards   you   by   so   much    the 

arise  and  we  shall  magnify  the  wisedome  more  shall   you  bind  us   with  cords  of 

of  God  in  condemning  our  owne  folly.  Love  to  remaine 

We  have    spoken  freely,  knowing  your  The  Lords  will  be  done, 

easinesse  to  be  entreated   and   by   how  Yours  to  our  utmost 

much  the  more  we  shall  have  experience  d.  m.                 in  Jesus  Christ, 

of  your  hearkening  to  us  in  this  matter,  This  17-10.  1639. 


THE  NEW  MEETING-HOUSE.  1 39 

proceed  with  the  discontent  of  any  considerable  part  of  the  church. 
When  the  church  met,  the  matter  was  debated  to  and  fro,  and  grew  at 
length  to  some  earnestness,  etc. ;  but,  after  Mr.  Cotton  had  cleared 
it  up  to  them,  that  the  removing  it  to  the  green  would  be  a  damage  to 
such  as  dwelt  by  the  market,  who  had  there  purchased  and  built  at 
great  charge,  but  it  would  be  no  damage  to  the  rest  to  have  it  by  the 
market,  because  it  would  be  no  less,  but  rather  more  convenient  for 
them  than  where  the  former  stood,  they  all  yeilded  to  have  it  set  by 
the  market  place ;  and,  though  some  remained  still  in  their  opinion 
that  the  green  were  the  fitter  place,  yet,  for  peace  sake,  they  yeilded 
to  the  rest  by  keeping  silence  while  it  passed.1 

One  of  Governor  Winthrop's  descendants  in  the  present 
generation2  —  the  accomplished  scholar  and  the  large-hearted 
Christian  gentleman  —  has  thus  written  of  his  distinguished 
ancestor,  and  the  sacred  uses  to  which  his  estate  was  to  be  set 
apart :  — 

But  though  he  could  not  have  been  indifferent  to  the  judgment 
which  should  be  pronounced  upon  him  by  posterity,  it  may  safely  be 
said  that,  above  all  honors  which  could  be  paid  to  his  memory,  above 
monuments  or  statues  or  memorials  of  any  sort,  he  would  have  ap- 
preciated the  casual  coincidence  that  on  the  very  site  of  his  residence, 
or  certainly  within  the  inclosure  of  his  garden,  should  stand  a  conse- 
crated edifice,  in  which,  through  a  long  succession  of  generations, 
should  be  gathered  one  of  the  chosen  churches  of  Christ,  worshipping 
God  according  to  the  faith  and  the  forms  which  had  been  dearest  to 
his  own  heart  in  his  mature  New  England  life.  The  Old  South 
Church  in  Boston,  as  it  is  called,  has  many  hallowed  and  many  patri- 
otic associations  ;  but  it  may  be  doubted  whether  any  of  them  are 
more  congenial  with  its  sacred  uses,  or  will  be  more  cherished  here- 
after by  its  devout  frequenters,  than  that  it  marks  the  Boston  home  of 
John  Winthrop,  —  its  foundations  resting  upon  the  spot  on  which  he 
dwelt  in  life,  its  steeple  pointing  to  the  brighter  abode  to  which  he 
ever  aspired  in  the  skies.3 

John  Hull  records  in  his  diary,  November,  1669,  "a  third 
meeting-house  erected  in  Boston."  It  was  first  occupied  on 
the  19th  of  December.  Dr.  Wisner  says  that  it  was  built  of 
cedar,  "with  a  steeple,  galleries,  square  pews,  and  the  pulpit  in 
the  side  as  in  the  present  building"  (1830). 4     In  a  deed  of  trust 

1  Winthrop's  Hist,  of  JV.  Eng.,  vol.  i.  4  Pemberton,  in  his  Description  of  Bos- 
pp.  382,  3S3.  ton,  printed  in  1794,  speaks  of  this  build- 

2  The  Hon.  Robert  C.  Winthrop.  ing  as  "the    old    cedar  meeting-house," 

3  Life  and  Letters  of  fokn  Winthrop,  and  he  says  that  the  brick  building  of 
vol.  ii.  pp.  409,  410.  1730  was  erected  on  the  same  ground. 


140  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

executed  by  Edward  Rawson,  Joshua  Scottow,  and  Jacob  Eliot 
in  1687,  it  is  said  that  they  and  their  associates  built  and  erected 
"  a  large,  spacious  and  faire  meeting  house,  with  three  large 
porches,  every  way  compleately  fitted,  and  covered  with  sheete 
lead,  the  house  and  said  porches,  which  stood  them  and  their 
associates  neere  if  not  above  two  thousand  pounds."  From  the 
situation  of  its  meeting-house,  at  what  was  then  the  south  end 
of  the  town,  the  new  church  was  called  the  South  Church,  and 
it  continued  to  be  so  called  until  17 17,  when  a  congregation  was 
gathered  and  located  in  Summer  Street,  and  took  the  name  of 
the  New  South.  After  this  the  Third  or  South  Church  began 
to  be  known  as  the  Old  South,  and  this  name  it  still  retains,  al- 
though its  present  house  of  worship  is  in  another  part  of  the  city. 
We  come  back  now  to  the  Third  Church  Narrative,  which  we 
have  anticipated  in  some  particulars  :  — 

MRS.    NORTONS    GIFT    OF    LAND    TO    THE    3D    CHURCH    FOR    MEETING 

HOUSE. 

Whereas  that  Pious  and  worthy  Matron  Mrs.  Mary  Norton,  Relict 
of  the  late  Reverend  Mr.  John  Norton  Teacher  to  the  first 
Church  of  Boston,  did  of  her  owne  free  mind,  and  pious 
desire  to  promote  the  blessed  work  of  the  Gospell,  for  the  providing 
a  meet  place  for  the  3d  Church  of  Christ  in  Boston,  to  erect  a  meeting 
house,  did  give  and  grant  unto  T :  S  :  H  U.  W.  D.  J.  S.3  &c  a  certaine 
part  and  parcell  of  land  out  of  her  orchard  and  allso  for  the  building 
of  one  or  more  Elders  houses  [with  her  dwell-house]  &c  as  in  the 
deed  bearing  date  more  amply  appeareth  :  and 

the  said  T.  S.  H.  U.  W.  D.  &c  as  feoffees  in  trust  for  the  society  did 
enter  on  the  said  land  and  seperated  the  same  from  her  Orchard  for 
that  end  on  the  27  June  and  on  the  6th  July  1669  by  severall  labour- 
ers digging  a  trench  for  the  foundation  of  that  structure  which  they 
intended  to  erect,  wherupon  a  warrant  signed  by  the  Governour  and 
two  Magistrates  of  Boston  was  sent  by  Constable  ffreegrace  Bendall 
to  Captaine  Peter  Oliver  Mr.  Jos.  Rock,  and  Benj :  Gibbs  who  had  the 
ordering  of  the  workmen,  the  said  Constable  with  his  staff  of  officers 
and  some  Persons  he  had  commanded  to  assist  him  came  to  the  same 
ground,  and  read  his  warrant  to  said  Rock  and  Gibs  in  the  hearing  of 
the  workemen,  and  forbad  them  to  proceed,  being  by  them  demanded 
a  Coppy  of  that  warrant  he  denyed  it,  though  the  other  Constables 
with  him  present,  affirmed  it  was  the  Governors  order  that  a  coppy  of 
it  should  be  given,  on  which  refusall  the  said  Rock  and  Gibs  required 

From  an  old  memorandum  in  our  pos-  1  [These  grantees  were  Thomas  Savage, 
session,  we  learn  that  the  first  meeting-  Hezekiah  Usher,  William  Davis,  Joshua 
house  had  a  bell  which  cost  ,£18.  Scottow.] 


THE    COUNCIL   ASKED    TO   INTERFERE.  141 

the  workmen  to  goe  on,  whereupon  the  said  Rock  and  some  of  the 
workmen  were  carryed  by  said  Bendall  before  the  Governour  and  Mr. 
Tyng,  who  committed  the  said  Rock  to  prison  with  Am  :  Dawes  1  one 
of  the  workmen,  and  bound  them  over  to  the  County  Court  with  some 
others  to  answer  the  same,  the  warrant  followeth. 

Whereas  we  have  certaine  information  that  severall  in  the  Towne  of 
Boston,  have  an  intendment  and  resolution  to  erect  a  house  of  publique 
worship,  nigh  the  house  where  Mrs.  Norton  liveth,  upon  part  of  the 
land  appertaining  to  the  said  house,  in  a  way  contrary  to  what  hath 
bin  the  practise  and  orderly  custome  used  in  the  said  Governors  war- 
towne  formerly,  which  is  to  the  great  greif  and  offence  of  [£"  meeting61" 
many  sober  and  discreet  Persons,  whereby  we  perceive  house- 
that  peace  and  love  is  like  to  be  hinderd,  as  well  as  former  good  order 
according  to  Custome  is  likely  to  be  invaded. 

These  are  therfore  in  his  Majesties  name  to  require  you  to  acquaint 
such  as  are  concerned  therein,  especially  Captaine  Pet.  Oliver,  Joseph 
Rock,  and  Benj :  Gibs  whome  we  understand  have  the  ordering  and 
the  oversight  of  that  work,  that  they  desist  from  erecting  any  such 
publique  house  in  that  place,  and  if  they  shall  yet  persist  to  prosecute 
the  same :  you  are  to  forwarne  any  that  shall  be  actors  therein,  and  if 
any  shall  disobey  you,  and  proceed  therein,  you  are  to  bring  such 
Person  or  Persons  before  Authority  that  they  may  be  dealt  with  all 
according  to  their  demerit 

Rich  :  Bellingham  Governor. 
John  Leverit  Assistant. 
Edw  :  Tyng  Assistant. 

Dated  25.  June  1669 

THE   GOVERNOURS    CALL    FOR   A   COUNCILL    OF    MAGISTRATES. 

Gentlemen 

There  doth  appeare  to  myself  and  some  others  on  the  place  need  of 
convening  the  Councill,  for  settling  some  matters  of  dif- 
ference, among  the  Inhabitants  of  this.  Towne  of  Boston 
which  if  not  timely  healed,  there  are  many  feares  of  a  sudden  tumult 
to  the  great  dishonour  of  God  and  of  our  profession,  the  present  oc- 
casion of  contest  being  the  action  of  some  private  persons  who  doe 
attempt  the  setting  up  of  an  Edifice,  for  Publique  use,  which  by  the 
authority  of  the  place  is  apprehended  to  be  sundry  wayes,  detri- 
mentall  to  the  publique  peace,  and  wellfare  of  the  place,  And  not 
withstanding  the  prohibition  made  them  by  Authority  doe  violently 
proceed,  therein,  for  this  end  you  are  desired  to  Assemble  in  Councill 
on  the  14th  day  of  this  instant  at  Boston  by  eight  of  the  clocke  in  the 

1  [Ambrose  Dawes,  son  of  William  and  Susanna  Dawes.  He  joined  the  Third 
Church  September  7,  1670.] 


142  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

morning,  not  doubting  of  your  readynes  to  afford  your  presence  at 
time  and  place 

Gentlemen 

I  am  your  freind  and  Servant 

Rich  :  Bellingham  Governour. 
Boston:  6:  July  1669 

Att  a  Councill  held  at  Boston  14th  July  1669. 

The  Councill  being  Assembled  to  consider  of  some  meet  expedient 
for  issuing  of  some  uncomfortable  differences  that  have  arisen  in  Bos- 
ton, about  the  erecting  of  a  new  meeting  house  for  the  publique 
worship  of  God,  having  spent  some  time  to  examine  the  matter,  And 
considered  the  grounds  of  these  debates,  and  contests  that  have  arisen 
doe  judge  meet,  that  such  persons  as  have  in  any  kinde  tumultuously 
or  contemptiously  acted  ;  whereof  cogniscance  hath  bin  taken  by  the 
Authority  on  the  place,  and  the  persons  accused  stand  bound  over  to 
the  Court  of  that  County,  that  they  be  proceeded  against  according  to 
law,  and  their  owne  demerits,  And  for  the  setling  the  place  of  the 
meeting  house,  finding  that  sundry  alligations  are  presented  by  both 
parties  which  seem  to  be  of  weight.  The  Councill  doe  judge  meet  to 
declare  that  it  is  the  duty  of  those  that  are  about  to  erect  the  meeting 
house  as  it  is  above  expressed  to  observe  the  lawes  and  orders  of  the 
Generall  Court,  for  the  regulating  of  the  prudentiall  affaires  of  the 
place,  And  in  case  they  or  any  others  shall  proceed  contrarily  there 
unto  it  will  be  upon  their  owne  perill,  nor  must  they  expect  the 
Countenance  or  allowance  of  Authority  therein. 

By  the  Councill 

Edw  :  Rawson  Secretary. 

Att  the  meeting  of  the  whole  Towne  this  Instruction  was  put  to 
vote,  that  was  drawen  up  by  the  committee  chosen  by  the  Towne  to 
draw  up  instructions  for  the  Selectmen  :  viz  : 

That  you  will  neither  Countenance  or  suffer  any  Edifice  of  publique 
Conc[ern]  to  be  erected  in  the  Towne  by  any  person  or  persons,  be- 
fore the  publique  Authority  in  the  Towne  be  made  acquainted  there 
with  And  consent  there  unto  voted  in  the  negative  by  a  cloud  of  wit- 
nesses. 

Att  a  metting  of  Captain  James  Oliver,  mr.  John  Richards,  Heze- 
kiah  Usher  mr.  Edw  Raynsford  Captain  Petter  Oliver 
and  John  Jollife.     Select  men. 

It  is  a  greed  that  there  is  need  of  another  Meetinge  house  to  be 

erected  in  the  Towne  of  Boston 

Upon  the  motion   of  Captaine  Wm.   Davis,  Mr.   Tohn 
26:  (5)  1669.  r 

Hull  and  Mr.  Tho :  Brattle  for  the  concurrence  of  the 

Selectmen 


PETITION  TO    THE  MAGISTRATES.  143 

As  the  rule  is  circumstanced  for  erecting  of  another  meeting  house 
we  judge  it  doth  not  belong  to  us,  as  Prudentiall  men  to  determine 
the  placing  of  it:1  And  by  the  Major  part  of  the  Select-   The  meeting 
men  before  mentioned  it  was  agreed  that  the  place  allotted   u^Towne"' 
by  the  Towne  for  erecting  a  meeting  house  nigh  the  wind-  charse- 
mill  was  no  way  judged  Convenient  for  reasons  then  given : 

the   County  Court  held  at  Boston,   where  Jos :  Rock  and  Benj : 
Gibs  were  called,  Mr.  Rock  and  Benj :  Gibs  sentenced  to 
pay  5  £  money  [     ]  and  fees  of  the  Court  and  to  stand 
committed  till  it  was  Performed,  both  appealed  from  the  sentence  to 
the  Court  of  Assistants  and  were  bound  with  sureties  to  present  their 
appeales  to  effect 

Both  these  appellants  prosecuting  their  appeales  upon  the  hearing 
of  their  pleahs,  they  were  acquitted  by  Jury  and  Bench 
upon  the  reasons  they  gave  in,  and  their  fines  taken  of 
and  the  sentence  declared  null,  the  warrant  brought  by  the  Con- 
stable was  not  in  Court,  but  Lieut :  Cooke  and  Mr.  Wiswell 2  pretend- 
ing they  came  from  the  Governour  [whome  as  it  appeared  afterwards 
they  had  traduced]  went  in  a  surreptitious  manner  to  perswade  the 
foreman  of  the  Jury  to  take  it  of  them,  but  he  refused,  and  upon 
Complaint  to  the  Court  they  were  called  forth,  confessed  the  fact,  and 
were  sentenced  by  the  Court  to  receive  an  Admonition : 

The  Brethren  of  the  3d  Church  petitioned  the  Court  of  Assistants 
as  followeth 

To  the  Honoured  Governour,  Deputy   Governour  and  the  rest  of  the 

Honoured  Magistrates  now  Assembled. 

Your  humble  Petitioners  not  having  acted  on  our  owne  leads,  but 
led  by  Councill  (as  we  stedfastly  beleive)  according  to  the  institutions 
of  the  Gospell,  and  being  constituted  into  a  Church  body  with  the 
Consent  of  Magistrates  Elders  and  Churches,  whereby  the  name  of 
God  is  soe  solemnly  called  upon  us,  and  having  by  the  favour  of  God, 
and  pious  bounty  of  the  relict  of  that  Reverend  and  blessed  man  of 
God  Mr.  Jo  :  Norton,  a  place  freely  given  us  for  to  erect  an  house  for 
God  and  his  publique  worship  which  unto  us  is  most  convenient :  and 
we  hope  will  not  prove  unto  any  really  prejudiciall,  And  yet  haveing 
met  with  some  matter  of  greivance  in  our  proceedure  therein,  doe 
humbly  intreat  of  this  Honourable  Councill  the  benigne  influence  of 
their  favourable  aspect,  And  that  they  would  be  pleased  to  interceed 

1  ["  Upon  the  motion  of  Captain  Wm.  men  to  determine  the  placeing  of  it."  — 

Davis,  Mr.  John  Hull,  and  Mr.  Thomas  Boston  Town  Records,  1669.] 

Brattle  for  the  concurrance  of  the  select  2  [John   Wiswell  was    chosen    ruling 

men  for  erectinge  of  a  meetinge  howse ;  elder  of  the  First  Church,  April  2,  1670. 

as  the  case  is  circomstanced.    Wee  judge  In  the  MS.  the  word  "  deacon,"  preceding 

it  doth  not  belonge  to  us  as  prudentiall  Mr.  Wiswell's  name,  is  erased.] 


144  HISTORY  OF    THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

for  us,  with  our  Honoured  Governour  Major  Generall  and  mr.  Ting : 
That  all  humaine  frailties" past  by  and  buried  in  the  oblivion  of  true 
Charity  and  Brotherly  love,  we  may  peaceably  prosecute  that  worke 
which  we  have  in  hand,  trusting  that  through  his  grace  we  shall 
obtaine  helpe  soe  to  walke  with  the  rest  of  the  Churches  and  people 
of  this  Collony  That  this  Honourable  Councill  shall  have  no  after 
cause  of  greife  of  heart,  that  they  have  managed  the  Councills  of 
peace  for  us ;  at  such  a  time  But  have  by  their  ffatherly  influence  bin 
an  incouragement  to  the  worke  of  the  Lord  in  the  hands  of  your  un- 
worthy petitioners  who  with  continuall  prayers  for  you Subscribe 

ourselves 

Your  humble  Servants  in  the  Lord 
Thomas  Savage  John  Wing  Benj  :  Gibbs 

Thomas  Brattle  John  Tapping  Theop  :  ffrarey 

Edw  :  Rainsford  Edw  :  Rawson  Wm.  Dawes 

Joseph  Davis  Joseph  Rocke  Joseph  Belknape 

Hez  :  Usher  Jacob  Elliot  Theodore  Atkinson 

John  Hull  John  Sanford  Petter  Oliver 

Wm.  Salter  Seth  :  Perry  Robert  Walker 

Joshua  Scottow  Wm  :  Davis  Benj  :  Thirston 

Petter  Brackett  Joseph  Belcher 

Read  in  open  Court  the  16th  of  September  1669. 

Upon  consideration  of  this  petition  the  Honoured  Councill  was 
pleased  to  write  the  letter  ensuing  — 

To  the  Honoured  Gouvernor,  Major  Generall  John  Leveritt  and  mr. 
Edward  Ting:  Esquires. 

Honoured  Sirs.  A  petition  being  presented  to  us  by  the  Brethren 
of  the  New  Church  of  Boston,  who  being  about  to  erect  a  meeting- 
house for  the  worship  of  God,  upon  a  peice  of  ground  given  them  for 
that  purpose,  And  have  mett  with  some  matter  of  greivance  in  their 
proceedings,  Doe  therefore  desire  our  mediation  with  the  magistrats 
that  live  in  Boston,  Upon  many  considerations  we  have  thought 
requisite  to  intreat,  and  allsoe  to  advise  the  Governour  and  other 
magistrates  upon  the  place,  not  to  suffer  any  interruption  in  the  said 
worke,  but  permit  it  may  be  carryed  on  peaceably  without  disturb- 
ance. 

Your  Humble  Servants. 

ffrancis  wllloughby 

Symon  Bradstreet  Symon  Willard 

Dan  :  Gookin  Rich  Russell 

Dan  :  Dennison  Tho  Danforth 

Boston  September  17  :  1669. 


A    LETTER   FROM   THE   MAGISTRATES.  1 45 

Upon  information  to  the  Honourd  Councill  of  a  Pernitious  letter 
sent  by  Major  Bourne  to  the  first  Church  in  Boston  which  the  Elders 
saw  meet  to  publish  in  their  Church  and  upon  occasion  of  the  no- 
toriously scandalous  fame  of  Concealing  the  originall  letter  sent  from 
Newhaven  and  their  framing  another,  seven  magistrates  were  pleased 
to  write  this  letter  ensuing. 

To  the  Reverend  Elders  of  the  first  Church  of  Christ  in  Boston,  Mr. 
yohn  Davenport,  Mr.  James  Allen  and  Mr.  James  Pen. 
Reverend  Sirs  we  have  bin  informed  that  you  have  published 
a  letter  to  the  Church  of  Boston  (from  Major  Bourne)  reflecting  much 
upon  this  Government  and  their  procedings  against  some  Anabap- 
tists, It  would  have  asswaged  our  griefe,  had  we  heard  you  had  given 
any  worde  of  caution  to  the  Auditory  that  the  dangerous  insinuations, 
and  tendencies  of  the  doctrines  therein  delivered  might  thereby  in 
some  measure  have  bin  prevented,  but  thereof  we  have  had  no  ac- 
count, (we  cannot  also)  but  take  notice  of  the  publique  and  notorious 
fame  or  infamy,  of  a  fact  charged  upon  you,  for  concealing  the  origi- 
nall letter  from  New  haven  in  answer  to  a  letter  from  the  Church  of 
Boston  for  mr.  Davenport's  dismission,  and  in  stead  thereof  framing 
a  letter  yourselves,  and  declaring  the  same  to  be  the  dismission  of  mr. 
Davenport  from  the  Church  of  Newhaven  to  the  Church  of  Boston 
These  things  as  they  are  matter  of  greife  and  affliction  to  us,  soe  we 
can  not  but  owne  it,  as  our  Duty  to  inquier  into  the  matter,  Not  that 
we  doe  now  undertake  to  Judge  you  faulty,  though  ;  as  to  the  last 
particular  we  understand  many  of  the  Elders  have  laboured  to  Con- 
vince you,  But  only  to  acquaint  you  that  we  (as  in  duty  are  bound) 
Expect  your  answer  to  the  premises  at  the  next  Generall  Court  in 
October  being  necessitated  att  present  to  inquier  &c :  by  reason  of  the 
absence  of  the  Governour  and  Deputy  And  in  the  meane  time  shall 
pray  God  to  guide  your  hearts  and  wayes,  that  peace  and  truth  may 
be  continued  in  the  Churches  and  Common  wealth. 

Sym  :  Bradstreet 
Dan  :  Gookin 
Dan  :  Dennison 
Sym  :  Willard 
Rich  :  Russell 
Tho  :  Danforth 
John  Pinchon 
September  17th  :  1669. 

Upon  the  13  (7)  ber  Instant  the  love  of  many  Brethren  in  Neigh- 
bouring Townes  is  not  to  be  for  gotten  who  then  freely  brought  in  27 
Carte  loads  of  the  meeting  house  timber,  and  upon  the  27.  (7)  ber 
brought  in  43  Cartes  laden  with  the  same  timber,  from  the  place  where 


146  HISTORY  OF   THE    OLD   SOUTH   CHURCH. 

it  was  framed,  being  14  miles  distant  from  the  Towne,  besides  13 
Cartes  from  Muddy  river  with  timber  all  layed  in  place,  Which  occa- 
sioned the  Governour  and  mr.  Ting  to  direct  this  letter  insueing  to 
Captain  Savage  Captain  Davis  and  the  rest  of  the  late  petitioners 

We  haveing  many  times  manifested  our  Desire  in  way  of  Authority 
2g  concerning  your  proceeding  in  that  place,  as  tending  to 

and^ireTings  perpetuate  the  differences  among  us,  And  though  we  are 
letter  to  im-      stj)i  Qf  the  sarne  minde,  vet  for  peace  sake  and  respect  to 

pede  the  meet-  1  J  r  _  L 

mg  house.  others  ;  we  now  advise  and  desire  you  to  desist  any  further 
proceeding,  in  building  in  the  ground  neere  mrs.  Norton's  house  till 
the  Generall  Courte  where  the  case  may  have  a  legall  and  finall  Issue, 
And  such  in  which  we  shall  acquiesce,  you  may  therefore  prevent 
further  trouble  to  yourselves  and  us,  And  manifest  your  willingnes,  to 
avoyd  offence  to  your  Brethren,  And  to  be  well  wishers  to  the  Au- 
thority and  peace  of  this  Collony  —  this  is  the  desire  of  your  loveing 
friends 

Rich  :  Bellingham  Governour 
Edw  :  Ting  : 
Boston  29  (7)  mo  1669 

Upon  the  Communicating  of  this  letter  Captain  Savage,  and  Cap- 
tain Davis  being  sent  by  the  Brethren  to  returne  answer  to  the  fore- 
going letter,  came  to  the  Governours  house  where  they  found  mr. 
Stoder  and  Mr.  Wiswall,  Captain  Savage  told  the  Governour  and  mr. 
Ting  they  had  received  their  letter  and  desired  to  speak  with  their 
worships  alone,  The  Governour  replyed,  speak  on,  Captain  Savage 
againe  exprest,  we  desire  to  speake  with  your  worships  in  private,  mr. 
Ting  answered,  he  did  not  know  whether  it  was  safe  to  trust  the  Gov- 
ernour and  himselfe  with  them  alone,  Captain  Savage  replyed,  That 
he  was  very  much  unsatisfied  with  his  speech,  and  in  case  they  could 
not  have  speech  with  them  alone  they  should  take  their  leaves  of 
them  The  Governour  further  said  they  expected  their  answer  in 
writing,  to  which  was  answered,  We  are  not  to  leave  any  thing  in 
writing  but  to  deliver  what  we  are  to  declare  by  word  of  mouth,  and 
in  case  we  can  not  have  liberty  to  express  our  Brethrens  minde  in 
private  we  shall  take  our  leave  and  soe  departed. 

The  frame  being  in  place  on  the  1  :  of  October  helpe  came  in  to 
raise  it,  and  soe  the  worke  was  carried  along  gradually,  to 
the  Compleating  thereof,  without  the  least  dammage  of 
any  one  person  that  was  there  imployed,  which  is  highly  to  be  acknowl- 
edged to  the  praise  of  Allmighty  God,  whoe  preserved  both  life  and 
limbs  of  all  persons  concerned  therein. 

The  19th  of  the  4  mo.  last  —  Application  had  bin  made  to  mr. 
Thatcher  to  signify  to  him  the  firmnes  and  constancy  of  our  hearty 


CHURCH  OFFICERS  CHOSEN.  147 

affections  and  desire  towards  him,  as  a  labourer  in  order  to  office 
amonge  us  in  Gods  time.  The  church  had  unanimously  elected  mr. 
Tho  :  Thatcher  to  be  a  teaching  officer  unto  them  and  forthwith  sent 
Captain  Savage,  Captain  Peter  oliver  to  acquaint  bim  there  with,  And 
to  intreat  they  might  have  his  Company  with  them  at  their  church 
meetings.1 

The  1 8  (8)  69  the  church  had  appointed  a  Sollemne  day  of  hu- 
miliation to  implore  the  Lords  favour  towards  the  Country  in  respect 
of  the  unseasonable  raines  &c :  And  also  with  respect  to  their  diffi- 
culties and  discountenances  by  some  in  Authority  impeding  the  worke 
of  the  Lord  in  their  hand,  &c :  And  to  make  the  way  plaine  for  Rev- 
erend mr.  Tho  :  Thatcher  who  had  accepted  his  call  to  the  Lords  worke 
among  them. 

Mr.  John  Hull  and  mr.  Edw  :  Raynseford  were  nominated  for  ruling 
Elders  and  att  the  same  meeting  mr.  Jacob  Elliot  and  mr. 
Peter  Bracket  were  elected  Deacons.  Mr.  John  Hull  and 
mr.  Edw  :  Rainseford  were  elected  Ruling  Elders  and  it  was  voted 
that  this  Church  should  be  supplied  continually  with  2  ruling  and  2 
teaching  Elders,2  And  the  same  day  the  church  agreed  for  to  send  to 
Charlestowne  Church  to  dismis  mr.  Tho  :  Thatcher  unto  this  Church 
in  order  to  be  ordained  a  teaching  officer  over  them  and  also  for  the 
Church  to  meet  together,  to  agree  when  to  send  —  And  a  letter  should 
be  drawen  up  to  be  sent  to  that  church  for  that  end. 

mr.  John  Hull  being  bound  for  England,3  It  was  agreed  by  the 
whole  Church  to  desire  and  improve  him  to  use  his  best  skill,  and 
prudence  in  England  for  to  obtaine  some  able  orthodox  and  Godly 
minister,  for  to  joyne  with  mr.  Thatcher  in  the  worke  of  the  ministry 
in  this  Church. 

A  letter  being  drawen  up  in  which  mr.  John  Hull  was  desired,  and 
impowred  for  to  use  his  best  and  utmost  endeavour  to  pro- 
cure an  able  orthodoxe  minister  for  the  ende  a  bove  men- 
tioned was  read,  consented  unto  and  Subscribed  by  the  Church  : 

Deare  Beloved  Brother  Mr.  John  Hull. 

When  God  shall  have  brought  you  unto  England,  whither  you  are 
now  by  Gods  grace  bound,  we  doe  desire  your  spetiall  care  to  inquier 
after  and  seeke  out  and  get  for  us  some  able  orthodoxe  Godly  man, 
(one  who  is  in  choice  esteeme  and  repute  among  the  pious  and  wise- 
hearted  who  are  of  the  congregationall  way)  to  joyne  with  the  Rev- 

1  [The  words,  "  And  this  was  upon  the  own  house  on  board  Master  Clarke's  ship 
7th  (5)  mo.  last,"  are  erased.]  [the  Society]    for   to   go   to   London  to 

2  [The  words,  "  This  Church  should  settle  all  former  accounts  with  my  uncle." 
be  supplied  continually  with  2  ruling  and  "1670.  Oct.  3.  I  came  safe  home, 
2  teaching  Elders,"  are  erased.  Mr.  and  found  my  wife,  daughter,  servants, 
Hull  declined  the  office.]  and   all    in  health    and   safety."  —  John 

3  ["  1669.     Nov.  16.     I  went  from  my  HtdVs  Diary.] 


148  HISTORY  OF   THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

erend  mr.  Tho  :  Thacher,  where  unto  he  is  allready  called  by  us  in  the 
worke  of  the  Lord  in  the  ministry  ofr  the  Gospel.  We  can- 
not soe  well  nominate  any  person  here  as  you  will  be  in- 
formed concerning  them  when  you  come  thether.  We  therefore  leave 
the  whole  unto  yourselfe.  You  well  know  the  necessity  which  we  are  in, 
and  the  weight  and  concernment  of  it  unto  us  ;  therefore  shall  cease 
from  giveing,  Arguments  unto  yourselfe  to  ensure  your  care  and  dilli- 
gence  there  in.  And  we  doe  here  by  impower  you  to  act  here  in  for 
us,  as  if  ourselves  were  present  personally,  and  shall  with  thankfullnes 
acknowledge  and  owne  your  actings  there  in  :  Now  the  Good  Lord, 
the  Lord  of  the  harvest,  the  great  Shepherd  of  the  Sheep,  the  God  of 
the  Spirits  of  all  flesh,  direct  your  way  herein  unto  such  a  one  as  may 
be  much  to  the  glory  of  God,  and  may  come  to  us  with  the  fullness  of 
the  blessings  of  the  Gospel,  and  that  may  be  a  meanes  in  his  hands 
(who  holdeth  the  starrs  in  his  right  hand)  of  conversion  and  building 
up  of  the  soules  of  this  poor  little  flock,  which  you  have  left  in  this 
wildernes,  for  whome  we  crave  your  frequent  prayers  when  absent,  and 
the  prayers  of  the  faithfull  where  God  shall  cast  you,  that  we  may  be 
preserved  blameles  in  these  houres  of  our  temptation  unto  his  heavenly 
kingdome,  to  whome  be  Glory  through  out  all  the  Churches  world  with- 
out End.  Now  the  Keeper  of  Israeli  who  neither  Slumbers  nor  sleeps, 
be  your  all  in  all,  preserve,  bless,  and  direct  you  in  all  your  wayes  in 
this  affair,  giveing  you  to  finde  favour  in  the  eyes  and  hearts  of  those 
you  may  have  to  doe  with  in  this  or  any  other  of  your  owne  business, 
and  in  his  good  Season  returne  you  unto  your  very  affectionate 
Bretheren. 

Theoph.  Frary  Thomas  Brattle      William  Davis 

Wm.  Dawes  Theod.  Atkinson     Edward  Raynsford 

Benj  :  Thirstone         Edw.  Rawson  Robert  Walker 

Jos :  Belcher  Peter  Oliver  James  Pemberton 

John  Alden  Wm.  Salter  Seth  Perry 

Hez  :  Usher  Tho  :  Savage  Josh  :  Scottow 

Peter  Bracket  Joseph  Rock  John  Wing 

John  Sanford  Benj  :  Gibbs  Jacob  Eliot 

John  Tapping  Joseph  Davis  Joseph  Belknap 

I,  also,  deare  brother  doe  heartily  consent  in  this  matter  with  my 
Brethren,  and  earnestly  desire  the  same  thing  of  you,  who,  heartily 
praying  unto  the  Lord  of  the  harvest  to  prosper  your  way  therin,  that 
an  eminent  faithfull  labourer  may  be  thrust  forth  into  this  our  harvest, 
and  that  your  whole  work  may  be  adopted  and  blessed  by  him  sub- 
scribe myselfe 

Your  affectionate  Brother  in  the  Lord 

Tho  :  Thatcher  Sen 
November  8,  1669 


MR.   HULL'S  MISSION  TO  ENGLAND.  149 


A  LETTER  TESTIMONIALL  FROM  SEVERALL  ELDERS  OF  THE  CHURCHES  IN 
THE  BEHALFE  OF  THE  CHURCH  TO  SUCH  REVEREND  AND  BELOVED 
MINISTERS    AND    BRETHREN    IN    ENGLAND    TO    WHOME    IT  MAY    COME  : 

To  the  reverend  much  honoured  and  beloved  in  our  Lord  Jesus  :  the  Min- 
isters and  Brethren  of  such  of  the  Churches  of  Christ  in  England 
unto  whose  hands  these  letters  may  come,  and  who  may  be  more  espe- 
cially concerned  in  the  Contents  of  them,  Grace  mercy  and  Peace 
be  multiplyed  unto  you  from  God  our  ffather  and  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  our  Saviour 

Reverend  and  Beloved  in  the  Lord 

It  is  not  without  much  trembling  of  heart  for  the  ark  of  God  both 

here  and  else  where,  that  we  presume  to  make  this  our 

1"  1  r  m  •  •  r  i  J4  (?)  1669 

application  to  you  by  way  of  earnest  emagitation  for  the 
travelling  interest  of  Christ  in  this  wildernes,  The  holy  God  haveing 
in  extraordinary  displeasure,  (even  unto  Astonishment)  contended 
with  these  Churches  by  a  judiciall,  and  successive  removeall  of  many 
eminent  and  faithfull  Ministers  of  the  Gospel,  who  in  their  day  were 
principle  pillars  amongst  us ;  whence  it  is  that  divers  of  them  are  com- 
pelled to  sit  as  Sion  in  her  widdowhood,  Spreading  forth  their  hands 
for  some  that  might  become  instrumentall  comforters  unto  them,  to 
Releive  them  who  yett  are  far  from  them.  It  would  be  too  tedious 
here  to  enumerate  the  causes  of  those  disappointments  which  we  have, 
for  a  considerable  time,  sighed  and  sorrowed  under,  But  this  is  that 
which  doth  silence  us  therein,  that  the  righteous  Lord  hath  done  it. 
He  hath  done  that  which  he  hath  devised,  he  hath  stretched  out  the 
line,  he  hath  not,  withstanding,  drawne  his  hand  from  destroying.  We 
are  not,  withstanding,  not  altogether  without  some  hope  that  our  gra- 
cious God  will  not  all  wayes  chide  with  us,  and  that  he  will  not  powre 
out  all  his  anger,  but  grant  unto  us,  (though  most  unworthy)  a  reviving 
in  the  midst  of  the  yeares.  We  therefore  desire  to  wait  for  him  in 
the  way  of  his  Judgements  untill  he  shew  himselfe  favourable  to  his 
wearied  heritage.  We  would  not  be  found  wanting  in  any  duty  in- 
cumbent upon  ourselves  (his  watchmen)  in  order  to  the  Consolation, 
and  Edification  of  his  Churches,  here  planted  and  established  in  the 
faith  and  order  of  the  Gospel ;  But  would  take  all  opportunities  pre- 
sented for  the  promoveing  thereof,  that  they  may  stand  perfect  and 
compleat  in  all  the  will  of  God,  and  be  furnished  with  an  able  and 
faithfull  ministry,  where  either  there  never  was  any  placed,  or  where 
the  Lord  hath  made  a  breach  upon  us  in  those  our  pleasant  things. 
And  as  there  be  sundry  under  the  one  and  the  other  consideration, 
soe  in  particular,  in  refference  unto  the  third  church  in  Boston  lately 
gathered,  (concerning  which  there  hath  bin  and  still  are  many  thoughts 
of  heart  with  us,)  We  are  not  able  easily  to  Express  of  how  great  im- 
portance to  the  establishment  of  the  kingdome  of  Jesus  christ  amongst 
us,  their  being  provided  of  an  Eminent  burning  and  shining  light  would 


150  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

be ;  and  on  the  other  hand,  what  a  discouraging  Remora  thereunto, 
and  unhappy  obstruction  to  the  progress  of  the  Gospel)  in  these  partes, 
their  suffering  and  disappointment  therein,  may  become  in  this  their 
[and  our]  necessitous  condition.  At  present  such  is  the  good  hand  of 
divine  Providence,  that  we  have  a  convenient  season  of  transmitting 
our  affectionate  intreaties  unto  yourselves,  for  your  pious  and  faith  full 
Solicitude  for  us  and  them  in  this  matter,  by  our  dearly  beloved 
Brother  in  Christ,  mr.  John  Hull,  whose  praise  is  in  the  Gospell,  who 
hath  received  instructions  to  negotiate  in  this  weighty  affaire  for  that 
church  above  mentioned  to  which  he  doth  belonge  ;  concerning  which 
we  take  ourselves  bound  to  testifie  that  it  is  a  pretious  flock 
of  christ,  regularly  proceeding  in  their  first  gathering  into 
Church  Estate,  approved  therein  both  by  Magistraticall  authority  and 
allso  by  the  Elders  and  Messengers  of  Churches  convened  at  their  first 
constitution,  giving  them  the  right  hand  of  fellowship,  as  a  testimony 
thereof ;  and  ever  since  standing  and  walking  regularly  in  the  order 
of  Communion  of  Churches,  a  society  (above  most)  amiable  and  ele- 
gible,  and  with  whome  a  Minister  of  the  Gospell  shall  find  Christian 
and  honorable  entertainement,  and  will  be  highly  esteemed  of  in  love 
for  his  worke  sake  among  them.  Wee  pray  you  therfore,  that  (as  to 
this  our  beloved  Brother)  you  would  please  to  receive  him  in  the  Lord 
as  becometh  Saints,  and  that  you  would  assist  him  by  your  Councell 
and  prayers  to  your  utmost,  in  what  soever  buysines  he  hath  need  of 
you,  and  in  particular,  in  that  great  trust  committed  to  him,  of  seek- 
ing out  for  a  sutable  supply,  of  some  able  Minister  of  the  new  testa- 
ment for  that  eminent  Congregation  of  the  Lord. 

We  beg  a  continued  interest  in  your  love  and  prayers,  and  pray  that 
the  Lord  would  be  seen  in  all  our  Mounts,  That  the  good  will  of  him 
who  dwelt  in  the  bush  may  be  with  you  and  us  in  this  houre  of  tempta- 
tion, that  we  may  keep  the  word  of  his  patience,  and  not  deny  his 
name,  holding  fast  that  which  we  have,  That  no  man  may  take  away 
our  Crowne,  and  that  the  God  of  grace,  even  our  God  would  supply 
all  your  and  our  need,  according  to  his  riches  in  glory  by  Christ  Jesus 
in  whome  we  are. 

Your  affectionate  and  ever  Loving  Brethren 
in  the  fellowship  of  the  gospell 
John  Allin  Zach  :  Svmmes  Edmund  Browne 

Samuel  Whiting      ffr  :  Dane  Tho  :  Cobbet 

Antipas  Newman      John  Ward  John  Higginson 

Samuel  Phillips       Wm.  Hubbard  Edward  Bulkly 

Samuel  Danforth   John  Sherman  Samuel  Torrey 

Increase  Mather    Sam  :  Whiting  Junr.     Thomas  Shepard1 
John  Hale 
14  :  November  1669 

1  [These  letters  are  printed  in  the  Am.  Antiq.  Society,  almost  precisely  as 
third  volume  of  the  Transactions  of  the     we  find  them  in  the  Narrative.    We  have 


LETTER   TO    THE   CHARLESTOWN  CHURCH.        15 1 

The  29  :  (9)  69  a  letter  prepared  to  send  to  the  Church  of  Charles- 
towne  for  Mr.  Thomas  Thatcher's  dismission  read  and  approved  of  by 
the  Church  as  followeth. 

Honoured  Reverend  and  beloved 

The  consideration  of  the  readines  and  inlargednes  of  your  Christian 
love  and  favour  which  soe  many  waies  hath  bin  manifested  on  all 
occasions  as  it  call  on  us,  to  have  our  hearts  inlarged  unto  God,  who 
hath  put  it  into  your  hearts  thus  to  shew  forth  the  kindnesse  of  the 
Lord  unto  us,  Soe  allso  to  acknowledge  unto  yourselves  the  instru- 
ments in  his  hand  of  so  much  refreshing  unto  us,  Begets  in  us  bold- 
nesse  from  former  experience  to  crave  of  you  an  addition  to  what  we 
have  received,  we  doubt  not  but  our  helples  Condition  is  upon  your 
heart  daily,  And  that  you  are  considering  what  to  doe,  for  your  little 
and  unworthy  sister  who  yet  is  without  breasts,  Our  humble  request 
unto  you  is,  That  you  would  please  for  to  dismisse  unto  us  your  Rev- 
erend Brother  Mr.  Thomas  Thatcher,  in  order  for  to  be  a  Teaching 
officer  among  us.  We  have  some  considerable  time  since  manifested 
our  desire  thereof  unto  himself,  who  hath  answered  us  with  his  accept- 
ance, there  remaine  only  your  favorable  dismission  of  him  unto  us : 
to  capacitate  him  to  joine  with  us  :  in  order  thereunto,  which  our 
former  experience  give  us  hope,  you  will  gratifye  us  in,  And  we  hope 
that  the  good  Lord  will  cause  all  spirituall  blessednesse  to  abound 
more  and  more  unto  you,  for  this  Loane.  which  is  lent  unto  the  Lord, 
begging  allso  that  you  would  allso  follow  this  your  gift  with  your 
fervent  prayers,  that  he  may  come  unto  us,  with  the  fullnesse  of  the 
blessing  of  the  gospell,  That  he  may  be  as  a  star  in  the  right  hand  of 
him,  who  walketh  in  the  midst  of  his  churches,  And  that  ourselves 
and  oures  may  declare  that  all  the  changes  of  providence  and  various 
dispensations,  which  we  have  ben  under  are  for  our  spirituall  advan- 
tage in  our  Lord  Jesus  in  whom  wishing  grace  and  mercy  and  peace, 
we  subscribe  ourselves. 

Your  much  obliged  Brethren  and  Servants 

Tho.  Savage 
Ed  Rainford 
by  the  appointment  of  the  church 

Boston  :  29  :  9  :  69. 

Superscribed  to  the  Honoured  Reverend  and  beloved  the  Church  of 
Christ  at  Charlestown  these  pressent 

Upon  which  letter  the  church  of  charlestown  dismissed  the  Rev- 
erend Mr.  Thatcher  as  followeth 

made  a  few  slight  changes  in  the  spelling     worth  while  to  change  the  order  in  which 
of  the  signatures,  but  have  not  thought  it     they  stand  in  the  Narrative^ 


152  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

To  the  honoured,  and  beloved  the  third  Church  of  Christ,  in  Boston  ; 

Grace,  mercy,  and  peace  be  multiplied  unto  you  from  God  our 
Father,  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ ! 

Honoured  and  dearly  beloved  in  our  blessed  Saviour.  When  we 
call  to  mind  some  of  the  daies  of  the  right  hand  of  the  most  high, 
upon  whose  shoulder  the  government  is  layd,  and  whose  name  (let  it 
be  for  ever  called  Wonderfull,  Counsellor !)  hath  been  magnifyed 
to  you  ward,  we  cannot  but  say  with  Him ;  This,  This  is  the  Lord's 
doing,  it  is  marvelous  in  our  eyes  !  The  solemne  meditation  of  that 
work  of  God  in  Davids  time,  drew  forth  from  him,  we 
may  think,  that  most  patheticall  Invocation  ;  Lord  remem- 
ber David,  and  all  His  afflictions  !  how  he  sware  unto  the  Lord, 
and  vowed  unto  the  mighty  God  of  Jacob,  Surely  I  will  not  come  into 
the  Tabernacle  of  my  house  :  nor  goe  up  into  my  bed ;  I  will  not 
give  sleep  to  mine  eyes,  or  slumber  to  mine  eye-lids,  untill  I  find  out  a 
place  for  the  Lord,  an  habitation  for  the  mighty  God  of  Jacob  !  Which 
words  doubtlesse  are  written  for  our  Instruction,  that  we  also  should 
set  our  affection  to  the  house  of  our  God  ;  which  as  we  doe  believe  it 
effectually  worketh  also  in  you  that  believe,  so  we  trust  it  hath  in 
measure  its  influence  upon  ourselves  ;  bowing  our  hearts  unto  a  willing- 
nesse  to  offer  unto  the  Lord,  that  which  hath  not  cost  us  nothing.  For 
our  own  part,  soe  amiable  is  the  enlargement  of  the  kingdome  of  our 
Lord  Jesus,  and  so  pleasant  is  the  duty  of  communion  of  Churches, 
because  of  that  altogether-lovely-one  who  walketh  in  the  midst  of  the 
golden  Candlesticks,  that  we  do,  through  grace,  conceive  a  secret, 
and  ineffable  delight  in  our  exosculation  of  the  opportunity,  wherein 
we  may,  by  our  testimony,  afford  any  contribution  of  encouragement 
thereunto.  Soe  it  is,  then,  that  our  reverend,  and  deare  Brother  Mr. 
Thomas  Thatcher,  upon  your  earnest  sollicitation  of  him,  hath  de- 
sired of  us  Letters  of  Dismission  unto  you  :  yourselves  likewise  in- 
treating  us  to  shew  you  the  kindness  of  the  Lord  therein,  by  granting 
the  same  unto  him  ;  we  have  considered  of  the  motion  thereof  made 
unto  us,  in  the  fear  of  God ;  And,  though  not  without  an  affectionate 
sense  of  our  own  Losse  in  parting  with  such  an  one  (for  the  riches 
of  that  gift  of  the  grace  of  God  bestowed  upon  him,  whereof  we  have 
had  much  comfortable  experience  in  his  Ministry  ;  in  which  work  of 
the  Lord  (howsoever  the  Lord  shall  dispose  of  him)  we  trust  it  will  be 
his  study  to  show  himself  approved  unto  God,  a  workman  that  need- 
eth  not  to  be  ashamed,  rightly  dividing  the  word  of  truth)  yet,  as  to 
this  act  of  Communion,  we  must  say,  who  are  we  that  we  should  with- 
stand God ;  We  do  therfore,  according  to  your  and  his  desire,  dis- 
miss this  our  much  estemed  brother  unto  your  holy  fellowship,  pray- 
ing you  to  receive  him  in  the  Lord  as  becometh  Saints  ;  and  to  esteem 
him  very  highly  in  love  for  his  work  sake  :  and  be  at  peace  among 
yourselves  :  Truthing  it  in  love,  according  to  the  exhortation  of  the 


DAY  SET  APART  FOR    ORDINATION.  1 53 

Holy  Ghost :  yea  we  beseech  you  to  follow  peace  with  all  men,  and 
holynesse,  without  which  no  man  shall  see  the  Lord.  Dear  brethren, 
we  salute  you  in  the  Lord,  and  begg  your  prayers  for  us,  as  it  is  our 
hearts  desire  that  we  may  be  allwaies  labouring  fervently  for  you  in 
our  prayers,  that  you  may  stand  perfect,  and  compleat  in  all  the  Will 
of  God  :  And  that  not  ourselves  only  but  all  the  Churches  of  Christ 
may  still  be  with  you  in  the  Spirit,  joying  and  beholding  your  order, 
and  the  stedfastnesse  of  your  faith  in  Christ,  in  whome  we  remaine 
Your  loving  brethren  in  the  fellowship  of  the  Gospell. 

Zech  :  Svmmes 
13.   10.  69  Thomas  Shepard 

with  the  consent  of  the  brethren  of  the  Church  of  Christ  in 
Charlestown.1 

The  Church  met  publiquely  in  the  new  meeting  house,  which  they 
had  erected  for  publique  worship,    Mr.   Tho  :    Thatcher 
preached  both  in  the  forenoone  and  afternoone,  his  morn- 
ing exercise  was   Ezech  :  1   ch.  :   1  :  2:3  vrs  :  &c.   in   the  evening 
Psal  :  47  :  4 2  after  ending  of  it  the  preceding  letter  of  dismission 
from  the  Church  of  Charlestown  was  publiquely  read,  which  being 
done  the  Church  voted  his  admission  and  himself  entered  into  Cove- 
nant with  the  Church :  The  Church  kept  a  day  of  humil- 
iation, after  ending  of  that  duty,  Mr.  Thatcher  was  called 
to  the  office  of  a  Pastor  by  the  unanimous  consent  of  the  Church  : 
Mr.  Rainsford  ruling  Elder  Mr.  Jaacob  Ellyot  and  Mr.  Peter  Bracket 
Deacons.     The  same  time  it  was  unanimously  agreed  that  the  16th  of 
the  (12)  month  ensuing  should  be  set  apart  for  the  ordination  of  the 
forementioned  officers,  allso  that  letters  should  be  sent  unto  the  sev- 
erall  Churches  for  Elders  and  Messengers  to  be  assistant  in  the  work  : 
which  were  as  follow 

LETTER    SENT    TO    THE    CHURCH    OF    CHARLESTOWN. 

Grace  mercy  and  peace  be  multiplyed  in  God  our  ffather  and  in  our 

Lord  Jesus  Christ 
Reverend  and  dearely  beloved  in  our  Lord  jfesus 

Thus  far  the  Lord  the  branch  hath  bin  with  us  as  with  the  Angell 
stretching  out  the  line  of  building  upon  our  feeble  work  to  lay  the 
foundation  we  trust   of  many  generations,  in  remembering  gratiously 

1  [This  beautiful  letter  was  written  by  Ezekiel  the  priest,  the  son  of  Buzi,  in  the 
Mr.  Shepard.  We  have  corrected  it,  as  land  of  the  Chaldeans,  by  the  river  Che- 
it  stands  in  the  Narrative,  by  the  original,  bar  ;  and  the  hand  of  the  Lord  was 
which  is  on  the  files  of  the  Old  South  there  upon  him."  The  text  of  the  even- 
Church.]  ing  was :  "  He  shall   choose  our  inher- 

2  [The  text  in  the  morning  was  :  "The  itance  for  us,  the  excellency  of  Jacob 
word  of  the  Lord  came,  expressly  unto  whom  he  loved."] 


154  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

the  troubles  of  his  poore  afflicted,  giving  them  a  naile  in  his  house,  and 
hath  not  onely  accepted  them  into  a  Covenant  of  espousalls,  but  allso 
prepared  a  place  and  builded  an  house  for  their  assembling,  yea  he 
hath  allso  (we  trust  through  his  grace)  soe  far  given  us  to  partake  of 
the  benifit  of  his  Ascension,  as  to  chuse  out  some  for  us  to  goe  in 
and  out  before  us,  in  the  work  of  the  Ministry  and  officers  of  his 
house  viz :  Mr.  Tho :  Thatcher  Pastor,  Mr.  Ed  :  Rainsford  ruling 
Elder  Mr.  Jaacob  Ellyot  and  Mr.  Peter  Bracket  deacons,  and  directed 
us  accordingly  to  pitch  upon  the  16th  of  the  next  month  for  a  time 
to  set  them  apart  by  prayer  and  fasting,  and  laying  on  of  hands  unto 
the  service  whereunto  the  Lord  hath  called  them,  wee  doe  therfore 
humbly  intreat  and  earnestly  crave  your  prayers  for  us  and  concur- 
rence with  us,  that  we  being  strengthened  by  the  right  hand  of  your 
fellowship  may  mannage  that  which  remaineth  in  this  great  and  weighty 
affaire  according  to  the  accepted  will  of  God  in  Christ.  In  order 
whereunto  we  further  desire  you  to  send  your  Elders  and  messengers 
to  be  present  with  us,  at  least  on  that  day  to  consider  togither  with 
the  Elders  and  messengers  of  other  Churches,  and  advise  what  may 
be  most  suteable  to  our  state  and  work,  according  to  the  will  and 
counsell  of  our  deare  and  blessed  Lord,  soe  shall  you  lay  upon  us  a 
further  obligation,  to  acknowledge  your  love  and  faithfullnes  unto  us 
in  the  Lord,  respecting  to  our  comfort,  and  the  prosperity  of  these 
Churches,  by  the  furtherance  of  the  Gospell,  and  to  approve  our- 
selves in  the  Lord  (to  whose  will)  we  heartily  commend  you  to  be 
our  dear  Brethren. 

19  (11)  69  Your  affectionate  Brethren 

Tho  :  Savage  Wm.  Davis 

Josh  :  Scottow  Hez  :  Usher         Tho  :  Brattle 

In  the  name  and  by  the  appointment  of  the  whole  Church : 

LETTER    TO   THE   SECOND    GATHERED    CHURCH    OF    CHRIST    IN    BOSTON. 

Reverend  and  beloved 

It  hath  bin  the  good  favour  and  grace  of  God  towards  us,  after  his 
many  afflictive  dispensations  upon  us  to  vouchsafe  unto  us  the  grace  of 
espousalls  unto  himself,  and  a  name  and  a  place  (though  most  un- 
worthy) among  his  Churches,  here  in  this  his  Canaan,  and  to  bestow 
upon  us  of  these  his  Ascension  blessings,  Gifts  for  the  Ministry  and 
offices  of  his  house  and  hath  directed  our  hearts  upon  some  among 
ourselves  for  that  worke  (viz)  Mr.  Tho :  Thatcher  for  Pastour,  Mr. 
Edward  Rainsford  for  ruling  Elder,  Mr.  Jaacob  Eliot  and  Mr.  Peter 
Bracket  for  Deakons  which  if  it  please  the  Lord,  we  intend  to  set 
apart  unto  that  work  by  fasting  and  prayer  and  laying  on  of  hands, 
the  sixtenth  day  of  the  next  month,  our  humble  request  unto  you 
therefore  is,  that  you  would  assist  us  therein  with  your  prayers,  And 
that  you  would  send  your  Elders  and  Messengers  to  be  thereupon  that 


LETTERS  MISSIVE.  155 

day  to  Strengthen  us  therein  by  their  prayers  and  right  hand  of  your 
fellowship  whereby  you  will  much  oblige  us,  who  are 
Your  affectionate  Brethren 

Thomas  Savage 
Wm  :  Davis 
Hez  :  Usher 
Josh  :  Scottow 
24(11)69  Tho  :  Brattle 

In  the  name  and  by  Consent  of  the  whole  Church 

The  9:  (12)  the  Church  met  and  agreed  upon  a  letter  to  be  sent 
unto  the  first  Church  of  Boston  the  Copy  of  said  letter  followeth  with 
the  churchs  answer. 

To  the   Honoured  Reverend  and  Beloved  the  Elders  and  Brethren 

of  the  first  Church  of  Boston. 
Honoured  Reverend  and  dearely  Beloved  in  our  Blessed  Saviour, 

Grace  mercy  and  peace  be  multiplyed  unto  you  from  God  our 
ffather  and  the  Lord  Jesus  christ. 

The  Lord  having  in  his  infinite  wisedome  and  grace,  so  ordered  the 
changes  that  have  of  late  befallen  us,  as  that  according  to  the  advice 
of  the  churches  (as  yourselves  know)  mett  in  Councill,  wee  are 
brought  into  an  orderly  constitution  of  Church  estate ;  And  having 
since  beheld  such  a  further  manifestation  of  the  presence  of  the  Lord 
graciously  going  before  us,  and  experienced  such  a  divine  manuduc- 
tion,  as  hath  brought  us  unto  the  participation  of  the  priviledg,  liberty, 
and  opportunity  of  calling  and  electing  such  Officers  in  our  Church 
(vizt)  Reverend  Tho :  Thatcher  Pastor,  mr.  Edw :  Rainsford  Ruling 
Elder,  Peter  Brackett  Jacob  Eliot  Deacons,  as  whereby  there  may  bee 
a  comfortable  administration  of  the  Ordinances  of  Christ  therein,  wee 
cannot  butt  cry  grace  grace  thereunto,  And  desire  therefore  to  sanctify 
the  name  of  the  Lord  alone,  with  all  due  thankfulnes  to  his  divine 
Majesty  for  the  same.  And  Communion  of  Churches  being  a  duty 
indispensable  laid  upon  us,  alwaies  to  bee  pursuing ;  we  doe  therefore 
hereby  tender  itt  unto  yourselves,  requesting  you  to  extend  itt  unto 
us,  in  speciall  by  sending  your  Elders  and  Messengers  to  assist  us  on 
the  day  appointed  for  the  Ordination  of  our  Elders  and  Deacons 
afore  said,  (which  will  bee  the  16th  day  of  this  instant)  and  that  you 
would  give  us  the  right  hand  of  ffellowship,  together  with  the  rest  of 
the  Churches  to  bee  assembled  then  in  Boston,  by  their  Delegates  for 
that  end,  if  God  permitt. 

Wee  doe  humbly  and  earnestly  begge  your  Concurrence,  our  hearts 
desire  hath  alwaies  beene,  is,  and  shall  bee  (through  grace)  that  truth 
and  peace  may  bee  continued  and  established  more  and  more  among 
us,  according  to  the  Gospell  Lett  us  professe  that  wee  must  love  you 


156  HISTORY  OF   THE    OLD   SOUTH   CHURCH. 

as  Brethren,  and  pray  for  you,  as  wee  desire  your  love  to  us  and 
prayers  for  us :  Wee  heartily  entreate  there  may  bee  that  Commu- 
nion betwixt  yourselves  and  us  and  all  other  the  Churches  of  Christ, 
cherished  and  increased,  which  Sister  Churches  owe  each  to  other  in 
the  Lord.     In  whom  wee  remayne 

-     Your  afflicted  and  affectionate  Brethren  in  the  ffellowship  of  the 
Gospell 

Tho  :  Savage  Senior  Wm.  Davis 

Josh  :  Scottow  Hez  :  Usher  Senior 

Thomas  Brattle 
In  the  name  and  by  the  Order  of  the  whole  Church  : 1 
9  :  12.  69, 

Answer  sent  by  the  first  church  unto  this  letter  above  written  fol- 
loweth. 

ffor  Mr.  Tho :  Thaacher  and  the  rest  of  that  society  to  be  commu- 
nicated to  the  Assembly  that  shall  meete  att  the  Ordination. 

Beloved  in  the  lord. 

The  letter  sent  to  be  Communicated  to  us,  delivered  to  our  Ruleing 
Elder  the  12th  of  this  instant  acquaintinge  us  with  your  purpose  to 
ordaine  officers,  and  desiringe  our  Concurrance  therein,  hath  given  us 
a  fitt  occasion  to  manifest  our  sence  of  that  spirit  appeares  in  your 
letter,  and  the  procedinge  mentioned  therein,  wee  Cannot  but  wonder 
and  that  with  griefe  of  hearte  to  behold  that  confidence  mentioned  in 
yours,  in  callinge  your  Combination  a  regular  Church  Constitution 
which  agrees  neither  with  the  lawes  of  Christ,  nor  (as  we  Conceive) 
of  this  Collonie  And  that  you  dare  entitle  the  favor  of  god,  to  that 
which  is  onely  the  fruitt  of  your  owne  wills,  and  manifestly  Crosse  to 
the  will  of  God  revealed  in  his  word.  The  wisdome  of  god  permit- 
ting and  governinge  such  motions  wee  readily  acknowledge,  but  not 
graciously,  Conductinge  them,  wee  gladly  would  joyne  with  you  to 
double  our  Cryes  for  grace  from  the  lord  for  your  repentance  and  par- 
don, that  his  displeasure  may  nott  break  forth  in  your  layinge  the  top- 
stone  of  this  provocation, 

Most  willingly  wee  would  have  concurred  with  your  desires,  had  the 
way  bene  such,  that  withoutt  offence  to  our  owne  Consciences,  wee 
might  have  approved  :  but  being  as  it  is,  wee  must  declare  our  dissatis- 
faction in  your  proceedinge  to  ordaine  officers  either  Elders  or  Dea- 
cons among  you.  . 

The  reasons  whereof  are 

1  Because  the  persons  mentioned  to  bee  Called  to  those  offices,  are 

1  [We  have  corrected  this  letter  by  a  have  added  the  signature  of  Thomas 
copy  in  the  possession  of  the  Mass.  Brattle,  which  does  not  appear  in  the 
Historical    Society,   and,  in    so    doing,     Narrative.] 


ANSWER   OF   THE    FIRST   CHURCH.  1 57 

not  withoutt  blame,  as  such  ought  to  bee  1  Tim  :  3  :  2  :  7  :  Titus  :  1  : 
10  :  Mr.  Thacher  though  hee  saw  nott  light  to  joyne  with  you,  when 
you  irregularly  withdrew  yourselves  from  us,  yet  since  Dismissed  from 
us  first  hath  joyned  and  so  made  himselfe  partaker  of  your  sinnes, 
contrary  to  1  Tim  :  5  :  22  :  the  3  others  have  bene  constant  actors  with 
you  from  first  to  last : 

2  all  of  them  have  accepted  a  call  to  office  among  you,  who  are  not 
Capable  to  Choose  or  receive  any  such  officers,  according  to  the  rules 
of  Christ,  or  the  lawes  of  this  Jurisdiction  (as  wee  understand  them)  for 
1.  when  wee  were  according  to  rule  laboring  to  convince  you  of  your 
offences,  given  to  us,  you  did  contrary  to  that  rule  Matt:  18:  15: 
withdraw  from  us,  not  acknowledginge  the  authority  of  Christ  Jesus  in 
his  church,  and  soe  not  regardinge  your  Covenant  engagement  to  sub- 
jection to  it. 

2.  After  which  you  appointed  a  time  to  gather  into  a  pretended 
Church  Society,  by  yourselves,  though  not  regularly  free  from  your 
Covenant  to  this  Church,  contrary  to  that  law  of  Christ  1  Cor:  12: 
25:  and  the  law  of  this  Jurisdiction  tit:  Eccl  Sect  1.  (as  wee  con- 
ceive) 

3.  And  notwithstandinge  wittnesse  bearinge  by  this  Church  against 
that  proceedinge,  by  messengers  sent  on  purpose,  with  a  writeing  of 
the  Churches  testimonie  against  it,  as  also  six  of  our  honourd  Magis- 
trates, of  whom  our  Honourd  Governor  was  one,  who  did  by  a  writing 
declare  their  desire  of  your  desistinge  at  the  present  yet  you  pro- 
ceeded, neither  regardinge  offence  to  a  Church  of  Christ  Contrary  to 
1  Cor:  10:  32.  Nor  havinge  due  respect  to  the  persons  or  the  author- 
ity of  magistrates,  contrary  to  Tit :  3  :  1  :  and  that  law  of  this  Col- 
lonie  Title  Eccl :  sect :  3.  as  wee  thinke 

4.  Since  which  you  have  erected  a  meetinge  house  in  a  place  for- 
bidden by  the  authority  of  this  towne,  not  consented  unto  by  the  pru- 
dentials of  the  same,  offensive  to  the  Churches  in  it,  and  to  many 
godly  Christians  in  other  places,  neither  suitinge  the  ends  and  con- 
veniences of  this  place,  who  by  former  agreement  had  appointed  a  lott 
for  such  a  buildinge,  onely  grattifying  your  owne  selfe  ends  and  wills 
contrary  to  1  Cor  :   10:  31.1 

1  [Among  the  papers  in  the  posses-  house.  -Oh  horrible  crime  !  Twas  som- 
sion  of  the  Mass.Historical  Society  there  times  said  He  is  worthie  for  he  loveth 
is  a  rough  draft  of  a  portion  of  a  reply  our  nation  and  hath  built  us  a  meet- 
to  this  letter,  in  the  handwriting  of  Mr.  ing  house.  Luk.  7.  But  another  spirit 
Thacher,  which  perhaps  it  is  hardly  just  spirits  your  scribes  and  subscribers, 
to  him  to  print  in  its  unfinished  and  frag-  But  it  was  in  a  place  forbidden  by  the 
mentary  state,  and  yet  we  feel  that  we  Authority  of  this  town  you  say]  nay  but 
ought  to  put  it  in  as  part  of  the  con-  it  was  built  where  no  authority  of  this 
troversy  :  —  town  had  any  power  to  forbid  us  that  we 

"  To  your  4th  Reason  where  you  say  knew  of.     where  should  men  build  it  but 

Since  which  you  have  Erected  a  meeting  on  that  ground  where  they  had  power  ? 


i58 


HISTORY  OF   THE  OLD   SOUTH   CHURCH. 


Those  things  and  many  the  like  considered,  wee  Judge  it  our 
duty  to  declare  our  dissattisfaction  in  your  proceedinge  to  ordaine 
officers,  as  an  act  highly  displeasinge  to  God  and  Dangerous  to  the 
wellfare  of  Civill  and  Church  government  as  settled  among  us ;  And 
therefore  wee  being  obliged  in  love  to  Christ  Matt :  10  :  32  :  to  Con- 
fesse  his  name,  not  onely  by  acknowledginge  any  truth  of  his,  wherein 
his  Crowne  and  Dignity  is  Concerned,  but  also  by  preventing  soe  farr 
as  wee  may  the  doinge  any  thing  destructive  thereunto,  as  also  in  love 
and  duty  to  this  government,  which  the  Lord  hath  graciously  sett  over 
us,  they  by  that  law  concerninge  ordination,  not  onely  givinge  leave  to 
organick  Churches  to  declare  against  any  disorderly  proceedinge  but 
inviting  them  thereunto,  that  they  by  them  may  know  how  to  prevent 
dammadge  to  the  government  as  now  Constituted,  and  in  love  and 
duty  to  preserve  the  peace  and  purity  of  those  Churches  which  are 
soe  manifestly  endangered,  as  wee  are  prest  in  Psal  :  122  :  6  :  and 
urged  to  doe,  by  the  use  of  all  lawfull  meanes,  of  which  this  is  one, 
and  in  love  to  our  brethren  accordinge  to  the  great  rule  of  love,  in 
such  Cases,  Lev  :  19  :   17  :  doe  bare  this  Testimony  against  it. 


upon  that  ground  which  most  suited  the 
conveniences  of  the  builders  ?  yea  on 
that  ground  which  was  given  unto  God 
for  such  an  end  !  But  you  say  —  not  con- 
sented unto  by  the  prudentialls  of  the 
town]  We  had  as  much  of  their  consent 
as  was  necessary  for  us  But  you  adde 
that  twas  offensive  to  the  churches  in  it. 
—  We  knew  they  had  no  cause  to  be 
offended,  not  the  new  church,  because 
it  was  for  them,  nor  the  Second  church, 
because  it  could  not  be  any  prejudice  to 
them  nor  yourselves :  for  by  that  means 
you  had  inlargement,  and  the  benefit  of 
all  the  cost  and  charges  we  had  ben  out 
at  in  our  time  of  communion  with  you. 
We  did  not  carry  from  you  any  part  of 

the   common   stocke  which  was we 

demanded  no  help  from  either  of  the 
churches,  made  no  collections,  to  im- 
poverish the  town  by  it  or  ingage  any.  but 
trusting  in  the  Lord  we  undertook  it  and 
the  Lord  hath  finishd  it  as  it  is  at  this 
day.  Neither  indeed  had  we  any  notice 
of  any  vote  of  offence  past  against  it  in 
either  church :  or  any  church  act  put 
forth  orderly  to  hinder  it.  But  if  they 
had  that  would  not  have  proved  it  to  be 
offensive  to  the  churches,  it  would  have 
proved  them  offenders  against  Christ  to 
have  hindered  a  sister  church  in  preparing 
an  house  of  meeting  for  their  God  where- 


in to  enjoy  communion  with  him  and  with 
one  another  in  him  according  to  their 
covenant.  Twas  not  only  so  but  you  say 
further  that  it  was  offensive  to  many 
Godly  Christians  in  other  places.  Here 
you  hold  forth  a  great  deal  of  charity  to 
the  Godly  Christians,  the  many  godly 
Christians  in  other  places  So  that  you 
think  it  a  great  sin  to  offend  them,  and 
indeed  so  it  is  :  But  where  was  this  care 
in  those  who  rejected  the  advice  given 
by  the  first  councill  of  their  own  calling, 
without  answering  their  sollid  arguments 
or  returning  a  reason  ?  where  was  this 
care  not  to  offend  them,  in  those  that 
shut  the  2d  Councill  out  of  their  dores. 
forgetting  that  the  messengers  of  the 
churches  are  the  glory  of  Christ.  2  Cor. 
8.  23  ?  where  was  this  care  not  to  offend 
them  when  the  matter  of  offence  and 
scandall  to  so  many  churches  testifyed 
against  by  so  many  Elders  was  left  un- 
removed,  about  concealing  the  leters  of 
such  importance,  and  cutting  off  about 
two  thirds  of  another  letter  out  of  it  to 
draw  and  squeaze  forth  a  pretended  dis- 
mission :  which  is  not  pleasing  unto  us 
to  repeat  Surely  that  scripture  should 
then  have  ben  minded  1  Cor.  10.  31 
where  which  you  so  hotly  charge  us  tho 
without  cause.  But  as  for  the  many 
Christians  that  were  offended  —  "] 


THE  INVITED    CHURCHES. 


159 


It  is  our  hearty  desire  the  Lord  would  open  your  eyes  to  see 
what  you  have  done  amisse,  you  may  bewaile  and  reforme  it,  and  that 
he  would  blesse  this  our  faithfull  endeavor  to  that  end,  however  wee 
have  hereby  given  you  warninge  from  the  Lord,  and  so  delivered  our 
owne  soules,  and  shall  leave  the  issue  to  the  wise  and  soveragne  dis- 
poser of  the  hearts  and  wayes  of  men,  to  deliver  yours  in  his  good 
tyme  for  which  wee  pray. 

The  messengers  sent  by  the  Church  with  this  letter  unto  your 
Assembly  are  Capt.  Tho.  Clark,  Capt.  Hutchison,  Lieutenant  Cook 
and  James  Everill  and  to  declare  the  churches  mind  further  as  they 
see  cause. 

This  letter  above  was  by  Captaine  Clark,  and  Captaine  Hutchison 
and  Mr.  Everill  delivered  to  Mr.  Thatcher  the  evening  before  the 
ordination  day  at  7  a  clocke 

[These]  Churches  were  sent  unto,  but  by  reason  of  the  deep  snow 

their  Elders  and  Messengers  could  not  be  present : 2  there        ,   „ 

0  *  16:  (12)  1669. 

was  present  of  the  Elders  and  Messengers  onelv  of  those   churches  sent  to 

Beverly  Wen- 
Churches  below.  ham  Haverell 

ffrom  the  Church  of  Watertowne  Captaine  Mason  and   cord  i^wiX 
Deacon  Hastings  their  Pastor  not  being  able  to  come  ch^tT^Biifreke 

ffrom  the  Church  of  Cambridge  Reverend  Charles  Med£eiid  Rowiy 
Chancy  President  of  the  Colledge,  Captaine  Dan  :  Gookin  and  Mr. 
Tho  :  Danforth. 

1  [We  have  corrected  this  letter  by  the  Mr.  Phillips  was  a  warm  friend  of  the 
original,  in  the  handwriting  of  Mr.  Allen,  new  church  from  the  start.  It  would 
which  is  in  the  possession  of  the  Mass.  have  gratified  him  if  he  could  have 
Hist.  Society.]  foreseen  that  descendants  of  his  in  the 

2  ["  16.  12.  1669  Mr.  Thomas  Thatcher  third,  fourth,  and  fifth  generations  would 
was  ordained  Pastor  to  the  third  church  serve  as  deacons  in  this  church. 

in    Boston,   and   Mr.    Rainsford    Ruling  The    question    is    asked,   sometimes, 

Elder.  What  constitutes  a  quorum  of  an  eccle- 

"  This  winter  was  very  sharp  and  te-  siastical    council  ?      Our   Narrative,   we 

dious,  we    had    much    snow   and    cold  think,  gives  a  satisfactory  answer  :  Those 

weather,    the    wayes    difficult    and    un-  representatives  of  invited  churches  who 

passable."  —  Roxbury  Church  Records.  have  appeared  at  the  time  and  place  des- 

The  Rev.  Samuel  Phillips,  of  Rowley,  ignated  constitute  a  quorum,  and  should 

entered  on  the  records  of  his  church  that  proceed  to  business  accordingly,  unless 

he  was  unable  to  be  present  at  the  ordi-  the  parties  who  issued  the  letters  missive 

nation,  because  there  was  so  much  snow,  desire  otherwise.      If  it  be  said  that   a 


160  HISTORY  OF   THE    OLD   SOUTH  CHURCH. 

from  the  Church  of  Charles  Towne  ;  Reverend  Tho :  Shepheard, 
Tho  :  Lynd  Deacon 

from  the  Church  of  Waymouth,  Reverend  Sam  :  Tony.  Captain  Win. 
Torry  Elder  Bates,  John  Holbrooke. 

Reverend  mr.  John  Allin  being  present  all  though  not  sent  from  his 
Church,  was  Desired  by  the  Church  in  the  time  of  it  to  joyne  with 
Reverend  mr.  Shepheard,  and  mr.  Torry,  in  laying  on  of  hands  upon 
mr.  Tho :  Thatcher,  and  Mr.  Allin  to  give  the  charge,  unto  him,  which 
accordingly  was  performed,  and  then  mr.  Thatcher  mr.  Shepheard,  and 
mr.  Torry  layd  hands  on  mr.  Edward  Rainsford,  and  mr.  Thatcher 
gave  charge  unto  him.1 

And  mr.  Thatcher  and  mr.  Ranceford  layd  hands  and  gave  charge 
unto  mr.  Jacob  Elliot  and  mr.  Peter  Bracket  for  the  office  of  Dea- 
cons. 

Aboute  10  of  the  clock,  and  before  the  ordination  abovesaid  Captain 
Clarke,  Captain  Hutcheson,  Leiutenant  Rich  Cooke  and  mr.  James 
Everill  came  unto  the  house  of  Captain  Tho  :  Savage 2  where  the 
Elders  and  Messengers  of  Churches  were  met,  and  delivered  them 
a  letter  of  the  same  Tenour  which  was  sent  unto  mr,  Tho :  Thatcher, 
and  his  society  from  the  first  church  of  Boston,  as  is  before  men- 
tioned Requiring  and  desiring  that  it  might  be  communicated  to  the 
publique  assembly  The  Messengers  of  the  Churches  demanded  of 
the  said  Captain  Clarke  and  the  rest  of  those  with  him  whither  they 
were  sent  from  their  Church  to  this  assembly,  by  vertu  of  Communion 
of  Churches  to  give  the  right  hand  of  fellowship,  and  whither  their 
church  had  sent  their  Elders,  as  well  as  themselves  unto  which  they 
made  answer  that  their  church  had  not  sent  their  Elders  Nor  did  them- 
selves come  to  hold  Communion  of  Churches  with  this  church  —  unto 
which  answer  was  made  that  if  they  would  withdraw  they  would  con- 
sider what  to  do  about  it,  The  Elders  and  Messengers  went  to  meet- 
ing where  mr.  Tho:  Thatcher  preached  out  of  6  Zach  :  12  :  v : 8  at  the 
End  of  the  Sermon  there  was  respit  for  halfe  an  houer  (In  which  time) 

majority  of  the  churches  invited  must  be  sent  to,  and  for  a  good  reason,  had  failed 

present  by  their  representatives  before  a  to  appear.] 

council  can  organize  and  transact  other  1  [The    words    "  for    the    worke    and 

business,  then  a  majority,  by  purposely  office  of  ruling  elder  "  are  erased  in  the 

staying  away,  might  postpone  or  prevent  manuscript.] 

an  ordination  or  installation  ;  or,  in  the  2  [In  the    early  years   of   the   colony, 

case  of  unavoidable  absence,  might  put  Mr.  Savage's  house  and  garden  were  on 

the  inviting  church  and  its  pastor-elect  the  north  corner  of  Fleet  and  Ship  streets, 

to  great  inconvenience.      It  would  have  near  Scarlet's  Wharf.    See  Porter's  Ram- 

been  unjust,  manifestly,  to  Mr.  Thacher,  ties  in  Old  Boston  in  N.  Eng.,  p.  286.   In 

to  the  church,  and  to  those  elders  and  1656,  Mr.  Savage  built  a  new  house  in 

messengers  who  had  made  the  effort  to  the  vicinity  of   the    present   Union   and 

be  present,  to   postpone  the  ordination  Elm  streets,  "  between   the   drawbridge 

services,  because  the   representatives  of  and  the  conduit."] 

other  churches,  even  a  majority  of  those  3  ["Thus  speaketh  the  Lord  of  hosts, 


THE   ORDINATION.  l6l 

the  Messengers  of  the  churches  being  at  mrs.  Nortons  house,  sent  for 
Captain  Clarke  and  his  Companions  and  told  them  that  they  saw  no 
light,  to  read  that  writing  before  the  Assembly  they  not  standing  as 
Messengers  by  vertu  of  communion  of  churches  &c :  —  Then  the 
Elders  and  Messengers  of  churches  Assembled  in  publique,  After  mr. 
Chancy  had  prayed  they  proceeded  to  work  of  ordination.  The  Ques- 
tion being  putt  by  mr.  Tho  :  Shepheard  to  the  Messengers  of  Churches 
sent  by  Communion  of  Churches  according  to  the  request  of  this 
Church,  that  if  they  had  any  objection  against  mr.  Tho  :  Thatcher, 
from  being  proceeded  with  to  ordination  of  a  Pastor  to 
this  Church  of  christ,  they  had  liberty  to  express  them- 
selves, Captain  Clarke,  Captaine  Hutchison,  Leiutenant  Cooke,  and 
Mr.  Everill  being  sent  by  the  first  Church  of  Boston  [as]  Messengers 
to  declare  against  the  proceeding  of  the  day  spake  as  followeth  and 
replyes  to  them  were  made.[  ]  Captaine  Clarke  began  thus  :  It  is 
much  against  my  owne  mind  to  speak  especially  upon  such  a  time  and 
occasion,  but  being  called  to  it,  with  some  others  by  the  appointment 
of  another  church  who  could  gladly  (if  according  to  rule)  have  held 
forth  the  right  hand  of  fellowship  to  this  Church  and  the  officers 
chosen,  am  necessitated  to  object,  that  Church  apprehending  some 
thing  to  lye  against  both  the  Electors  and  the  Elected,  the  particulars 
whereof  refer  to  a  Letter  sent  to  this  Society  from  that  Church  Mr. 
Shepheard  answered  The  letter  it  seemes  is  sent  to  this  third  Church 
in  Boston  and  we  suppose  they  will  be  ready  to  give  an  account  of 
their  way  to  any  who  shall  orderly  desire  it.  In  reference  to  the  thing 
in  Generall  the  Messengers  of  the  Churches  have  considered  of  it  and 
find  not  that  in  it  as  to  give  a  supersedeas  to  the  worke  of  this  day, 
and  therefore  doe  apprehend  in  point  of  order  this  is  not  soe  proper 
a  worke.  Captaine  Clark  replyed  order  is  that  we  shall  willingly  sit 
downe  by  But  we  apprehend  it  orderly  to  give  a  hearing  of  such  objec- 
tions as  may  Justly  be  made  in  such  a  case. 

Mr.  Shepheard  we  are  far  from  shutting  our  eyes  or  stopping  our 
eares  against  any  thing  that  may  be  brought  in  justly  from  the  word 
of  God  against  any  Person,  but  we  cannot  apprehend  any  thing  of  that 
moment  in  what  you  object,  and  in  point  of  order  if  you  looke  upon 
yourselves  as  Messengers  of  a  Church  and  met  here  by  vertu  of  Com- 
munion of  Churches,  you  doe  strike  up  your  owne  argument  there 
being  nothing  in  the  letter  but  rather  denyeth  the  being  of  the  Church 
rather  than  communion  with  them  now  owning  yourselves  as  Messen- 
gers by  Communion  of  Churches  your  practise  runs  counter  to  your 
argument  conteyned  in  the  letter 

Mr.  Torry  your  speech  was  in  answer  to  the  proposall  made  to 
the  Messengers  of  the  Churches  if  you  owne  yourselves  to  be  of  the 

saying,  Behold  the  man  whose  name  is     of  his  place,  and  he  shall  build  the  tem- 
the  branch  :  and  he  shall  grow  up  out     pie  of  the  Lord."] 


1 62  HISTORY  OF   THE    OLD   SOUTH  CHURCH. 

Messengers  of  the  Churches  we  shall   then    treat  with  you  in  that 
way. 

Lieutenant  Cooke  :  we  doe  not  know  that  our  Church  hath  professed 
contrary  to  the  Churches,  we  were  but  as  messengers  of  our  Church 
to  declare  their  mindes,  if  you  would  have  us  to  owne  this  Assembly 
to  be  a  Church  by  vertu  of  that  Communion  we  scruple  it 

Mr.  Torry  this  third  Church  did  send  in  a  way  of  Communion  of 
Churches  to  other  Churches  to  send  their  messengers,  if  you  sent 
[brethren]  in  a  way  of  Communion  with  us,  then  you  stand  in  the  same 
capacity  with  us. 

Captaine  Clark  our  Church  hath  expressed  their  owne  mindes,  and 
therfore  I  desire  we  may  not  be  put  upon  interrogatories. 

Mr.  Shepheard  this  letter  you  seem  to  be  about  to  read  is  sent  to 
this  third  Church  in  Boston,  and  they  are  to  have  the  first  cognisance 
of  it,  they  have  had  no  time  to  consider  the  same  as  they  would  desire. 
It  was  sent  them  this  day  within  the  compasse  of  24  houres,  I  suppose 
the  first  Church  will  receive  an  answer  from  this  third 
Church  the  messengers  assembled  have  already  judged 
the  paper  not  meet  to  be  read  at  this  time  : 

Captaine  Hutchinson  I  suppose  the  messengers  of  the  Churches 
are  not  sent  to  give  the  right  hand  of  fellowship  let  things  [be]  how 
they  will : 

Mr.  Shepheard  we  are  willing  to  heare  any  objection  soe  that  the 
end  may  not  be  obstructed,  and  this  I  assure  you  in  the  name  of  the 
rest  of  the  messengers,  if  you  will  refer  the  matter  to  an  orderly  deci- 
sion by  Councill,  you  shall  have  it  in  time  convenient. 

Mr.  Torry  you  would  have  the  letter  read,  pray  tell  us  to  whome 
you  would  have  it  read  whither  to  the  messengers  of  the  Churches,  to 
this  Church  as  a  Church  of  Christ,  to  them  as  brethren  still  with  you, 
or  to  the  whole  Assembly :  it  was  answered  to  the  whole  Assembly, 
and  that  those  persons  were  never  orderly  dismissed  from  them  being 
Brethren  under  offence,  as  those  who  had  leapt  over  the  wall  and 
although  Mr.  Thatcher  did  not  see  meet  to  act  then  with  them,  but 
told  them  he  approved  not  of  their  way,  yet  when  he  was  cleare  from 
their  Church  joyned  himself  unto  them,  being  demanded  whither  their 
objection  was  against  Mr.  Thatcher  as  standing  here  to  be  ordayned, 
and  whither  Mr.  Thatcher  had  not  publiquely  declared  his  intention 
to  joine  unto  this  Church  it  could  not  be  denyed  but  that  he  had,  but 
it  was  objected  against  him  that  he  had  professed  that  he  had  dis- 
owned the  dissenters  in  their  acting  and  would  labour  to  bring  them 
of,  yet  now  was  partaker  of  their  sin  in  leaping  over  the  wall,  Mr. 
Thatcher  having  liberty  granted  to  speake  cleared  himself  of  that- 
false  aspersion  :  but  if  the  thing  affirmed  were  granted  it  was  replyed 
unto  them,  it  argued  but  the  change  of  a  mans  mind  who  might  see 
cause  to  doe  that  afterward  which  he  saw  not  before,  and  therfore  no 


THE    ORDINATION  SERVICES.  1 63 

matter  of  obstruction,  after  further  debate  it  was  declared  as  to  the 
being  of  this  Church  it  had  already  bin  judged  by  the  orderly  judge, 
the  Churches  having  already  judged  it  to  be  a  Church  of  Christ,  and 
therfore  declared  they  should  proceed  in  the  work  which  god  called 
unto,  the  vote  being  put  to  the  whole  Assembly  of  Christian  friends 
and  neighbours,  and  finally  to  the  Church  itself  whose  votes  passing 
in  the  Affirmative  Mr.  Thatcher  being  called  upon  to  declare  whither 
he  accepted  of  it  thus  spake  : 

It  is  not  a  matter  of  small  moment  to  be  a  Pastor  to  any  people  for 
any  man,  being  to  stand  in  the  stead  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  in  his 
ministration  and  especially  at  such  a  time  as  things  are  Circumstanced 
with  ourselves  :  but  being  throughly  perswaded  that  this  call  is  the 
call  of  God  and  Christ  I  dare  not  be  disobedient  therunto,  But  trust- 
ing in  the  grace  of  Christ  doe  freely  give  up  myselfe  to  the  Lord  and 
his  people  in  the  worke  he  hath  called  me  to,  resolving  by  the  helpe  of 
his  Grace  to  mannage  it  in  his  feare,  according  to  the  rules  which  he 
hath  or  here  after  may  make  knowne  unto  mee  —  after  which  they 
proceeded  to  actuall  ordination,  premising  that  the  Reverend  Mr.  Allin 
of  Dedham  being  there,  it  was  declared  by  this  Churches  vote  to  be 
their  desire  he  should  joyne  with  Mr.  Shepheard  and  Mr.  Torry  in 
laying  on  of  hands  on  Mr.  Thatcher  and  that  he  should  give  him  the 
charge  which  accordingly  was  performed  as  before  mentioned. 

Elder  Ransford  declared  to  the  church  before  the  As- 

20  :  (12)  1669 

sembly  that  the  next  Lords  day  the  sacrament  was  to  be 
administred. 

The  first  Church  in  Boston  had  a  church  metting  where  the  sisters 
were  particularly  warned  to  be  present,  when  met  Captain 
Tho  :  Clarke,  Captain  Edw :  Hutchinson,  Lieutenant  Cooke, 
and  mr.  Everill  whom  the  Church  had  sent  as  messengers  to  the  Elders 
with  the  foregoeing  paper  from  the  church  to  be  Communicated  to  the 
Assembly,  gave  an  account  of  their  service  which  the  Church  imployed 
them  in,  haveing  drawen  up  a  narrative  of  their  discourse]  with  the 
Elders  and  Messengers  of  the  Churches  in  publique  and  private ; 
therein  they  charged  the  Reverend  Mr.  Chancy  for  reflecting  upon 
themselves  in  his  prayer,  wherein  they  did  him  apparent  wrong,  and 
allso  in  the  said  narrative  they  gave  no  better  titles  to  the  Reverend 
Mr.  Shepheard  and  Mr.  Torry  than  Shepheard  and  Torry,  Torry  and 
Shepheard,  they  being  by  the  messengers  of  the  Churches  chosen  and 
declared  to  be  the  Moderators  to  order  and  carry  an  end  the  work  of 
ordination  that  day :  after  reading  of  the  same,  thankes  was  returned 
to  them  by  the  Church  for  their  good  service  :  soone  after  Mr.  Daven- 
port applyed  himself  to  the  whole  Church  Brethren  and  sisters,  de- 
claring it  was  breach  of  Covenant  for  any  of  them  to  goe  from  their 
owne  Church  to  heare  the  word  preached,  or  to  partake  of  the  Sacra- 
ment unlesse  it  were  in  want  of  officers  to  the  Church  or  being  on  a 


1 64  HISTORY  OF   THE   OLD   SOUTH   CHURCH. 

Journey  (though  it  was  contrary  to  the  frequent  practise  of  the  Breth- 
ren who  ordinarily  heard  and  partake  of  the  supper  with  the  Church 
[at]  the  North  end  of  the  Towne)  this  was  not  put  to  vote,  but  by 
silence  consented  unto  by  the  Church  whereupon  the  Sisters  whose 
husbands  were  members  of  the  3d  Church  understanding  how  greivous 
and  deeply  offensive  it  would  be  for  them  to  partake  with  their  hus- 
bands in  the  seale  next  Lords  day,  they  out  of  Christian  prudence 
forbare,  not  having  made  particular  application  unto  the  Church  for 
their  dismission  : 

The  Lords  supper  was  celebrated  among  them  of  the  3d  Church 
where  sundry  Brethren  and  sisters  of  other  Churches  did 
partake  by  vertu  of  Communion  of  Churches. 
Two  sisters  repaired  to  Mr.  Davenport  for  satisfaction  about  what 
he  had  delivered  the  last  Church  meeting  :    namely  that 
they  should  lay  under  breach  of  Covenant  with  the  first 
Church  if  they  should  heare  the  word  or  partake  in  another  Church 
unlesse  &c  :  and  declaring  themselves  satisfied  in  the  orderly  consti- 
tution of  that  Church  whereof  their  husbands  were  members  and  said 
that  if  the  Church  would  please  to  let  them  hold  Communion  with 
them,  they  should  not  desire  to  alter  their  station  untill  such  time  as 
they  saw  their  practise  was  answerable  to  their  profession,  if  not  they 
should  desire  a  regular  dismission  : 

The  same  sisters  soone  after  applyed  themselves  to  Elder  Pen  and 
Mr.  Ja.  Allen  and  to  other  Brethren  to  promote  their  request  unto  the 
Church  for  their  dismission,  and  having  drawne  up  a  petition  they 
carryed  it  to  Elder  Pen  desiring  him  to  Communicate  it  to  the  Church 
which  followeth. 

Honourd  Reverend  and  Beloved  Elders  and  Brethren  of  the  first  Church 

of  Christ  in  Boston  whereof  we  ai-e  members. 

Such  hath  bin  the  order  of  divine  providence  that  our  deare  hus- 
bands are  removed  from  this  Church  society  And  are  gathered  into  a 
distinct  church  body  by  themselves,  and  have  opportunity  of  adminis- 
tring  all  the  holy  ordinances  of  God  among  themselves,  We  consider- 
ing the  duty  which  lyeth  upon  us,  That  we  are  commanded  to  aske 
our  respective  husbands  at  home,  also  considering  the  faithfull  in 
Scripture  Joshua,  he  and  his  household  would  serve  the  Lord,  — 
David  and  his  traine  went  together,  Moses  would  have  the  women  and 
Children  goe  together  to  worship,  allso  the  Comeliness  and  sweet  order 
when  whole  familyes  worship  together,  On  the  contrary  the  confusion, 
disorder,  and  disturbance  which  will  unavoidably  follow,  when  hus- 
bands goe  to  one  place  and  wives  to  another  to  worship  :  Allso  our 
owne  affections  and  desires  earnestly  pressing  us  hereunto,  doe  there- 
fore present  our  earnest  request  unto  you  that  you  would  dismiss  us 
from  your  church  fellowship,  unto  the  fellowship  of  that  church  whereof 


DEATH   OF  MR.   DAVENPORT. 


I65 


our  respective  husbands  are 

witness  our  hands 

Mary  Savage 
Hulldah  Davis 
Judith  Hull 
Lidia  Scottow 
Eliz  Rock 
Mary  Brackett 
Susanna  Daws 
Sarah  Pemberton 
Eliz  Allden 
Rach  Rawson 


members.     That  this  is  desired  of  us  all 


Elizabeth  Usher 
Eliz  Ransford 
Sarah  Olliver 
Mary  Elliot 
Hannah  ffrairy 
Ran  Bellcher 
Mary  Tappin 
Ells  Thirston 
Sarah  Walker 
Mary  Sallter 


The  3d  Church 
after  great  tra- 
vell  and  trouble 
being  furnished 
and  supplyed 
with  officers 
and  ordinances 
did  agree  that 
there  should  be 
a  narrative  of 
the  whole  [pro] 
gres  of  their 
proceedings 
drawn  up  and 
kept  among  the 
Churches  Rec- 
ords for  Pos- 
terity. 

Elder  Pen  after  he  had  kept  the  sisters  petition  three  days  brought 
it  down  to  Mr.  Brackett,  And  said  it  would  not  doe  it  was 
too  long  a  business,  They  might  write  two  or  three  lines  to  s-  697° 
be  dismisd  to  a  church  in  order  and  let  every  sister  write  and  sub- 
scribe there  paper,  to  which  Mr.  Brackett  answered  he  Judged  it  not 
safe  for  them  soe  to  doe,  the  sisters  might  bring  themselves  into  a 
snare.  He  answered  no,  it  should  not,  they  might  bring  every  one 
their  owne  request  and  leave  it  with  him.  But  as  it  was  written  he 
would  not  read  it  to  the  church,  upon  the  elders  speech  Mr.  Brackett 
replyes  if  the  writing  of  so  many  Coppyes  and  each  sister  to  set  her 
hand  will  satisfy  that  may  be  done. 

The  sisters  subscribing  the  same  petition  only  alltering  the  term  we 
to  me  writt  soe  many  individuall  papers  with  each  of  their 
names  subscribed  and  by  Companyes  carried  theire  peti- 
tions up  to  elder  Pen,  desiring  him  to  take  a  season  to  present  them 
to  the  Church,  to  understand  their  mind,  as  to  the  granting  of  their 
dismission.     And  soe  left  their  severall  papers  with  him  &c. 

Being  Lordsday  Reverend  Mr.  Davenport  being  ill  preached  not  in 
the  afternoon,  about  9  Clocke  of  the  Evening  was  taken    „ .  imo.  6 
very  ill  and  smitten  with  the  dead  palsy  upon  one  side  of   ^r  Daven 
him  at  once,  who  continued  soe  untill  16  day  in  the  Even-   port's  death, 
ing  about  (9)  of  the  Cloke  his  soule  Returned  to  God  that  gave  it.1 

Mr.  Oxenbridge  was  on  the  Lords  day  propounded  to  be  a  member 
of  the  first  Church.2 

the  same  day  mrs.  Blake  widdow  was  admitted  member  of  the  third 
church  by  vertu  of  letter  of  dismission  from  the  church  of   2°:  I!  69-7° 
Dorchester  who  in  that  act  owned  them  to  be  a  church  of  Christ.3 

1  [The  Magnalia  inscribes  for  him  the     demnation   of  his   course  in  connection 


8 :  1  mo :  69-70 


following  epitaph  :  "  Safely  in  port.  In 
life,  the  ornament  of  New  England  and 
the  church  ;  dead,  the  object  of  their 
common  regret."  His  death  was  un- 
doubtedly hastened  by  the  general  con- 


with  the  New  Haven  correspondence.] 

2  [The  Reverend  John  Oxenbridge  was 
ordained  pastor  of  the  First  Church, 
April  10,  1670.] 

3  [Mr.   William    B.  Trask  has   kindly 


1 66 


HISTORY  OF   THE    OLD   SOUTH   CHURCH. 


mr.  Oxenbridg  was  admitted  member  of  the  first  Church 
Reverend  Mr.  Davenport  was  interred  in  the  tombe  of  Reverend 


transcribed  for  us  the  following,  from  the 
Dorchester  Church  Records  :  — 

"6  (i)  69-70  Sister  Agnes  Blake  (the 
wife  of  William  Blake  deceased)  she 
haveing  removed  her  dwelling  to  Boston 
was  dismissed  to  Joyne  to  the  third 
Church  in  Boston."  (1) 

"  18.  12.  71.  John  Blake  dismissed  to 
Joyne  to  the  third  Church  in  Boston."  (2) 

"Ann  Legar  of   Boston  who  was  the 
daughter  of  William  Blake    Senior  dis- 
missed the  21.  2.  72  to  Joyne  to  the 
Church  in  Boston."  (3) 

"  Old  Mrs.  Mather  and  Sister  Clements 
was  dismissed  to  the  third  Church  in 
Boston  the  10th  11.  74."  (4) 

"  Mrs.  Taylor  who  was  the  dafter  of 
Mrs.  Stoughton  dismissed  to  the  3d 
Church  in  Boston  though  not  in  full 
communion  1675."  (5) 

"In  the  6  mo.  1676  the  daughter  of 
Nathaniell  Glover  now  wif  unto  Mr. 
Rawson  of  Boston  And  was  dismissed 
to  the  3d  Church  in  Boston  though  not 
in  full  Communion,  but  by  father's  Cov- 
enant." (6) 

(1)  William  Blake's  will  was  proved 
Jan.  28,  1663.  He  was  born  in  Little 
Baddow,  Essex,  England ;  sailed  from 
Plymouth  in  the  Mary  and  John,  March 
20,  1630;  and  arrived  at  Nantasket  May 

3°- 

(2)  John    Blake,  with    his  wife    Mary, 

joined  the  Third  Church  Feb.  28,  167 1- 
2.     He  died  1688-9. 

(3)  Anne,  wife  of  Jacob  Leager  (whose 
tombstone  is  in  the  possession  of  the 
Bostonian  Society)  joined  May  2,  1673. 
She  was  in  some  way  connected  with  the 
Walkers  and  Thurstons. 

(4)  Mrs.  Mather  (of  whom  we  have 
already  spoken  in  this  chapter)  and  Mrs. 
Clements  joined  March  5,  1674-5.  The 
latter  was  probably  Elizabeth,  widow  of 
Augustine  Clements,  of  Dorchester  and 
Boston.  She  gave  a  silver  cup  to  the 
First  Church,  Dorchester,  in  1678.  Mrs. 
Thomas  Thacher  had  given  one  to  it, 
with  "  a  green  cushion  for  the  desk,"  in 
1672.  These  cups  were  presented  by 
that    church,    in    1S77,    to    the    Second 


Church,  of  which  the  Rev.  James  H. 
Means  was  then  pastor,  "  as  a  token  of 
good  fellowship."  See  Hist,  and  Gen. 
Register,  July,  1SS6. 

(5)  Rebecca  Taylor  owned  the  cov- 
enant in  1676.  She  was  a  daughter  of 
Israel  Stoughton,  a  sister  of  William 
Stoughton,  chief  justice  and  acting  gov- 
ernor, and  wife  of  William  Tailer,  or 
Taylor,  "  one  of  the  greatest  merchants 
of  Boston."  For  an  account  of  Mr. 
Taylor's  suicide,  July  12,  1682,  see  Diary 
of  Noadiah  Russell,  Hist,  and  Gen. 
Register,  vol.  vii.  p.  56. 

(6)  Ann,  daughter  of  Nathaniel  Glover, 
married,  July  11,  1673,  William  Rawson, 
a  son  of  the  secretary,  and  had  twenty 
children.  Her  husband  owned  the  cov- 
enant in  1680,  but  her  name  does  not 
appear  on  any  of  our  church  lists. 

The  Dorchester  Church  Records  con- 
tain the  following  particulars  in  reference 
to  Mrs.  Taylor  :  — 

"  The  16  (7)  68,  Mr.  Mather  acquainted 
the  church  with  a  motion  made  to  him 
and  the  church  by  Mrs.  Stoughton  and 
her  daughter  Taylor,  namely,  that  her 
children  might  be  baptized,  she  being  a 
member  of  this  church  by  her  parents' 
covenant ;  and  after  much  agitation,  the 
issue  was  that  Mr.  Mather  should  speak 
with  Mrs.  Taylor,  to  see  if  she  would  join 
in  full  communion  with  the  church,  and 
so  come  to  the  Lord's  supper." 

"The  24  (8)  68,  Mr.  Mather  declared 
to  the  church  that  he  having  spoken  with 
Mrs.  Taylor,  as  aforesaid,  her  answer 
was  that  she  did  not  judge  herself  worthy 
or  as  yet  fit  for  the  Lord's  supper,  and 
therefore  durst  not  adventure  thereupon, 
but  yet  did  desire  baptism  for  her  chil- 
dren;  but  the  church  would  not  fully  or 
comfortably  agree  about  it,  and  so  it 
rested."     (See  ante,  p.  91,  note.) 

Mrs.  Taylor's  son,  William,  was  bap- 
tized at  the  South  Church,  July  9,  1676, 
probably,  when  she  owned  the  covenant. 
He  became  a  distinguished  man,  held 
many  prominent  positions,  and  was 
lieutenant  governor  and  acting  governor 
under  the  second  charter.] 


REFUSAL    TO  DISMISS   THE    WOMEN.  167 

Mr.  Cotton,    Before  his  carrying  forth  out  of  his  house  it  was  desired 

by  the    Reverend  Elders  there  present,  that   they  might 

carry  him  to  the  tombe,  which  was  denied  to  them  :  being 

carryed  by  B[rother]  Search  Mr.  Everill  and  other  brethren  of  first 

Church 

The  old  church  met  where  they  read  the  afore  menti[o]ned  desire 
of  the  sisters  for  their  dismission  to  the  church  whereof 
theire    husbands   were    members:     After   much   agitation,       •I-7°- 
being  put  to  vote,  it  past  in  the  negative  by  lifting  up  of  hands, 

After  the  vote  past  B :  Chever  moved  that  the  church  would  further 
consider  of  the  sisters  petition  ;  And  in  case  they  did  not  see  light  to 
give  them  a  dismission  to  the  church  whereof  their  husbands  were 
members,  Then  to  give  them  an  indefinite  dismission,  whereupon  Mr. 
Allen  bid  the  Brother  forbear,  and  attend  the  businesse  in  hand,  If  the 
sisters  had  any  such  motion  to  make,  they  might  express  it  themselves, 
Whereupon  one  of  the  sisters  having  a  writing  in  redinesse  with  the 
consent  of  the  other  sisters  present  desired  it  to  be  handed  up  to  the 
elders  which  was  as  follo[ws]  viz 

We  having  presented  our  humble  request  for  a  dismission  as  we 
beleive  according  to  rule,  upon  reasons  renderd  in  that  request,  to 
that  Church  whereof  our  husbands  are  and  perceiving  that  it  is  not 
acceptable  to  you  doe  humbly  request  that  you  would  grant  unto  us  an 
indefinite  dismission,  and  soe  liberty  to  joine  unto  any  Church  in  order. 

Subscribed  by  some  sisters  in  the  name  of  the  rest. 

This  paper  above  being  given  up  the  elder  toke  it  and  put  it  up  in 
his  pocket,  neither  reading  it,  nor  making  knowne  their  re- 
quest unto  the  Church  [which]  returned  no  answer  unto  it. 

The  sacrament  being  celebrated  at  the  3d  Church  some  of  the  sisters 
partoke  with  them  and  one  sister  named  S  :  Beck1  whose 
husband  was  no  member  of  this  new  Church  which  occa- 
sioned much  dissatisfaction  among  many  brethren  of  the  old  Church 
for  peace  sake  those  sisters  did  forbeare  going  to  the  sacrament  to  the 
old  Church  the  3  :  of  the  (2)  it  being  then  celebrated,  waiting  when 
the  Lord  would  incline  the  brethren  to  grant  them  a  dismission,  having 
the  assurance  from  the  Elders  that  they  should  not  by  that  forbearing 
of  Communion  be  accompted  as  sismitickes  for  rending  the  Church. 

The  old  Church  kept  a  day  of  humiliation.  ts]  2.  7° 

Our  deare  Brother  Peter  Oliver  departed  this  life,2  " : 

1  [S.  probably  stands  for  Sister,  in  died  and  was  lamented  by  all  men." 
this  case.  Elizabeth,  wife  or  widow  of  — Roxbury  Church  Records. 
Alexander  Beck,  joined  the  new  church  Thomas  Brattle  was  chosen  and  ap- 
in  1674.  Her  son,  Manasseh,  joined  pointed  by  the  General  Court  "cornet  to 
March  6,  1672.  His  wife,  Mary,  was  a  the  troope  of  horse  in  the  county  of 
daughter  of  one  of  the  founders,  William  Suffolk  instead  of  the  late  Captain  Peter 
Salter.]  Oliver  deceased."  —  General  Court  Rec- 

2  ["  70.  2  m    11   d     Mr  Peter  Oliver  ords.] 


1 68  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD   SOUTH  CHURCH. 

The  sacrament  was  celebrated  at  the  new  Church,  where  most  of 
the  sisters  whose  husbands  were  members  of  it,  togither 
24 :  with  many  sisters  of   the  old  Church  :  both  widows  and 

others  did  partake  with  them,  and  after  that  the  sisters  whose  hus- 
bands were  members  of  the  new  Church  gave  to  Elder  Pen  this  fol- 
lowing paper  desiring  it  to  be  communicated  unto  the  old  Church 

Reverend  and  Dearly  beloved  in  the  Lord. 

Having  had  communion  with  our  respective  husbands  in  the  Supper 
of  the  Lord,  this  Sabbath,  And  judging  it  for  edification  and  consola- 
tion so  to  doe,  Wee  humbly  intreat  you,  candidly  to  interpret  it,  And 
for  the  helping  of  our  joy  in  the  Lord  for  the  future,  earnestly  request 
you  so  to  release  us  of  our  Covenant  engagement  unto  yourselves, 
that  wee  may,  without  offence  to  you,  have  liberty  so  to  provide  for  our 
own  peace  and  spirituall  comfort  as  may,  in  our  own  consciences  be 
most  suitable  to  our  duety  for  our  aedification  in  the  Lord  : 
24  :  (2  :)  1670 

Margreatt  Thacher  Mary  Brackitt 

Mary  Savage  Elisabeth  Rock 

Hulldah  Davis  Susanna  Dawes 

Mary  Tappin^  Mary  Salter 

Lidia  Scottow  Mary  Elliot 

Judith  Hull  Hannah  Frary 

Sarah  Walker  Reanis  Belcher 

Sarah  Oliver 
I  desire  the  like  liberty  when  god  shall  give  opportunity 

Rachel  Rawson 
I  doe  desire  the  like 

Elishua  Thurston 
I  doe  desire  the  like  liberty  with  the  rest  of  my  sisters 

Elizabeth  Raynsford 
Soe  do  the  wife  of  James  Pemerton 

Eliz  Alden.1 

Mrs.  Savage,  Mrs.  Hull,  and  goody  Dawes  were  desired  to  goe  up 

to  Mr.  Aliens  where  Mr.  Oxenbridge,  Elder  Pen,  and  some 

other  Brethren  of  the  old  Church  were  met,  where  when 

come  a  reason  was  desired  to  be  given   of  their  partaking  with  the 

new  Church  in  the  Sacrament  the  last  Lords  day. 

It  was  answerd  Mr.  Oxenbridge  being  treated  with  by  the  Church 

1  [We  have  corrected  the  copy  of  this  compiler  of  the  Narrative,  to  place,  as 
letter  in  the  Narrative  with  the  original,  he  did,  the  name  of  "  Margaret  Sheaffe  " 
in  the  handwriting  of  John  Hull,  pre-  among  the  signers.  Mrs.  Sheaffe  mar- 
served  on  the  files  of  the  Old  South.  It  ried  Mr.  Thacher  several  years  before 
was  a  singular  mistake  on  the  part  of  the  this.] 


PERPLEXITIES   OF   THE    WOMEN.  1 69 

about  taking  of  office,  declared  in  his  answer  to  the  Church  that  as 
for  these  persons  whose  hearts  were  not  with  the  Church  whome  he 
termed  half  members,  he  desired  the  Church  would  take  some  care 
about  their  remove  before  the  day  of  his  ordination,  they  hearing  this 
it  put  them  upon  further  thoughts  of  desiring  their  dismission  :  and 
allso  that  upon  the  iSth  of  this  moneth,  Elder  Pen  went  to  Mrs.  Hulls 
and  sister  Dawes  houses,  and  to  each  of  them  declared,  it  would  be  the 
best  expedient  for  the  attayning  of  their  desires,  for  all  the  sisters  to 
goe  and  partake  with  their  husbands  in  the  sacrament  that  next  Lords 
day,  where  upon  it  was  replyed  by  this  meanes  they  should  be  led  into 
a  snare,  and  bring  themselves  into  further  trouble,  the  Elders  answer 
to  Mrs.  Hull  in  the  generall  was,  that  he  would  stand  betwixt  them 
and  any  trouble  on  that  Accompt,  for  he  knew  no  sin  in  their  partak- 
ing with  their  husbands,  it  was  answered  likewise  that  on  the  21th  of 
this  instant  two  of  these  sisters  had  bin  with  Mr.  Oxenbridge  to  be 
informed  of  the  truth  of  what  was  reported  referring  to 
his  speech  to  the  Church  on  the  Lords  day  relating  to  his 
ordination  to  cleare  the  sisters  from  the  Church  whose  answer  then 
was  to  that  effect,  whereupon  they  desiring  him  to  give  them  his 
advice  and  counsell  what  the  sisters  should  doe  in  this  case,  informing 
him  what  Elder  Pens  advice  was,  his  answer  was,  that  it  was  not  con- 
venient for  him  to  give  advice  as  things  were  circumstanced,  but 
would  tell  them  what  his  opinion  was,  that  it  would  be  best  for  all  the 
sisters  to  partake,  and  his  reason  was  because  they  could  but  be  dealt 
withall  by  the  Church  if  they  did  partake  and  should  be  soe  if  they 
did  forbeare,  for  the  not  giving  constant  attendance  upon  the  Ministrie 
of  the  word  everie  Lords  day,  whereupon  was  farther  asked  whither 
they  should  forbeare  this  sacrament  day  in  partaking  with  their  hus- 
bands and  ask  the  Church  leave  again  before  they  did  partake,  his 
answer  was  no,  it  was  further  asked  what  if  they  should  stay  half  a 
yeare  what  hope  is  there  for  them  to  obtaine  their  dismission,  if  there 
were  any  hope  they  should  willingly  wait,  it  was  answerd  by  him  no 
it  would  be  for  the  worse,  God  may  change  their  hearts,  but  for  pres- 
ent I  have  no  hope  of  it,  this  is  your  onely  opportunity  now  or  never 
in  my  opinion,  the  sisters  further  said,  shall  we  not  come  into  trouble 
by  the  Church  for  soe  doing,  he  answered  I  tell  you,  how  you  may 
salve  the  matter,  goe  and  partake,  and  when  you  have  soe  done  draw 
up  a  few  lines  to  be  presented  unto  the  Church  which  they  did  as 
before  is  expressed,  this  they  gave  in  as  their  answer  to  the  Elders 
and  Brethren  being  called  before  them  to  give  Account  of  their  par- 
taking with  their  husbands  in  the  Sacrament  the  Lords  day  preceding ; 
at  this  meeting  Mr.  Stoddard  retorted  upon  Elder  Pen  that  he  had 
never  ruled  him  in  the  Church  nor  ever  should,  to  whome  it  was  replyed 
he  spake  very  true  and  that  had  bin  the  cause  of  the  trouble  which 
had  befallen  the  church.     The  old  Church  passed  this  vote  against 


IJO  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD   SOUTH  CHURCH. 

the  sisters  the  same  day  they  communicated  with  their  husbands  with- 
out calling  them  before  them  or  desiring  to  know  the  ground  of 
their  actings     24  :  2  :  1670 

Whereas  we  have  received  testimonie  under  the  hands  of  some  of 
our  sisters,  that  they  have  had  communion  with  those  with  whom  we 
have  declared  we  cannot  hold  communions  till  they  remove  offences 
given  us  Notwithstanding  the  warning  the  Church  hath  given  against 
such  communion  with  them  as  that  which  would  be  very  offensive  to 
them  We  do  declare,  therefore  we  cannot  have  communion  with 
such  of  ours  at  the  Lord's  table  who  have  and  do  communicate  with 
them,  untill  they  give  us  satisfaction,  they  having  broken  that  rule  :  1 
Cor:  10:  32. * 

James  Allen 
James  Pen 

28  :  (2)  1670 

The  new  Church  had  a  meeting  and  voted  this  following  letter  to 
be  sent  by  three  Brethren  to  the  old  Church  which  was  delivered  the 
next  day  to  Mr.  James  Allen,  who  in  presence  of  Captaine  Savage, 
Mr.  Usher,  and  Josh :  Scottow  promised  to  communicate  it  to  the 
Church. 

To  the  Honourd  Reverend  and  dearely  beloved,  the  first  gathred  Church 

in  Boston. 

Grace  mercy  and  peace  be  multiplyed. 

This  humbly  presents  itself  to  your  candid  acceptance,  as  an  an- 
swer to  that  which  you  directed  to  our  Pastor  (a  coppie  whereof  you 
sent  to  the  messengers  of  the  Churches  met  at  that  ordination)  for 
the  whole  assembly,  it  was  not  publiquely  read,  true,  that  is  not  to  be 
imputed  to  us  alone,  the  messengers  of  the  Churches  judged  that 
there  was  nothing  in  it,  that  could  justly  retard  our  proceeding  : 

when  we  revolve  the  comforts  of  love  and  fellowship  of  the  spirit 
we  enjoyed  so  long  in  one  society  with  you,  wee  account  it  our  afflic- 
tion that  we  were  necessitated  soe  to  depart  from  you,  yet  we  esteem  it 
no  boldnes  but  duty  thankfully  to  owne  the  favour  of  God  in  the  con- 
sent of  so  many  magistrates  Elders  and  Churches  with  their  prayers 
and  blessing  at  our  Church  gathering  and  in  providing  such  officers 
for  us,  your  objections  against  the  ordination  of  them  center  in  this 
question,  whither  our  peaceable  secession  were  lawfull  or  no. 

To  cleare  the  affirmative  we  pray  you  to  consider  us  as  if  it  were 
the  case  of  yourselves  in  particular,  or  of  others  in  whome  you  are  in 
no  wayes  concerned. 

1  ["  Give  none  offence,  neither  to  the  church  of  God."  We  find  this  vote  in 
Jews,  nor   to   the  Gentiles,    nor   to   the     the  record  book  of  the  Third  Church.] 


REPLY  TO   THE  FIRST   CHURCH.  171 

first  we  doubt  not  but  it  is  the  liberty  of  all  the  Brethren  of  a  Church, 
in  all  Church  affaires,  which  are  to  be  mannaged  by  the  brethren  espe- 
cially in  the  choice  of  their  owne  officers  to  consent  or  dissent  upon 
scripture  grounds,  as  they  are  fully  persuaded  in  their  owne  mindes, 
in  which  liberty  we  as  well  as  others  ought  to  stand  fast :  Gall :  5  :  1  : 
of  this  liberty  were  we  deprived,  on  the  10th  day  of  6th  moneth  1668 
when  you  renewd  your  call  of  Reverend  Mr.  Davenport  to  teaching 
office,  and  he  fully  accepted  of  it,  as  by  the  Churchs  letter  of  New 
Haven  dated  12  :  (8)  1668  doth  appeare,  as  they  writ  from  his  owne 
letter  to  them,  and  that  was  done  unanimously  as  he  saith,  which  ar- 
gueth  that  we  were  not  owned  as  having  any  inthrest  with  you,  whose 
dissent  you  know  in  the  matter,  and  how  we  were  excluded  and 
secluded  by  you,  we  shall  omit  other  times  wherein  we  were  not  called 
to  your  Church  meetings,  counsells,  and  transactions,  in  that  affaire, 
with  other  greivances  which  we  could  alledge,  neither  doe  we  know 
any  rule  or  example  in  the  word,  that  a  ruling  elder  or  elders  with  the 
Major  part  of  the  Church  have  any  such  power  to  impose  officers 
upon  the  minor  part,  being  many  of  their  Brethren  dissenting,  and  to 
compell  them  to  submit  to  and  abide  under  their  authority. 

2ly  we  desire  you  to  consider  how  far  the  chief  reasons  have  been 
cleared  up  to  be  just  by  the  providence  of  God  as  first  we  were  unsat- 
isfyed  about  Reverend  mr.  Davenport  leaving  of  his  Church  at  New 
haven  without  their  consent,  yourselves  allso  professed  that  without . 
their  dismission  you  would  not  proceed,  yea  that  being  once  denyed  by 
them  you  would  insist  no  further  on  that  motion,  but  now  it  is  mani- 
fest that  your  renewed  and  confirmed  election  was  acted  before  you 
had  any  colour  of  their  dismission,  yea  by  that  letter  which  was  con- 
cealed, they  wholly  and  that  from  principles  of  conscience  denyed  to 
grant  any  dismission,  yea  in  their  last  letter  out  of  which  was  extracted 
so  much  as  might  carry  some  show  of  a  dismission,  they  expressely 
denyed  it,  and  that  upon  solid  arguments,  they  could  not  in  conscience 
grant  a  dismission  to  him,  though  indeed  its  true,  there  was  in  it  an 
humble  submission  of  him  to  the  providence  of  God,  in  a  professed, 
involuntary  leaving  of  him  and  yourselves,  to  proceed  in  that  which 
they  had  no  power  though  a  right  to  hinder  you  from.  Our  second 
chief  reason  was  from  our  solemn  ingagement  to  have  our  seed  owned 
as  members  under  the  watch  and  discipline  of  the  Church,  and  you 
know  how  the  Elders  acted  in  the  face  of  the  Church  in  the  case  of 
Brother  Negus  daughter,  even  without  any  vote  of  the  Church,  where- 
by we  perceive  how  we  should  be  deprived  of  that  right  which  to  our 
consciences  is  just  and  necessary. 

Thirdly  considering  the   sentence   of  the  Councill  called  by  your- 
selves wholly,  against  which  and  the  defence  thereof  you 
never  gave  any  reason  for  your  non  attendance  thereunto, 
according  to  which  we  soe   sesnably  and   often  by  our   humble  ad- 


172  HISTORY  OF   THE    OLD   SOUTH   CHURCH. 

dresses  to  the  Church  desired  our  dismission,  and  with  much  patience 
waited  untill  we  were  denyed  by  the  vote  of  the  Church  and  attempts 
made  to  intangle  us  for  our  laboring  after  it ;  whereupon  we  saw  no 
other  way  but  to  crave  the  councill  of  Churches  what  we  ought  to  doe 
in  such  a  case,  the  assembling  of  the  eleven  Churches  by  their  mes- 
sengers being  a  lawful  Councill,  as  having  all  the  causes  of  a  Coun- 
cill, see  Platf :  Disc  :  ch  :  16  :  sect :  2  :  their  result  you  know,  and  the 
grounds  and  reasons  of  it  from  the  word  you  never  answerd,  all 
these  things  considered,  it  is  manifest  that  our  secession  was  upon 
just  and  necessary  grounds,  and  acted  not  rashly  or  onely  upon  our 
owne  heads  and  wills  (as  your  letter  unjustly  and  untrewly  affirms) 
but  upon  mature  deliberation,  and  upon  the  grave  and  sound  advice 
of  the  Churches  by  their  Elders  and  messengers  unanimously  agreeing 
togither,  we  owne  the  Ministeriall  power  of  Churches,  soe  long  as  they 
act  by  the  rules  of  the  supreme  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  but  the  exer- 
cise of  such  an  absolute  power  over  the  members  of  Christ  to  deny 
them  their  lawfull  liberties,  and  to  hold  them  as  in  a  prison,  desiring 
their  dismission  upon  just  reason,  this  we  cannot  beleive,  nor  could 
our  submission  to  your  officers,  had  we  bin  forced  to  it,  stand  with  our 
peace  and  edification,  If  the  Apostles  assumed  no  power  but  unto 
edification,  not  as  Lords  of  the  peoples  faith  but  helpers  of  their  joy, 
why  should  any  Church  ascribe  more  unto  themselves  over  their 
Brethren,  consider  doe  they  not  break  Covenant  with  them  that  doe 
soe.  neither  can  we  beleive  but  that  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  hath  pro- 
vided a  remedy  for  his  Saints  injured  in  his  Church,  as  well  as  to  pre- 
serve the  power  of  a  Major  part,  which  remedy  being  left  Acts:  15  : 
we  ha[ve]  duely  attended  :  which  case  of  ours  in  making  a  peaceable 
secession,  and  which  remedy  of  Councill  of  Churches  is  generally 
allowed  by  the  divines  of  the  Congregational  way,  as  may  be  proved 
from  Mr.  Davenports  Apollogie,  and  the  writings  of  others  but  Mr. 
Norton  to  Apollonius  may  be  consulted  (if  need  be)  page  55.  and  our 
Platform  of  Disc,  ch  :  13  :  8:2:3:4:  when  a  member  may  lawfully 
remove,  the  Church  cannot  lawfully  deteine  him,  &c. 

Our  secession  being  thus  cleared  up  not  onely  to  ourselves,  but  to 
the  impartiall  judgement  of  soe  many  Churches  by  their  messengers 
the  objections  in  your  letter  doe  fall  of  themselves,     for. 

first  thence  it  followeth  that  Mr.  Thatcher  is  not  under  blame  in 
joyning  himself  unto  this  our  Church,  neither  our  Elder  nor  our  dea- 
cons. 

2ly  nor  is  our  Church  incapable  of  electing  officers,  and  accept- 
ing of  them.  As  for  the  lawes  of  the  Commonweale  we  find  no  such 
thing  in  them,  that  should  hinder  our  proceeding,  having  had  the  con- 
sent of  7  magistrates  and  5  Churches  to  our  Church  state,  no  Church 
or  magistrate  objecting  against  us,  but  those  who  were  members  of 
your  Church  who  were  the  parties  necessitating  us  to  proceed  as  we 


MR.   DAVENPORT'S  SUCCESSOR.  1 73 

have  done,  the  other  three  magistrates  with  them  onely  declaring  their 
desire  of  our  desisting  at  the  present,  therefore  to  us  it  seems  some- 
thing hard  and  very  groundlesse,  that  we  are  represented  by  you  as 
disaffected  and  prejudiciall  to  the  commonwealth  for  no  other  cause, 
your  other  sharp  expressions,  hard  censures,  bitter  invectives,  and  un- 
just reproches,  we  very  willingly  passe  by,  knowing  that  love  is  not 
easily  provoked,  desiring  rather  to  overcome  such  evill  with  good,  and 
to  commit  ourselves  unto  the  Lord  who  judgeth  righteously,  and  soe 
intreating  the  renewing  of  your  brotherly  love  towards  us,  with  the 
most  hearty  profession  of  our  sincere  brotherly  love  to  you,  and  desire 
that  once  at  length,  through  the  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  we  may  have 
all  our  uncomfortable  differences  and  distances  totaly  carryed  into 
the  land  of  forgitfullnes,  and  buryed  in  everlasting  oblivion,  that  we 
may  not  be  necessitated  to  insist  on  things  more  particularly  which 
we  are  unwilling  to  doe,  humbly  crave  leave  to  subscribe,  as  we  are 
indeed. 

Your  poor  afflicted  yet  affectionate  Brethren  in  the  Lord, 
the  third  gatherd  Church  in  Boston,  with  our  consent  and 
by  our  appointment  under  the  hands  of  our  Elders. 

Tho  :  Thatcher 
Edw  :  Rainsford 
Boston,  28  :  2  1670 

To  the  Reverend  and  dearely  beloved  Mr.  James  Allen  Teacher 
and  Mr.  James  Pen  Ruling  Elder  of  the  first  gatherd  Church  in  Bos- 
ton these  for  the  Church  humbly  present. 

Now  that  Mr.  Davenport  was  dead,  and  a  minister  —  Mr. 
Oxenbridge  l —  had  been  installed  as  his  successor  who  had  not 
been  involved  in  any  way  in  the  controversy,  it  might  have  been 
expected  that  terms  of  reconciliation  between  the  two  churches 
would  speedily  be  agreed  upon  ;  but  Mr.  Allen  and  Mr.  Penn 
were  thoroughly  committed  to  Mr.  Davenport's  cause,  and  Gov- 
ernor Bellingham  and  his  friends  were  hard  to  conciliate.  It 
was  true  that  the  new  church  was  an  accomplished  fact,  and 
that  the  seceding  brethren  were  lost  forever  to  the  parent 
church  ;  but  the  personality  and  bitterness  of  the  controversy 
had  been  intensified  by  the  political  complications  which  had 
arisen,  and  as  the  anti-synodists  were  for  the  moment  carrying 
all  before  them  in  the  General  Court,  the  members  of  the  First 

1  In  1669  Mr.  Oxenbridge  preached  for  vices  at  the  formation  of  the  Third 
the  First  Church  in  Charlestown,  and  Church,  which  took  place  in  Charlestown, 
was  invited  to  become  one  of  its  minis-  May  12, 1669,  asking  God  that  the  infant 
ters.  It  will  be  remembered  that  he  church  might  live  to  condemn  its  con- 
offered  prayer  at   the  close    of   the  ser-  demners. 


174  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

Church  would  consent  to  no  basis  of  adjustment  that  did  not 
involve  confession  and  humiliation  on  the  part  of  their  former 
brethren.  It  appears  from  the  records  —  not  from  the  Narra- 
tive—  that  on  the  ist  of  August  Mr.  Thacher,  by  authority, 
submitted  the  following  "Essay  for  Accommodation  :  "  — 

We  the  Elder  and  brethren  of  the  third  church  of  Boston,  being 
sensible  of  the  dishonour  of  the  holy  name  of  God,  and  greif  on  the 
hearts  of  God's  people,  occasioned  by  the  late  divisions,  and  desiring 
that  the  God  of  love  and  peace  may  dwell  among  us  :  Do  declare  — 
that  to  us  the  known  congregationall  way  contained  for  substance  in 
the  platforme  of  discipline  is  the  very  order  of  the  gospell.  And  pro- 
fessing ourreadines,  upon  conviction,  to  acknowledge  anything  wherein 
we  have  through  infirmity  swerved  from  this  rule  in  this  houre  of 
temptation,  tho'  now  we  see  it  not,  And,  earnestly  desiring  the  Lord 
to  pardon  what  he  hath  seen  amiss  on  either  hand,  in  any  part  of  this 
transaction,  do  freely  tender  fully  to  passe  by  whatsoever  hath  been 
anyways  greivouse  or  offensive  unto  us.  And  further  intreating  our 
brethren  of  the  first  gathred  church  to  dismisse  unto  us  those  who 
being  of  our  mind  have  still  held  communion  with  us  if  they  still 
desire  it,  do  hereby  testify  our  resolution  what  in  us  lys  to  walk  on  in 
brotherly  love  and  communion  with  the  said  first  church  of  Boston  as 
becometh  the  churches  of  Christ  so  neerly  related. 

This  is  a  true  Copy  of  the  Essay  for  accommodation  between  the 
first  and  third  gathred  church  in  Boston,  delivered  in  in  writing  to  Mr. 
Oxenbridge  to  be  considered  of,  on  the  i.  6.  1670,  in  the  presence  of 
Elder  Edward  Ransford  by  Mr 

Thomas  Thacher.1 

This  overture  was  not  satisfactory.  In  the  church  records 
we  find,  in  the  handwriting  of  Mr.  Thacher,  a  copy  of  a  paper 
which  had  been  sent  by  the  First  Church  for  the  consideration 
and  adoption  of  the  seceding  brethren,  and  to  which  the  com- 
munication of  August  1  was  a  reply  :2  — 

We  the  Elders  and  brethren  of  the  3d  Church  of  Christ  in  Boston, 
being  sensible  of  the  dishonour  of  God  and  the  sad  consequensys  of 

1  [A  few  years  later,  the  Rev.  Peter         2  These  papers  appear  in  the  records 

Thacher,    of   Milton,   son   of    the    Rev.  of   the  Third    Church,  in  the  order  in 

Thomas    Thacher,    married    Theodora,  which  they  are  printed  in  the  text,  al- 

daughter  of  the  Rev.  John  Oxenbridge.  though  the   proposition   drafted  by  the 

Their  son,   Oxenbridge  Thacher,  was  a  First  Church  bears  the  earlier  date.     It 

member  of  the  Old  South  Church.    His  was  on  this,  probably,  that   the   Essay 

name  furnishes  a  happy  illustration  of  for  Accommodation,  submitted   by  Mr. 

the  completeness  of   the   reconciliation  Thacher,  was  based,  and  it  was  entered  on 

which  at  length  was  brought  to  pass  be-  the  Third  Church  records  as  explanatory 

tween  the  two  long-alienated  churches.]  of  the  negotiation. 


'  ~J\iom*{  /Sit*1*  • 


ESSAY    FOR    ACCOMMODATION- 


"  ESS  A  Y  FOR  A  CCOMMODA  TIONP  1 75 

the  late  divisions,  and  desiring  that  the  God  of  peace  and  love  may 
dwell  amongst  us  to  this  end  we  do  own  freely 

1  That  every  particular  church  of  Christ  endowed  with  a  teaching 
officer  or  officers,  hath  received  immediately  from  Christ,  all  Eccle- 
siasticall  power  of  jurisdiction  within  itself. 

2  That  this  power  is  ministeriall  and  to  be  exercized  only  according 
to  the  rules  of  Christ  and  for  aedification. 

3  We  own  ourselves  men  of  infirmitys  and  therefore  wherein  through 
weaknes  in  the  hour  of  temptation  we  have  swerved  from  any  of  the 
rules  above  said,  we  desire  and  tender  mutuall  forgivenesse  betwixt 
our  brethren  and  ourselves 

4  We  desire,  and  hereupon  purpose,  by  the  grace  of  Christ  hence- 
forth to  walk  in  brotherly  love  and  communion  with  our  brethren  as 
becometh  the  churches  of  Christ. 

Received  from  Major  Lusher  24  4  70  to  be  considered  of  by  myself 
and  our  Elder,  in  order  to  an  accommodation  between  the  churches : 
which  not  being  accepted  by  the  elders  1  — 

This  proposition  explains,  in  part  at  least,  the  arbitrary  atti- 
tude taken  by  the  First  Church  in  dealing  with  the  brethren 
who  disapproved  of  the  call  given  to  Mr.  Davenport,  which  had 
become  the  controlling  issue  in  the  controversy.  The  majority 
in  that  church  claimed  for  it,  as  an  independent  and  duly  organ- 
ized ecclesiastical  body,  supreme  and  final  jurisdiction  over  its 
members.  It  was  distinctly  stated  at  one  of  its  meetings  that 
there  was  no  relief  for  an  aggrieved  brother,  or  for  aggrieved 
brethren,  in  a  church,  unless  the  church  would  relieve  them, 
until  the  day  of  judgment,  and  that,  in  the  interim,  the  church 
itself  was  the  sole  and  alone  judge.2  Governor  Bellingham,  in 
his  will,  made  two  years  later,  provided,  among  other  objects, 
for  the  establishment  of  a  lectureship  on  "church  discipline 
according  to  the  will  of  God,"  and  enjoined  upon  his  trustees 

1  [Among   the  papers    of    the    Mass.  churches  of  Christ  being  much  easd  in 

Hist.  Society  we  find  a  fragment  in  the  our  spirits  and  fears  by  the  profession  of 

handwriting  of  Mr.  Thacher,  as  follows  :  the    Congregationall    principalis  placing 

"Expressions  for  the  first  church.  Ecclesiasticall  Jurisdiction  in  theCongre- 

"  3  That  we  are  men  of  infirmity  and  gation  only  not  in  any  man  or  men  with- 

therefore  wherein   in    the  sight  of  God  out  it,  which  we  hope  they  will  conscien- 

we  have  swerved  from  that  rule  by  any  tiously  practise,  and  that  they  will   be 

undue  administration  to  or  in  our  trans-  watchfull  about  receiving  their  members 

actions  with  our  brethren  of    the  third  as  we  desire  to  be  that  our  communion 

Church  we  desire  pardon  of   the  Lord  may  be  pure  and  we  shall  be  willing  to 

and   forgiveness    of    our    brethren    and  answer  them    in    the    desire  concerning 

desire    for  the    future    to    pass   by  all  such  of  ours  as  have  been  under  offence 

offences  in   them,  and   to  hold  commu-  to  us  for  partaking  with  them."] 
nion    with   them    as   we   do  with   other         2  See  ante,  pp.  53,  56,  57. 


176  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

to  select  for  the  purpose,  from  time  to  time,  some  godly  min- 
ister, whom  they  should  judge  to  be  faithful  to  the  principles 
owned  and  practised  by  the  First  Church  in  Boston.  Of  these 
principles,  said  he,  a  main  one  is  that  all  ecclesiastical  juris- 
diction is  committed  by  Christ  to  each  particular  "  organicall " 
church,  from  which  there  is  no  appeal,  "  visible  saintship  being 
the  matter  and  express  covenanting  the  form  of  the  church." 
This  principle,  as  understood  and  enforced  by  him,  gave  to  each 
particular  church  that  degree  of  authority  over  the  individual 
member  and  over  his  conscience  which  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land, as  a  national  establishment,  exercised  over  each  particu- 
lar congregation  as  well  as  over  each  individual  ;  and  its  effect 
was  to  leave  a  minority,  and  especially  an  individual,  altogether 
and  hopelessly  at  the  mercy  of  the  majority.  To  such  a  theory 
the  founders  of  the  Third  Church  would  not  for  a  moment  con- 
sent. We  have  already  considered  their  position  as  a  protest 
against  undue  interference,  on  the  part  of  the  government  of  the 
colony,  with  their  rights  as  Christian  men  ;  we  come  now  to  see 
its  bearings  upon  the  relations  of  church  institutions  to  those 
rights.  The  tyranny  of  ecclesiasticism  is  no  less  dangerous 
than  that  of  the  state,  and  it  is  much  more  insidious  in  its 
encroachments.  The  domination  of  the  lord  bishops  had  been 
thrown  off ;  and  the  time  was  come,  to  borrow  the  language  of 
William  Blackstone,  when  a  stand  was  to  be  taken  against  the 
arbitrary  power  of  the  "lord  brethren."  The  minority  in  the 
First  Church  had  not  sought  to  interfere  with  the  preferences 
and  prerogatives  of  the  majority  ;  they  had  insisted  only  upon 
their  own  right  peaceably  to  withdraw  from  the  membership,  — 
to  dissent  and  to  separate  from  a  local  church,  as  the  men  on 
both  sides  of  this  controversy,  or  their  fathers,  only  a  few  years 
before,  had  dissented  and  separated  from  a  national  church  be- 
yond the  sea.  The  formation  of  the  earlier  churches  in  Massa- 
chusetts was  an  assertion  of  the  rights  of  conscience  for  each 
congregation  of  believers ;  the  formation  of  the  Third  Church 
in  Boston  was  an  assertion  of  the  same  rights  for  the  individ- 
ual believer,  to  be  exercised  always  in  the  full  recognition  of 
the  coequal  rights  of  every  other  believer,  and  of  the  majority 
in  the  membership. 

This  statement  of  the  case  makes  less  unaccountable  the  per- 
sistent severity  of  the  First  Church  in  its  dealings  with  the 
dissenting  brethren.  It  explains,  also,  why  these  brethren  did 
not  at  once  take  their  wives  with  them  into  the  fellowship  of 


AN  EARNEST  APPEAL  FOR  PEACE.  177 

the  new  church.  They  wished  to  bear  the  brunt  of  the  conflict 
themselves,  and  they  thought,  no  doubt,  that  their  church  once 
fully  organized,  and  the  ordinances  of  the  gospel  established 
among  them,  no  prolonged  opposition  would  be  made  to  the 
members  of  their  families  in  following  them. 

That  the  views  of  Governor  Bellingham  and  his  associates 
did  not  prevail  generally  among  the  churches  of  the  colony  we 
may  infer  from  the  action  of  the  councils  which  favored  and 
assisted  at  the  formation  of  the  Third  Church,  and  from  the 
opinion  of  the  elders  who,  at  a  later  day,  passed  upon  the  case 
of  the  excellent  women  who  for  four  or  five  years  had  no  com- 
plete and  regular  standing  either  in  the  old  church  or  the  new. 

We  return  again  to  the  Narrative. 

This  ensuing  letter  allso  was  sent 
To  the  first  gathered  Church  in  Boston,  grace  mercy  and  peace  from 

God  our  Father  and  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 
Honoured  Reverend  and  Beloved  in  our  deare  Lord  yesus 

Laying  to  heart  in  our  measure  the  sad  consequences  of  our  late 
divisions  as  occasioning  great  thoughts  of  heart  to  Gods  prudent 
faithfull  servants,  discomfort  to  ourselves,  advantage  to  evill,  disadvan- 
tage to  the  common  good  and  soe  dishonour  to  Gods  holy  name  which 
is  called  upon  his  people,  by  their  being  and  continuance  in  their 
alienations,  and  desiring  that  the  God  of  love  and  peace  may  dwell 
among  us  and  manifest  his  gracious  presence  with  us,  by  removing 
these  uncomfortable  alienations  and  restoring  that  love  and  peace 
which  is  soe  needful  for  us. 

Wee  after  our  humble  supplications  to  God  make  this  affectionate 
addresse  unto  yourselves,  that  we  may  what  in  us  lyes  indeavor  after 
these  things  which  may  most  conduce  unto  our  mutuall  peace,  strength 
and  comfort  in  asserting  and  practising  the  same  truth  of  the  gospel! 
concerning  matters  of  faith  and  order,  as  it  is  professed  by  these 
Churches  we  intreat  you  therfore  to  judge  no  otherwise  of  us,  but 
that  we  are  set  (we  speak  it  awfully)  for  the  same  truth  of  the  gospell : 
we  have  solemnely  professed  and  doe  professe  that  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  hath  given  a  perfect  patterne  of  his  house  in  the  New  testa- 
ment, of  all  the  commings  in  thereof  and  of  all  the  goings  out  thereof, 
of  all  the  formes  thereof,  and  of  all  the  ordinances  thereof,  and  of  all 
the  lawes  thereof,  to  which  nothing  is  to  be  added,  from  it  nothing 
may  be  taken  away  on  any  pretence  whatsoever,  and  that  everie 
organicall  Church  hath  all  ecclesiasticall  jurisdiction  within  itself, 
by  Christs  appointment  for  the  regular  administration  of  all  these 
ordinances  and  execution  of  all  these  lawes,  as  allso  that  this  power 
is  Ministerial!,  and  to  be  exercised  according  to  the  rules  of  Christ 


178  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

explained  for  substance  in  the  platforme  of  discipline,  considering  allso 
that  we  are  men  of  infirmity  who  have  cause  humbly  to  confesse  with 
holy  James  that  in  many  things  we  offend  all,  and  with  holy  David 
to  cry  Lord  cleanse  us  from  our  secret  sins,  we  doe  therfore  where- 
insoever in  this  houre  of  temptation,  we  have  through  weakenes  in 
the  sight  of  God  swarved  from  any  of  his  holy  rules,  in  this  transac- 
tion between  us  and  you  desire  pardon  of  the  Lord  and  allso  forgive- 
nes  of  you  our  Brethren  in  whatsoever  hath  bin  greivous  to  you, 
and  earnestly  desire  that  there  may  be  Brotherly  love  and  mutuall 
communion  between  us  and  you  for  the  future,  as  there  is  between 
you  and  other  Churches  of  Christ  who  have  given  unto  us  the  right 
hand  of  fellowship,  and  we  further  intreat  that  those  of  you  who  for 
holding  Communion  with  us  are  forbidden  Communion  with  yourselves, 
may  have  their  favorable  and  loving  dismission  unto  ourselves,  accord- 
ing to  their  desire  thereof,  which  if  you  grant  unto  us,  we  trust  in  the 
Lord  it  shall  never  be  greif  of  heart  unto  you  afterward,  but  matter 
of  rejoycing  and  great  consolation  to  all  that  feare  God,  not  onely  in 
this  Church  but  in  all  the  Churches  of  the  Saints,  who  shall  therby  per- 
ceive that  God  is  present  with  his  Churches  to  heale  their  wounds,  and 
bind  up  their  breaches,  and  others  that  are  enimies  will  be  much  cast 
downe  in  their  owne  eyes,  perceiving  that  this  worke  was  wrought  of 
God,  now  God  even  our  God  blesse  us,  you  and  all  his  poore  Churches 
with  his  owne  presence,  that  the  trumpetters  and  singers  being  as  one, 
to  make  one  sound  to  be  heard  in  thanksgiving  and  praysing  the  Lord, 
saying  for  he  is  good  for  his  mercy  indureth  for  ever,  his  owne  house 
may  be  filled  with  the  cloud,  and  manifest  gracious  testimonies  of  his 
owne  glory,  to  the  furtherance  of  the  everlasting  joy  and  consolation 
of  his  people,  we  shall  add  no  more  but  that  you  are  in  our  hearts  to 
die  and  to  live  with  you  in  that  Capacity  wherein  the  Lord  hath  set 
us,  therfore  praying  for  the  peace  of  Jerusalem,  and  the  peace  of  God 
to  be  within  our  walls,  we  comend  ourselves  to  the  Candour  of  your 
Brotherly  love,  you  and  ourselves  to  the  grace  of  our  heavenly  ffather 
in  Christ  Jesus,  in  whome  we  heartily  subscribe  ourselves. 
Your  Brethren  and  servants  in  the  gospell. 

Tho  :  Thatcher 
Edw  :  Rainsford 

28  :  (10.)  1670 

In  the  name  and  by  the  appointment  of  the  rest  of  our  Brethren. 

This  letter  sent  was  superscribed  To  all  the  ruling  Elders  for  to  be 
communicated  to  the  Church  the  Church  being  to  meet  upon  some  other 
occasion  the  next  day,  but  the  Elders  were  not  pleased  to  read  it  unto 
the  Churcfr,  but  onely  told  them  they  had  a  letter  from  the  Brethren 
that  went  out  from  them,  but  had  no  time  then  to  read  it.  neither  did 
they  read  it  the  Lords  day  following,  yet  comunicated  it  to  sundry 


RESPONSE   OF  THE  FIRST   CHURCH.  1 79 

Brethren  in  private,  but  in  the  conclusion  they  sent  this  following 
letter  but  did  not  send  it  to  the  new  Church  but  to  three  messengers 
which  carryed  the  new  Churches  letter  to  the  Elders  of  the  old  Church 
and  unto  them  they  superscribed  and  delivered  the  letter  which  en- 
sueth. 

Beloved  Brethren 

wee  desire  in  our  measure  to  lay  to  heart  not  onely  the  sad  Conse- 
quences of  your  late  division  from  us,  but  much  more  the  sinfull 
causes  of  it,  which  have  provoked  the  Lord  to  leave  any  of  his  to  doe 
that  which  is  such  a  dishonour  to  his  name,  and  grief  to  his  pruden[t] 
and  faithfull  servants,  and  soe  disadvantageous  to  the  Common  good 
and  adva[n]tageous  to  evill  doers,  that  the  God  of  love  and  peace  may 
dwell  amon[g]  us  and  by  his  gracious  presence  remove  any  uncom- 
fortable alienations  in  you  is  our  daily  supplication  at  the  throne  of 
grace,  but  it  is  not  unknowne  to  you,  that  the  fruit  of  such  a  presence 
is  to  make  mercy  and  truth  to  meet,  and  righteousness  and  peace  to 
salute  each  other,  and  therfore  where  the  one  is  sincerely  desired,  the 
other  wil[l]  be  studiously  indeavourd,  that  we  may  manifest  our  true 
Love  to  both  we  onely  remind  you  and  that  with  all  tendernes  what  we 
have  formerly  written  in  our  last  to  you,  to  Convince  of  your  irregular 
departure  from  us,  the  rules  which  you  have  broken  are  there  men- 
tioned and  we  Judge  ought  to  have  bin  better  Considered  by  you,  and 
due  satisfaction  tendered  that  soe  our  pursute  of  peace  might  further 
our  holiness,  and  make  way  for  our  mutuall  enjoyment  of  God  in  and 
with  one  another,  we  for  your  further  conviction  referr  you  to  the 
scriptures  quoted  in  the  margent,  which  you  may  see  ex- 
plained in  the  platforme  of  discipline,  Ch  :  3  :  Sect  11:2:  pr*::  "■** 
3.  4.  5.  the  truth  whereof  is  acknowledged  by  you,  were  £°™  ;„^ 5^22. 
it  soe  that  your  hearts  did  returne,  to  those  truthes  which    Ephes:  5:  n. 

J  ,  Acts.  9 :  25.  3<x 

you   have  formerly  practised  with  us,  and   now  in   yours   U:,8:  1: 

,     [Nehem]:  13. 

prof  esse,  from  which  you  have  departed  in  this  noure  ot      10. 
temptation,  we  hope  through  the  grace  of  Christ  you  shall   Rom?i6f'i7a 
find  us  not  onely  as  before  such  as  are  taught  of  God  to   fcuphe;  4°'2:3. 
love  you,  but  to  doe  it  more  and  more,  and  to  rejoice  in   GaSUVi'iz. 
Communion  with  you,  how  far  (your  confessing  your  secret 
sins  or  those  committed  in  the  sight  of  God  which  we  are  not  ac- 
quainted with  nor  capable   of   forgiving)   is  from    any   such  hearty 
returne  unto  the  Lord   and   to  your   Brethren,   that  have    solemnly 
warned  you  from  him  ought  sadly  to  be  considered,  we  cannot  without 
wrong  to  the  truth  we  are  set  for  the  defence  of  nor  to  ourselves,  nor 
you,  nay  we  feare  the  Lord  will  be  further  provoked  against  us,  should 
we  admit  accomodation  without  him,  contrary  to  what  we  have  sol- 
emnely  witnessed  unto  which  without  any  ground  for  alteration  in  our 
mindes  concerning  it,  nor  are  we  concerned  for  ourselves  alone  but 


180  HISTORY  OF   THE   OLD   SOUTH  CHURCH. 

have  cause  to  feare  if  this  wound  be  slitely  healed,  that  hath  been 
made  by  your  irregular  departure  from  us,  that  it  will  prove  destruc- 
tive to  all  the  Churches  of  Christ  among  us,  therfore  we  desire  to 
heare  no  more  of  this  matter  untill  the  Lord  shall  let  you  see  your 
deviation  from  these  rules  and  acknowledge  and  repaire  them  we 
then  hope  we  shall  be  as  ready  to  receive  you,  as  you  shall  be  to  de- 
sire it,  in  the  meane  time  we  shall  earnestly  pray  to  the  ffather  of 
lights  to  open  your  eyes  that  you  may  rightly  understand  the  way  of 
peace,  and  to  bow  our  hearts  more  and  more  to  carry  it  soe  to  you,  as 
we  may  have  further  reconciliation  and  such  a  love  that  the  Lord  will 
blesse  and  owne  we  are 

Your  Loving  Brethren  in  the  Lord 
dated  16  (n)  1670  John  Oxenbridge  Pa[stor] 

James  Allen 
James  Pen 
John  Wiswell  Jun 
In  the  name  and  with  the  consent  of  all  the  Brethren  : 
Superscribed  to  Captaine  Tho  :  Savage.  Lieutenant  Josh :  Scottow 
and  Mr.  Tho  :  Brattle  to  be  communicated  to  the  rest  of  the  Brethren 
who  departed  from  us. 

The  new  church,  notwithstanding  these  drawbacks  to  its  hap- 
piness, prospered  under  the  faithful  ministry  of  Mr.  Thacher, 
who  was  greatly  and  deservedly  esteemed,  and  was  among  the 
most  popular  preachers  in  the  colony.  His  sermons  are  said  to 
have  been  elaborate  in  preparation  and  affectionate  in  spirit.1 
He  preached  twice  on  the  Sabbath,  and  maintained  lectures  on 
other  days  of  the  week.  He  was  diligent  in  instructing  the 
children  and  youth  of  his  charge,  and  he  prepared  and  printed 
a  catechism  for  their  use.     But  we  are  told  the  "  excellency  that 

1  Soon  after  Mr.  Thacher's  installation  "  These  breasts  are  by  some  thought  the 
he  preached  a  course  of  sermons  on  the  old  and  new  testament ;  by  others,  mild- 
Canticles.  As  we  write,  we  have  before  ness,  simplicity,  purity  of  heart  and  life; 
us  the  notes  of  one  of  these  sermons,  in  by  others,  doctrine  in  the  church  for  ex- 
his  own  neat  handwriting,  upon  small  hortation,  etc. ;  by  others,  for  the  min- 
sheets  of  paper,  brown  with  age,  which  istry  sent  forth  of  Christ  by  two  and 
have  been  in  the  possession  of  seven  two,  and  appointed  pastors  and  teachers. 
Peter  Thachers  in  the  direct  line  of  de-  All  these  may  well  stand  together  in 
scent,  and  which  have  been  given  to  their  respective  applications  to  several 
the  church  for  whose  instruction  they  subjects,  and  so  may  it  also  respecting 
were  originally  prepared,  by  Mr.  Peter  particular  persons  be  taken  for  their 
Thacher,  of  Sanford,  Florida.  This  ser-  profession  and  practise,  both  sweetly  an- 
mon  was  preached  April  24,  1670,  from  swering  the  rule."  The  doctrine  of  the 
Cant.  iv.  5 :  "  Thy  two  breasts  are  as  sermon  is  :  "  Ministers  in  union  feeding 
two  young  roes  that  are  twins,  which  the  flock  and  themselves  according  to 
feed  among  the  lilies."  We  quote  a  rule,  are  unto  the  church  an  excellent 
few  of    the   quaint  opening   sentences:  ornament  in  the  sight  of  Christ." 


LETTER  FROM   THE   PLYMOUTH   CHURCH.  l8l 

shined  above  the  other  glories  of  his  ministry"  was  that  "he 
was  a  person  much  in  prayer ;  and  as  he  was  much  in  prayer,  so 
he  had  an  eminency  above  most  men  living,  for  his  copious,  his 
fluent,  his  fervent  manner  of  performing  that  sacred  exercise." 
During  the  first  year  of  his  pastorate  there  were  between  forty 
and  fifty  accessions  to  the  membership,  many  of  them  by  letters 
from  other  churches. 

One  of  the  first  churches  to  extend  its  hand  in  Christian 
fellowship  to  the  Third  Church,  after  the  installation  of  Mr. 
Thacher,  by  dismissing  and  recommending  members  to  its  com- 
munion, was  the  church  of  the  Mayflower  Pilgrims,  the  church 
originally  of  Scrooby  and  of  Leyden.1  John  Winslow2  and 
his  wife  —  Mary  Chilton  of  the  Mayflower  —  moved  to  Boston 
in  167 1,  and  purchased  property  in  Spring  Lane,  near  Mrs. 
Norton's  house.  They  brought  the  following  letter  from  the 
Plymouth  Church,  commending  them  and  their  baptized  chil- 
dren to  the  watch  and  care  of  the  Third  Church  :  — 

To  the  third  gathered  church  of  christ  in  Boston  Grace  mercy  and 
peace  from  God  our  father,  and  from  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  be 
multiplyed. 
Reverend  and  Dearely  Beloved  in  the  Lord 

Whereas  by  the  Providence  of  the  only  wise  God,  in  whose  hand 
are  all  our  times  and  wayes,  our  beloved  brother  and  sister,  viz  Mr. 
John  Winslow  and  Mary  his  wife  have  their  settled  habitation  amongst 
you,  and  wee  seeing  no  hopes  of  their  returne  unto  us,  they  having 
also  manifested  unto  us  their  desires  to  joyne  themselves  unto  you,  in 
order  to  the  regular  participation  of  all  the  ordinances  of  Christ  in  his 
church,  wee  doe  therefore  by  these  our  letters  dismisse  them  to  your 
holy  fellowship,  beseeching  you  to  receive  them  in  the  Lord  as  it  be- 
cometh  saints  into  the  bond  of  your  holy  Covenant,  and  in  all  chris- 
tian love  and  faithfullnesse  to  watch  over  them,  and  administer  to 
them  those  blessed  ordinances  of  Christ,  for  their  further  aedification 
in  faith  and  holinesse  ;  our  prayers  to  God  for  them,  are  that  they  may 
be  fruitfull  and  profitable  amongst  you  by  their  exemplary  walking 
according  to  the  rules  of  the  Gospel,  for  the  glory  of  God  and  the 
furtherance  of  your  and  their  Consolation  in  Christ  Jesus,  to  whose 

1  "  They  did  not  embody  into  a  new  of  Governor  Edward  Winslow.  He  was 
church-state,  looking  upon  it  as  un-  born  at  Droitwich,  Worcestershire,  April 
necessary,  as  being  a  branch  of  the  Eng-  17,  1597,  and  came  to  Plymouth  in  the 
lish  church  at  Leyden."  —  Account  of  the  Fortune  (November,  1621),  with  Robert 
Churck  of  Christ  in  Plymouth,  by  John  Cushman  and  Thomas  Prince  ;  the  latter 
Cotton,  Esq.,  1760.  was   afterward  governor    of    Plymouth 

2  John  Winslow  was  a  younger  brother  colony. 


1 82  HISTORY  OF   THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

grace  and  blessing  wee  commend  them  and  you  in  all  your  holy  ad- 
ministrations, beseeching  God  even  our  father  to  adde  to  you  daily 
such  as  shall  be  saved,  and  that  you  may  stand  compleat  in  all  the 
will  of  Gocl,  craving  also  your  prayers  for  us,  wee  take  leave  and  sub- 
scribe ourselves, 

Your  truly  loving  Bretheren  in  the 
order  and  fellowship  of  the  Gospel 
J  :  C  :  T  :  C  :  with  the  consent  of  the  church. 
Plymouth  June  26  :  167 1 : 

Such  of  their  children  also,  as  live  with  you  whether  adult  or  in- 
adult  wee  commend  to  your  care  and  watch  in  the  Lord,  to  be  received 
by  you  according  to  their  capacity  desiring  of  the  Lord  to  accompany 
the  dispensation  of  his  holy  word  to  them  for  their  effectuall  Regener- 
ation that  in  the  Lords  good  time,  they  may  become  living  stones  in 
his  holy  Temple. 

For  the  Reverend  Elders  of  the  3d  gatherd  church  of  Christ  in 
Boston,  these.1 

John  Hull  was  chosen  captain  of  the  artillery  company  at  its 
anniversary,  June  5,  1671,  and  Mr.  Thacher  preached  the  annual 
sermon  from  the  text  Rev.  xvii.  14:  "These  shall  make  war 
with  the  Lamb,  and  the  Lamb  shall  overcome  them  :  for  he  is 
Lord  of  lords,  and  King  of  kings  :  and  they  that  are  with  him 
are  called,  and  chosen,  and  faithful."2 

On  the  8th  of  July,  1672,  the  Rev.  Leonard  Hoar,  M.  D., 
arrived  in  Boston  from  London,  partly  in  response  to  a  call 
to  become  Mr.  Thacher's  associate,  but  probably  with  reference 
also  to  other  preferment.  He  was  related  by  marriage  to  Mr. 
Hull,  and  the  call  may  have  been  the  result  of  the  efforts  of 
that  honored  member  in  England  in  behalf  and  by  request  of 
the  church  two  years  before.  Mr.  Hoar  was  born  in  the  city  of 
Gloucester,  in  1630,  as  is  supposed.  He  was  the  youngest 
child  of  Charles  Hoar,  sheriff  of  the  county,  a  man  of  large 
estate  and  earnest  piety,  who  died  in  1638,  and  who  directed  in 
his  will  that  his  "sonne  Leonard  shalbe  carefullie  kept  at 
Schoole  and  when  hee  is  fitt  for  itt  to  be  carefullie  placed  at 
Oxford,  and  if  the  Lord  shall  see  fitt,  to  make  him  a  Minister 

1  [The  Rev.  John  Cotton  was  pastor  of  Cambridge,  at  Charlestown,  September 
the  Plymouth  church  at  this  time,  and  13, 1669,  from  Ps.  lx.  4,  "  Thou  hast  given 
Thomas  Cushman,  son  of  Robert  Cush-  a  banner  to  them  that  feared  thee,  that  it 
man,  ruling  elder.  The  original  of  their  may  be  displayed  because  of  the  truth." 
letter  is  in  the  Prince  Library.]  For  some  particulars  about  this  artillery 

2  Mr.  Thacher  preached  before  the  company  in  1 6S6,  see  Sewall  Papers,  vol. 
artillery  company  of   Charlestown   and  i.  p.  151. 


DR.  LEONARD  HOAR.  1 83 

unto  his  people  and  that  all  the  charge  thereof  shalbe  discharged 
out  of  the  proffitt  which  it  shall  please  god  to  send  out  of  the 
stocke."  Soon  after  the  death  of  the  father  the  family  came  to 
New  England,  and  Leonard  was  sent  to  Harvard  College,  where 
he  graduated  in  the  class  of  1650,  with  William  Stoughton, 
Joshua  and  Jeremiah  Hobart,  Edmund  Weld,  Samuel  Phillips, 
and  others.  He  returned  to  England  in  1653,  and  after  preach- 
ing the  gospel  "  in  divers  places  "  was  presented  to  the  living  of 
Wanstead,  in  Essex,  by  Sir  Henry  Mildmay,  as  Oldmixon  sup- 
poses, then  lord  of  that  manor,  which  he  held  in  right  of  his 
wife,  a  daughter  of  Sir  Leonard  Holyday,  "  perhaps  a  relative  as 
well  as  namesake."  Deprived  of  his  living  under  the  Act  of 
Uniformity,  he  devoted  himself  to  science  and  medicine,  and  in 
167 1  received  the  degree  of  M.  D.  from  the  University  of  Cam- 
bridge. Before  he  had  been  in  Boston  a  week  he  was  chosen 
to  be  the  successor  at  Harvard  College  of  President  Chauncy, 
who  had  died  five  months  previously.  He  did  not  accept  the 
appointment  until  it  had  received  the  sanction  of  the  General 
Court,  and  was  not  installed  until  the  10th  of  December.1  In 
the  mean  time  he  preached  frequently  at  the  Third  Church,  and 
notes  of  his  sermons  have  been  preserved.  With  what  high 
hopes  and  purposes  he  entered  upon  his  new  office,  and  with 
what  broad  and  far-seeing  appreciation  of  the  wants  of  the  col- 
lege, appears  from  a  letter  written  by  him,  just  after  his  instal- 
lation, December  13,  1672,  to  the  Hon.  Robert  Boyle,  in  which 
he  said  :  — 

It  hath  pleased  even  all  to  assign  the  college  for  my  Sparta.  I  de- 
sire I  may  adorn  it ;  and  thereby  encourage  the  country  in  its  utmost 
throws  for  its  resuscitation  from  its  ruins.  And  we  still  hope  some 
helpers  from  our  native  land  ;  of  which  your  honoured  self,  Mr. 
Ashurst  and  some  others  have  given  a  pledge. 

1  Mr.  Hull  records  in  his  diary  :  —  gations   to   the  new   church.     Himselfe 

"  1672.  July  8.  Dr.  Leonard  Hoar  seems  to  referr  the  matter  to  their  De- 
arrived  at  Boston  from  London,  being  termination :  yet  do  not  in  the  least  de- 
sent  for  by  the  third  Church  in  Boston :  cline  the  motion  made  in  behalf  of  the 
but  the  President  of  the  College,  being  colledge.  but  as  his  disposition  of  mind 
dead,  it  was  the  earnest  desire  of  the  min-  is  thought  to  be  that  way,  so  also  it  is 
isters  and  magistrates  that  they  would  apprehended  that  he  will  be  a  better 
spare  him  for  that  work  ;  and,  upon  Nov.  president,  than  a  pulpitt  man  (at  least) 
15  they  did  yield  him  up  to  that  service."  as  to  vulgar  acceptation.    Yet  I  perceive 

Thomas  Danforth  wrote  to  Governor  the  church  do  not  freely  come  of  in  the 
Winthrop,  of  Connecticut,  in  a  letter  matter,  nor  do  I  apprehend  that  any- 
dated  "Cambridge,  1.  6.  72,"  thing  will  be  fully  concluded  on  before 

"As  for  Dr.  Hoare,   He   came   over  the  Generall  court  meet."  —  Mass.  Hist. 

under   some    (though  not   severe)   obli-  Soc.  Proceedings,  January,  1874. 


1 84  HISTORY  OF   THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

A  large  well-sheltered  garden  and  orchard  for  students  addicted  to 
planting ;  an  ergasterium  for  mechanick  fancies  ;  and  a  laboratory 
chemical  for  those  philosophers,  that  by  their  senses  would  culture 
their  understandings,  are  in  our  design,  for  the  students  to  spend  their 
times  of  recreation  in  them  ;  for  readings  or  notions  only  are  but 
husky  provender. 

And,  sir,  if  you  will  please  of  your  mature  judgment  and  great  ex- 
perience to  deign  us  any  other  advice  or  device,  by  which  we  may 
become  not  only  nominal,  but  real  scholars,  it  shall,  I  hope,  be  as 
precious  seed,  of  which  both  you  and  me  and  many  by  us  shall  have 
uberous  provent  at  the  great  day  of  reckoning,  which  I  know  you  do 
respect  above  all. 

If  I  durst,  I  would  beg  one  of  a  sort  of  all  your  printed  monu- 
ments, to  enrich  our  library  and  encourage  our  attempts  this  way. 

I  know  nothing  so  stunting  our  hopes  and  labours  in  this  way,  as 
that  we  want  one  of  a  sort  of  the  books  of  the  learned,  that  come 
forth  daily  in  Europe,  of  whose  very  names  we  are  therefore  ignorant. 

The  story  of  President  Hoar's  short  administration  is  a  very 
sad  one,  and  we  will  give  it  as  told  by  President  Ouincy  in  his 
History  of  Harvard  University  :  — 

There  is  a  studied  obscurity  thrown  over  the  defects,  if  there  were 
really  any,  of  Dr.  Hoar.  That  he  was  a  scholar  and  a  Christian,  a 
man  of  talent  and  of  great  moral  worth,  is  asserted.  Yet,  for  some 
reason,  the  young  men  of  the  College  took  a  prejudice  against  him, 
and,  says  Cotton  Mather,  "  did  all  they  could  to  ruin  his  reputation." 
The  cause  of  this  prejudice  is  unexplained  to  this  day.  "  I  can  scarce 
tell  how,"  says  Cotton  Mather,  "  but  he  fell  under  the  displeasure  of 
some  that  made  a  figure  in  that  neighbourhood."  "  In  a  day  of  temp- 
tation, which  was  now  upon  them,  several  good  men  did  unhappily 
countenance  the  ungoverned  youth  in  their  ungovernableness."  It  is 
not  difficult  from  the  records  of  the  College,  to  gather  to  whom  Cotton 
Mather  here  alludes  ;  and  it  is  due  to  the  memory  of  Dr.  Hoar  to  say 
that  the  conduct  of  "  those  good  men  who  made  a  figure  in  that  neigh- 
bourhood," and  thus  encouraged  the  discontented  youth,  greatly  ex- 
ceeded, in  dereliction  of  incumbent  duty,  anything  that  appears,  or 
was  ever  suggested,  against  him. 

Dr.  Hoar  was,  in  a  manner,  a  stranger  in  the  country.  He  had 
come,  strongly  recommended,  seeking  the  presidency.  The  General 
Court  had  thrown  their  whole  weight  into  the  scale  in  favor  of  his 
election.  His  success,  it  was  asserted  at  the  time,  had  occasioned  a 
disappointment  to  "  the  emulation  of  some  expecting  the  preferment." 
This,  probably,  is  the  clue  to  all  the  difficulties  which  assailed  and 
overcame  President  Hoar.     He  was  chosen  in  July,   1672.     A  year 


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DR.   HOAR  AT   CAMBRIDGE.  1 85 

had  not  elapsed  before  the  students  began  "  to  strive  to  make  him 
odious."  In  the  midst  of  these  difficulties,  Urian  Oakes,  Thomas 
Shepard,  Joseph  Brown,  and  John  Richardson,  members  of  the  cor- 
poration, all  resigned  their  seats  at  that  Board,  leaving  it  without  a 
constitutional  majority,  and  with  no  quorum  to  act,  and  the  president 
without  support.  They  all  fall  within  the  description  of  "  good  men, 
who  made  a  figure  in  that  neighbourhood,  and  who,  in  a  day  of  temp- 
tation, encouraged  "  the  contumacious.  Whether  emulation  or  hope 
of  preferment  had  any  influence  in  this  course  of  conduct,  must  be  a 
matter  of  inference.  It  is  certain,  that  no  conduct  of  Dr.  Hoar  could 
justify,  or  even  apologize  for,  such  a  resignation  of  a  majority  of  the 
corporation  in  the  actual  state  of  disorderly  combination  in  the  Col- 
lege. .  .  .  The  corporation  reelect  Oakes  and  Shepard,  and  they 
persist  in  not  accepting  the  trust  until  the  15th  of  March,  1675.  On 
this  day,  Dr.  Hoar  sent  in  his  resignation  of  the  presidency.  On  the 
same  day,  Oakes  and  Shepard  took  their  seats  as  members  of  the  cor- 
poration, and  the  seat  Dr.  Hoar  had  quitted  was  given  to  the  Rev. 
Mr.  Oakes.1  .  .  . 

There  was  a  singular  parallelism  in  the  fortunes  of  Mr.  Oakes  and 
Dr.  Hoar,  of  a  nature  not  unlikely  to  excite  an  "  emulation  "  between 
them  in  respect  to  the  presidency  of  the  College  ;  an  office  which,  at 
that  time,  placed  the  incumbent  at  the  head  of  the  clergy,  who  then 
possessed  almost  a  predominating  influence  in  the  colony.  Neither 
of  them  was  a  native  ;  both  were  brought  into  the  country  in  their 
childhood  by  their  parents.  They  had  been  contemporaneously  mem- 
bers of  the  College;  the  former  having  graduated  in  1649,  the  latter 
in  1650.  Both  had  returned  to  England  soon  after  taking  their  de- 
grees. Both  had  been  settled  in  the  ministry  there,  had  been  ejected 
for  non-conformity ;  and  again  emigrated  to  this  country  within  a  year 
of  each  other:  Oakes,  in  1671,  on  an  invitation  from  the  church  at 
Cambridge  to  become  its  pastor;  Hoar,  in  1672,  on  a  like  invitation 
to  become  its  pastor,  from  the  Old  South  Church  in  Boston. 

The  former,  being  settled  in  Cambridge,  and  a  fellow  of  the  cor- 
poration, before  the  arrival  of  Dr.  Hoar,  and  possessing  qualities 
suited  to  the  appointment,  had  probably  ingratiated  himself  with  the 
students  and  with  persons  of  influence  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of 
the  College,  and  had  been  regarded  by  them  as  the  natural  successor 
of  President  Chauncy ;  an  expectation  which  it  is  not  unlikely  his  own 
heart  fostered.  The  strong  recommendations  brought  by  Dr.  Hoar, 
and  the  efficient  declaration  in  his  favor  by  the  General  Court  in  a 
manner  compelled  his  election.  The  event  disappointed  both  the 
students  and  Mr.  Oakes,  and  led  the  former,  in  the  language  of  Cotton 

1  [ffi'st.  of  Harvard  University,  vol.  i.  act  as  superintendent  of  the  college,  but 
PP-33~35-  in  1679  he  accepted  the  presidency.     He 

Mr.  Oakes  at  this  time  agreed  only  to     died  in  16S1.] 


1 86  HISTORY  OF   THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

Mather,  to  "  turn  cudweeds  and  travestie  whatever  he  did  and  said, 
with  a  design  to  make  him  odious,"  and  the  latter  to  countenance 
these  proceedings,  by  relinquishing  his  seat  in  the  corporation  until 
Dr.  Hoar  had  resigned.1 

In  anticipation  of  Dr.  Hoar's  departure  for  New  England, 
Dr.  Owen  and  twelve  other  non-conformist  ministers  addressed 
a  letter  to  "  the  magistrates  and  ministers  in  Massachusetts 
Bay,"  under  date  of  February  5,  167 1-2,  in  which  they  said  :  — 

As  we  desire  to  bless  God  with  and  for  you,  that  so  reverend  and 
judicious  a  person  as  your  president  hath  for  so  long  a  time  been 
continued  with  you,  and  that  so  usefully,  so  it  is  a  grief  of  heart  to  us 
that  there  appeares  none  amongst  yourselves  to  succeed  him  in  that 
employment,  and  more  that  we  cannot  find  persons  whose  hearts  God 
hath  touched  to  goe  over  to  you,  in  order  to  a  supply  of  that  expected 
losse  which  you  mention  ;  yet,  if  our  advice  herein  be  worth  attending 
to,  we  would  suggest  that  it  having  pleased  God  to  stirre  up  the  heart 
of  our  beloved  friend,  Dr.  Hoar  to  intend  a  voyage  towards  you  by  this 
shipping,  we  do  suppose  a  speaking  providence  in  it,  and  doe  judge 
that  God  hath  so  farr  furnished  him  with  the  gifts  of  learning  and  the 
grace  of  his  spirit,  as  that  if  your  judgments  concurre  with  ours  and 
his  inclinations  (if  God  shall  bring  him  to  you)  he  may  in  some  meas- 
ure supply  that  want  and  help  to  make  up  this  breach,  and  we  shall 
hope  and  pray  that  it  may  be  to  some  good  fruit  to  you  and  yours. 

One  of  the  signers  of  this  letter  was  the  Rev.  John  Collins,  a 
classmate  of  Mr.  Oakes  at  Harvard  College,  who,  on  returning 
to  England,  became  a  chaplain  of  General  Monk,  and,  after  the 
passage  of  the  Act  of  Uniformity,  was  minister  of  an  Independ- 
ent church  in  Lime  Street,  near  Leadenhall  Street,  London.2 
Of  this  church  Dr.  Hoar  had  been  a  member,  and  one  of  the 
complaints  alleged  against  him  was  that,  without  waiting  for  a 
letter  of  dismission  and  recommendation  from  it,  he  had  (just 
before  entering  upon  the  presidency)  joined  the  Third  Church 
in  Boston.  There  must  have  been  some  good  reason  for  his 
taking  this  step,  as  Mr.  Thacher,  we  may  be  sure,  would  not 
have  been  a  party  to  any  serious  irregularity  in  church  order. 
Mr.  Collins  had  not  only  joined  with  his  clerical  brethren  in 
warm  commendation  of  Dr.  Hoar,  but  a  few  months  later,  May 

1  [Ifist.  ofHarv.  Univ.,  vol.  i.  pp.  36, 37.]     church  in  London."    The  Rev.  Nathaniel 

2  Wilson,  in  his  Dissenting  Chicrches  Mather  (Harv.  Coll.,  1647)  was  the  im- 
of  London,  etc.,  says  :"  This  congregation  mediate  successor  of  Mr.  Collins  in  the 
was  for  many  years  very  considerable  for  pastorate.  The  site  of  the  meeting- 
numbers  and  opulence,  and  made  the  house  was  afterward  occupied  by  a  wing 
largest   collection    for  the   fund   of   any  of  the  East  India  House. 


ONE   COMPLAINT  AGAINST  DR.  HOAR.  l8y 

io,  1672,  he  thus  wrote  to  Mr.  Leveret t :  "Dr.  Hoar,  who  is  in 
fellowship  with  us,  and  yet  more  yours  than  ours,  through  his 
ardent  desire  to  serve  God  in  what  worke  he  will  allot  to  him  in 
your  parts,  where  he  hath  had  his  education,  which  in  the  judg- 
ment of  wiser  men  than  myselfe  is  thought  to  bee  in  your  col- 
ledge  employment,  to  which  hee  is  very  well  qualifyed  in  many 
things."  This  letter  seems  to  relieve  Mr.  Collins  from  any  sus- 
picion of  partisanship  in  favor  of  Mr.  Oakes  ;  but  his  tone  was 
greatly  changed,  when,  two  years  afterward,  April  10,  1674,  he 
again  wrote  to  Mr.  Leverett,  who  had  succeeded  to  the  gov- 
ernorship, to  this  effect :  — 

Your  concussions  you  have  at  the  colledge  doe  greatly  grieve  mee, 
and  soe  much  the  more  that  noe  friend  hath  binn  pleased  to  give  me 
a  true  state  of  it,  but  all  I  gather,  from  them  that  I  see,  are  wholly  of 
one  syde  ;  it  causeth  a  great  rumour  here,  and  is  greatly  aggravated 
to  the  president's  reproach,  in  whom  I  am  concerned,  for  hee  was  a 
member  with  us,  but  it  seems  hath  joined  himselfe  with  the  3d  of 
Boston,  which  surprizeth  me,  although  I  doe  judge  that  his  relation 
thereby  to  us  is  erazed,  all  that  I  would  say  is,  that  it  hath  by  our 
New  England  friends  here  binn  layd  as  a  reproach  upon  all  the  elders, 
yet  I  think  without  cause ;  for  if  our  letter  be  viewed  you  will  not  find 
that  wee  did  recommend  him  to  bee  your  president,  wee  judged  that 
too  much  for  us  to  undertake,  nor  did  we  excite  him  to  come  or  urse 
him  upon  such  hopes ;  it  was  his  own  eagre  desire  after  it  and  his 
thinking  that  hee  might  be  serviceable  there ;  all  wee  sayd  was,  that 
since  hee  was  prepared  to  come  wee  thought  him  one  that  might  be 
helpfull  in  your  colledge  worke  and  left  it  with  you  to  judge  how. 

Governor  Leverett,  who  was  disposed  to  be  friendly  to  the 
president,  in  his  reply  to  this  letter,  August  24,  1674,  did  not 
attempt  to  justify  Dr.  Hoar  in  his  neglect  to  inform  Mr.  Collins 
of  the  change  he  had  made  in  his  church  relations.  "  Who  is," 
said  he,  "  I  doubt,  not  so  cautious  in  his  comeing  off  from 
former  engagements  as  he  ought  before  he  enters  upon  new ; 
his  not  concerneing  you  in  his  relateing  himself  in  church 
fellowship  here,  I  cannot  look  at  as  independently  congre- 
gational, I  mean  in  a  good  sence."  1 

1  Mr.  Hull   writes   in    1673  :    "  Some  more  than  that  God  seems  to  threaten  to 

troubles  this  summer  arose  in  the  Col-  make  divisions  in  all  orders  our  punish- 

lege,  so  that  Dr.  Leonard  Hoar,  their  ment,  as  we  too  readily  do  make  them 

new  President,  who  was  last  year  highly  our  sin." 

courted  to  accept  the  place,  was  now  by  And  again,  October,  1674:    "At  this 

some  wished  out  of  it  again.     I  cannot  General    Court,   the    President    of    the 

say  there  was  any  apparent  cause  for  it,  College  was   charged   as   formerly,   but 


1 88  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD   SOUTH  CHURCH. 

Dr.  Belknap  mentions  as  "a  supposed  rival"  of  President 
Hoar,  Thomas  Graves,  of  Charlestown,  who  was  out  of  sympa- 
thy with  his  contemporaries  in  many  particulars,  both  political 
and  religious,  and  who  seems  to  have  been  a  very  uncomfortable 
man  to  be  associated  with.  Mr.  Sibley,  the  historiographer 
of  Harvard  College,  does  not  altogether  agree  with  President 
Quincy  in  his  criticisms  on  Mr.  Oakes,  and  thus  sums  up  the 
case  :  — 

It  is  obvious  from  the  letter  to  Flint,1  which  has  been  cited,  that 
Hoar's  standard  of  scholarship  was  very  high,  and  that  the  spirit  with 
which  he  administered  censures  would  be  far  from  conciliatory.  Flat- 
tered by  an  invitation  to  a  settlement  in  Boston,  and  by  his  reception 
on  arriving  there  from  London,  elated  by  his  speedy  and  enthusiastic 
election  to  the  presidency,  with  self-assurance  increased  by  prompt 
concessions  to  his  constant  demands,  fortified  by  additional  privileges 
and  powers  conferred  by  a  new  charter,  the  community  apparently 
ready  to  cooperate  in  every  measure  proposed  by  him,  he  undoubtedly 
entered  upon  his  duties  with  the  conscientious  determination  to  bring 
the  college  up  to  his  very  high  idea  of  what  it  ought  to  be.  Urging 
his  views  with  pertinacity,  and  thoroughly  convinced  he  was  right,  he 
would  naturally  with  the  students  be  very  strict  and  exacting,  while 
he  would  not  be  likely  to  yield  graciously  to  his  comparatively  young 
associates  in  office  when  they  differed  from  him,  and  might  be  over- 
bearing and  rough  when  they  opposed  him.  Herein,  perhaps,  lay  the 
cause  of  his  failure.2 

Dr.  Hoar  resigned  his  office  in  March,  1675  '•>  "his  grief  threw 
him  into  a  consumption,"  and  he  died  in  Boston  eight  months 
later,  November  28.  His  widow,  Bridget,  who  was  a  daughter 
of  John  Lisle,  a  very  distinguished  man  under  the  Common- 
wealth, and  of  his  wife,  the  unfortunate  Lady  Alice,3  afterward 
married  Hezekiah  Usher,  Jr.  His  only  child,  Bridget,  married 
the  Rev.  Thomas  Cotton,  of  London. 

Among  the  Old  South  papers  there  is  a  declaration  of  which 

with  more  vehemency,  as  the  only  hin-  l  [In  1661  Mr.  Hoar  wrote  a  letter  to 

derer  of  the  college  welfare ;  when,  as  his  nephew,  Josiah  Flynt,  a  member  of 

by  most  indifferent  hearers  of  the  case,  the  Freshman  Class  in  Harvard  College, 

it  was  thought,  that,  would  those  that  afterward    minister    of    Dorchester,    in 

accused  him  had  but  countenanced  and  which,  at  great  length  and  with  much 

encouraged  him  in  his  work,  he  would  detail,   he   marked   out    the    course   he 

have  proved  the  best  president  that  ever  should  take  as  a  student.] 

yet  the  college  had."  2  [See  Sibley's    Graduates  of  Harvard 

Samuel   Sewall,  in   a  speech  at  Cam-  College,  vol.  i.  pp.  228-252,  587-590.] 
bridge  at  this  time,  October  16,  insisted  3  The  victim  of   Judge  Jeffreys'  bru- 
that  "the  causes  of  the  lowness  of  the  tality  at  the  memorable  assizes  in  Win- 
college  were  external  as  well  as  internal."  Chester,  after  the  Monmouth  rebellion. 


.4 


i 


liSWi 


CONDITION  OF  HARVARD    COLLEGE.  1 89 

we  present  a  fac-simile  on  the  opposite  page,  and  which  must 
speak  for  itself,  as  the  records  of  the  First  Church  in  Cambridge 
throw  no  light  upon  it :  — 

Whereas  in  Answer  to  a  letter  of  this  Church  Enquiring  about  the 
dealings  of  Cambridge  church  with  Leonard  Hoar  the  said  Church  of 
Cambridge  did  in  their  letter  referr  us  to  Mr.  Danforth  &c.  to  be  fully 
satisfied  the  church  of  Cambridge  as  a  church  never  having  had  cog- 
nissence  of  any  offense  of  the  said  Leonard  Hoar  This  church 
doth  declare  that  the  said  Leonard  Hoar  at  a  church  meeting  did  de- 
sire a  full  hearing  and  that  Mr.  Danforth  &c  might  be  sent  for  But 
this  church  did  not  see  reason  or  rule  to  send  for  him  on  such  Ac- 
count And  for  that  Cause,  there  was  noe  further  Procedure  in  that 
matter. 

This  was  voted  in  the  Church 
By  a  Silent  Vote  the 
21  :  omo  1675  * 

In  the  latter  days  of  President  Chauncy's  administration  the 
condition  of  Harvard  College  was,  as  we  are  told,  critical  and 
apparently  hopeless.  Its  buildings  were  "ruinous  and  almost 
irreparable,"  the  president  was  aged,  and  the  number  of  scholars 
was  below  what  it  had  been  in  former  days.  Without  a  new 
building  its  situation  was  considered  desperate,  and  to  enable  it 
to  erect  one  an  appeal  was  made  to  individuals  and  to  churches. 
Boston  contributed  ^800,  of  which  more  than  one  half  seems  to 
have  been  subscribed  by  the  Third  Church.  It  was  ten  years 
before  the  full  sum  required  had  been  collected,  and  the  build- 
ing, Harvard  Hall,  completed.2 

1  [Nothing  can  be  found  in  the  records  "  The  Wholl  of  the  3d  Church  Contri- 
of   the   First  Church   in   Cambridge   to     butions." 

show  that  Dr.  Hoar  was  one  of  its  mem-  Mr.  Benjamin  Gibbs,  a  member  of  the 

bers,  or  that  it  ever  took  action  of  any  Third  Church,  gave  ,£50,  which  may  or 

kind  in  reference  to  him.]  may  not  have  been  in  addition  to  the 

2  See  Quincy's  History  of  Harvard  amount  credited  to  the  church  in  this 
University,  vol.  i.  pp.  29-31,  508.  statement. 

Mr.  Walter  Lloyd  Jeffries,  in  his  valu-  President  Quincy  calls  John  Hull  the 
able  collection  of  historical  papers,  has  earliest  of  the  benefactors  of  the  college, 
a  memorandum  in  the  handwriting  of  in  the  second  generation,  who  encouraged 
Hezekiah  Usher,  as  follows  : —  or  aided  the  progress  of  the  institution 

"  Contriebutions  Given  by  the  Third  by  their  bounty.  The  only  contribution 
Church  for  the  Erectinge  Harvard  Col-  made  by  him  of  which  we  have  positive 
lidge  knowledge  was  £100  in  1681.     See  His- 

tory, vol.  i.  p.  406. 

"  10  Dec.     At  a  meetinge  of  the  Select- 
men by  virtue  of  an  order  receaved  from 
the  Generall  Court  dated  the  2d  of  Oc- 
tober 167S  to  apoynt  and  impowre  meete 
426:  16:    —     persons   to   inquire    into   the   defects   of 


I67J 

March  the  3d  To  Cash  Received 

£sv- 

7 

10 

To  Bills  Received 

£326: 

iS 

— 

the  10th  To  Mony  Received 

£19: 

10 

2 

To  Bills  Received 

£21: 

— 

— 

190  HISTORY  OF   THE   OLD   SOUTH  CHURCH. 

Governor  Bellingham  died  December  7,  1672,  a  day  or  two 
before  Dr.  Hoar's  installation  at  Cambridge.  Before  coming 
to  this  country  he  had  been  recorder  of  Boston  in  Lincolnshire, 
and  he  held  many  prominent  positions  here,  including  the  gov- 
ernorship for  ten  years.  One  of  the  early  New  England  chron- 
iclers, Edward  Johnson,  records  of  him  that  he  was  "  slow  of 
speech,"  and  had  a  "  stern  look."  Mr.  James  Savage  says  :  "The 
unbroken  reign  of  dismal  bigotry  from  1649  t0  l&72  inclusive, 
under  Dudley,  Endicott,  and  Bellingham,  hard,  harder,  hardest, 
between  the  mild  wisdom  of  Winthrop  and  the  tolerant  dignity 
of  Leverett,  came  to  its  end  with  that  last  of  the  triumvirs  of 
Massachusetts."  Mr.  Savage  also  quotes,  but  does  not  com- 
mend, the  remark  of  Governor  Coddington,  of  Rhode  Island,  in 
connection  with  Governor  Bellingham's  death  :  "  The  hand  of 
the  Lord  cuts  him  off,  not  giving  him  repentance  to  life,  that 
other  sons  of  Belial  of  his  persecuting  spirit  might  be  warned, 
not  to  put  the  evil  day  far  from  them." 

Nine  days  before  he  died  the  governor  executed  a  will,  the 
chief  purpose  of  which  was  to  perpetuate  the  Congregational 
polity  as  understood  and  practiced  by  the  majority  in  the  First 
Church  in  Boston.  After  providing  for  his  wife,  Penelope  Pel- 
ham,  whom  he  married  in  1641,  and  giving  one  of  his  four  farms 
to  his  son  and  his  son's  daughter  for  the  term  of  their  natural 
lives,  and  making  other  bequests,  he  devoted  his  estate,  which 
embraced  nearly  the  whole  of  the  present  city  of  Chelsea,  as 
we  have  already  said,  "to  be  an  annual  encouragement  to  some 
godly  ministers  and  preachers,  and  such  as  may  be  such,  who 
shall  be  by  my  trustees  judged  faithful  to  those  principles  in 
church  discipline  which  are  owned  and  practised  in  the  First 
Church  of  Christ  in  Boston  of  which  I  am  a  member."  He 
appointed  as  his  trustees  the  ministers  of  this  church,  Mr. 
Oxenbridge  and  Mr.  Allen,  the  Rev.  John  Russell,  author  of  the 
Hadley  and  Northampton  memorial  to  the  General  Court  in 
1670,1  and  Mr.  Anthony  Stoddard,  and  he  instructed  them  to 

those  that   are   behinde   in   theire   pay-  And  Lt.  Theophilus  Frary  and   James 

ments    of    theire    subscriptions    to    the  Hill  for  said  subscriptions  taken  by  the 

Colledge   and   to    demand   and  receave  officers   of  the   third    church." — Town 

the  same,     The   Selectmen  doe  apoynt  Records. 

Thomas  Dewer  and  Ephraim   Serle  to  1  See  ante,  pp.  95,  96.    Mr.  Russell  de- 

that  worke  for  the  subscriptions  taken  clined  the  trust  under  the  will,  pleading 

by  the  Officers  and  others  of  the  first  the   distance    at    which    he   lived    from 

Church  in  Bostone,  Mr.  John  Cony  and  Boston  and  his  pressing  duties  as  a  par- 

Wm.  Coleman  for  the  second  Church,  ish  minister. 


GOVERNOR  BELLINGHAM' S   WILL.  191 

build  at  Winnisimmett  a  minister's  house  and  meeting-house, 
to  make  an  annual  allowance  for  the  support  of  the  gospel  there, 
to  train  for  the  ministry  four  or  six  young  men,  more  or  less,  as 
the  estate  would  bear,  and,  to  quote  the  words  of  his  eighth 
direction,  "That  every  quarter  of  the  year,  one  sermon  be 
preached  to  instruct  the  people  in  Boston  in  church  discipline, 
according  to  the  word  of  God  ;  and  such  competent  allowance 
be  given  to  each  of  them  [the  preachers]  as  my  trustees  shall 
judge  fit  and  sufficient." 

This  will  became  at  once  the  subject  of  litigation.  "Early 
the  next  spring,  before  the  grass  had  begun  to  grow  on  the 
governor's  grave,  between  Richard  Wharton,  representing  the 
governor's  only  son,  Dr.  Samuel  Bellingham,  then  in  Europe,  on 
one  hand,  and  the  Rev.  James  Allen  and  his  co-trustees,  on  the 
other,  began  a  series  of  legal  proceedings  which  were  prose- 
cuted in  every  tribunal,  from  the  lowest  to  the  highest,  under 
three  governments,  —  colonial,  provincial,  and  state,  —  and  were 
terminated  only  at  the  end  of  one  hundred  and  eleven  [fifteen] 
years,  by  a  decision  against  the  validity  of  the  will  by  the 
Supreme  Judicial  Court  in  1787,  held  by  Judge  Sumner."  1 

Mr.  Wharton,  the  attorney  and  personal  friend  of  Dr.  Bel- 
lingham, made  the  very  serious  charge  against  Mr.  Allen,  not 
only  that  he  had  exercised  an  undue  influence  over  the  mind  of 
the  governor  upon  his  death-bed,  to  the  injury  of  his  son,  but 
also  that  he  had  actually  tampered  with  the  will  after  its  execu- 
tion by  the  insertion  of  a  clause  revoking  all  former  testaments. 
A  deposition  to  this  effect  was  made  before  Daniel  Gookin, 
a  member  of  the  court  of  assistants,  January  24,  1673.  It 
should  be  said  that  the  charge  against  Mr.  Allen  was  not  sub- 
stantiated ;  but  we  can  understand  that  the  reproach  under 
which  he  rested  for  tampering,  directly  or  indirectly,  with  the 
memorable  New  Haven  letter  rendered  it  easy  to  suspect  him 
of  similar  action  in  connection  with  other  documents,  when 
"good  ends"  were  to  be  served  thereby.  It  would  be  foreign 
to  our  purpose  to  follow  the  litigation  that  ensued  through  all 
its  tedious  stages,  but  we  could  not  avoid  this  passing  reference 
to  Governor  Bellingham's  will  as  part  of  the  case  of  the  First 
Church  against  the  Third. 

Governor  Bellingham  was  succeeded  by  John  Leverett,  who 
had  been  deputy-governor  since  the  death  of  Francis  Wil- 
loughby. 

1  See  Sewall's  Letter  Book,  vol.  i.  pp.     editors  on  this  subject,  of  which  we  have 
99-105,  for  a  valuable  foot-note  by  the     made  free  use. 


l92  HISTORY  OF   THE   OLD   SOUTH   CHURCH. 

The  extreme  men  in  the  colony,  who  by  assertion  and  as- 
sumption in  their  own  behalf,  and  by  misrepresentation  and 
denunciation  of  their  brethren,  had  kindled  and  kept  alive  the 
fires  of  religious  controversy,  promoted  distrust  and  dissension 
among  the  churches,  and  brought  them  to  the  very  verge  of 
disastrous  schism,  had  much  to  answer  for.  They  were  few  in 
number ;  they  could  not  claim  to  be  more  learned,  more  conse- 
crated, or  more  successful  than  the  Christian  brethren  whom 
they  denounced  and  calumniated  ;  but  they  were  aggressive, 
pertinacious,  self-confident,  and  self-willed,  and  they  did  not  stop 
to  think  of  consequences.  They  no  doubt  believed  that  they 
were  right,  but  if  they  had  been  more  modest  they  might  have 
remembered  that  they  were  fallible,  and  that  possibly  all  the 
wisdom  and  all  the  goodness  were  not  on  their  side.1  They 
certainly  ought  to  have  been  very  confident  of  their  position,  in 
view  of  the  effect  of  the  prolonged  agitation,  for  which  they  were 
responsible,  upon  the  spiritual  life  of  the  community.  This  was 
suffering  blight,  in  the  midst  of  all  the  wrangling  and  confusion, 
all  the  "  browbeatings,  censures,  reproaches,  calumnies,  and 
contempts."  Defeated  in  open  debate  in  the  General  Court  in 
1 67 1,  the  anti-synodists  seem  to  have  maintained  what  we  may 
call  a  guerilla  warfare  of  misrepresentation  and  slander.  At 
length,  the  more  judicious  men  among  the  leaders  in  church  and 
state  made  up  their  minds  that  something  must  be  done  to  stop 
the  evil.  The  preacher  of  the  Election  Sermon  in  1673  was 
Mr.  Oakes,  Mr.  Mitchell's  successor  in  the  First  Church  of 
Cambridge,  and  afterward  (upon  the  retirement  of  Dr.  Hoar) 
president  of  the  college  ;  and  he  had  the  courage,  in  the  pres- 
ence of  the  influential  and  representative  assembly  before  him, 
to  rebuke  in  the  severest  terms  the  mistaken  and  mischievous 

1  Increase  Mather,  addressing  the  anti-  his  excellent  Irenicum  where  he  saith, 
synodalians  in  1671,  made  the  follow-  He  that  differs  in  his  judgment  from 
ing  pertinent  suggestions :  "  Consider  godly  learned  men,  had  need  to  spend 
that  it  is  possible  that  you  may  be  mis-  much  time  in  prayer  and  humiliation 
taken  in  your  apprehensions.  Many  before  the  Lord.  There  is  a  notable  ex- 
things  might  be  mentioned  to  you,  which  pression  of  Basil  cited  in  an  Epistle  of 
ought  to  cause  an  humble  jealousy  in  Luther  to  the  Ministers  of  Norimberg, 
you,  lest  so  it  should  be.  Were  there  who  were  at  variance  one  from  another, 
that  only  consideration,  that  so  many  '  He  who  will  separate  from  his  brethren, 
learned  and  godly  men  are  opposed,  it  had  need  to  consider  many  things  even 
ought  to  cause  trembling,  and  an  holy  to  anxiety,  he  had  need  break  his  sleep 
fear  in  you,  lest  your  notions  should  be  many  nights,  and  seek  of  God  with  many 
erroneous.  It  is  a  Christian  speech  and  tears  the  demonstration  of  the  truth.' 
spirit  which  blessed  Burroughs  hath  in  Thus,  he." 


MR.    OARES'S  ELECTION  SERMON.  193 

zeal  of  these  partisans.  He  took  for  his  text  the  words  of  Moses 
in  Deuteronomy  xxxii.  29 :  "  O  that  they  were  wise,  that  they 
understood  this,  that  they  would  consider  their  latter  end  ! " 
This  is  what  he  said  to  the  men  who  had  kept  the  churches  in  a 
ferment  ever  since  the  formation  of  the  Third  Church  had  been 
proposed :  — 

Consider  what  will  be  the  latter  end  of  your  unreasonable  jealousies, 
abusive  calumnies,  or  other  ill  usage  of  persons  of  great  worth,  use 
and  interest  among  you.     Consider  (I  beseech  you)  in  the  fear  of  God, 
what  will  be  the  end  of  the  ill-entertainment  of  the  best  men  among 
you.     Who  sees  not  (that  is  not  wofully  blind)  that  no  men  are  more 
suspected  and  taken  up  in  the  lips  of  talkers,  (Ezekiel  xxxvi.  3,)  ca- 
lumniated and  abused,  than  pious  and  faithful  magistrates  and  min- 
isters ?  ...  It  is  the  hard  condition  of  magistrates  and  ministers  that 
they  must  bear  all   the  murmurings  of  discontented  people,  and  be 
loaded  with  all  the  obloquies  and  injurious  reproaches  that  can  be. 
They  had  need  be  men  of  great  meekness  and  patience,  able  to  bear 
much,  that  are  pillars  in  the  Church  and  Commonwealth.     But  great 
is  the  sin  and  unworthiness  of  those  that  put  them  to  such  an  exercise 
of  meekness  and  patience.     And  are  not  many  among  us  guilty  in  this 
respect  ?     It  is  a  sad  time  when  a  lying  spirit  is  gone  forth  into  the 
mouths  of  many  professors ;  when  lies  are  invented  to  the  disparage- 
ment of  rulers  and  ministers,  and  calumnies  and  base  reproaches  are 
vended  and  put  off  and  dispersed  through  the  country  with  much  sub- 
tlety and  industry,  as  if  there  were  some  Lying  Office  set  up  in  New 
England.     It  hath  been  my  observation  since  I  came  among  you,  that 
almost  all  the  mischief  in  this  poor  country  is  made  and  carried  on  by 
lying.      Tale-bearer,  or  slanderer,  in  the  Hebrew,  hath  its  origination 
from  a  word  which  signifies  a  merchant,  quasi  famas  ac  honoris  proximi 
nundinator,  —  one  that  sets  to  sale  the  name  and  honour  of  other  men. 
We  have  many  such  merchants,  or  pedlars,  rather,  that  go  up  and 

1  The   sermon  was  preached  May  7,  fixed   to   the    sermon,   signed   by   John 

1673,  and  was  published  under  the  fol-  Sherman  and  Thomas  Shepard. 

lowing   title:    "New   England    Pleaded  Mr.    Shepard   preached    the  Election 

with,  And  pressed  to  consider  the  things  Sermon  in  1672.     His  text  was  Jer.  11. 

which  concern  her  Peace,  at  least  in  this  31 :  "  O  generation,  see  ye  the  word  of 

her  Day:  Or,  A  Seasonable  and  Serious  the    Lord:    Have   I   been   a   wilderness 

Word  of  faithful  Advice  to  the  Churches  unto  Israel  ?  aland  of  darkness  ?  Where- 

and  People  of  God  (primarily  those)  in  fore  say  my  people,  We  are  lords;  we  will 

the  Massachusets  Colony  ;  musingly  to  come  no  more  unto  thee  ? "    He  rebuked 

Ponder  and  bethink  themselves  what  is  the  divisions  and  calumnies  of  the  times, 

the  Tendency,  and  will  certainly  be  the  in  connection  with  other  public  sins,  but 

sad   Issue,   of    sundry   unchristian    and  not  so  scathingly  as  Mr.  Oakes.     The 

crooked  wayes,  which  too  too  many  have  sermon  was  printed,  with  an  address  to 

been  turning  aside  unto,  if  persisted  and  the  Christian  Reader  by  the  Rev.  Thomas 

gone  on    in."     A  brief  address   is   pre-  Thacher. 


194  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

down  the  country  with  this  kind  of  commodity ;  and  it  is  a  lamentable 
thing  that  they  should  have  so  good  a  trade  of  it,  and  meet  with  so 
many  chapmen  that  are  ready  to  take  their  ware  off  their  hands.  .  .  . 
Many  pregnant  instances  of  this  evil  spirit  might  be  produced  to  con- 
firm what  I  say  :  but  herein  I  shall  spare  the  guilty  only,  who  knows 
not  (that  is  no  stranger  in  our  Israel)  that  the  ministers  of  Christ 
among  you  indefinitely  have  been  deliberately  and  solemnly  charged 
with  "  declension  from  primitive  foundation  work,  innovation  in  doc- 
trine and  worship,  opinion  and  practice,  invasion  of  the  rights,  liberties 
and  privileges  of  churches,  usurpation  of  a  lordly,  prelatical  power 
over  God's  heritage,"  and  with  the  like  things,  which  are  "  the  leaven, 
the  corrupting  gangrene,  the  infecting,  spreading  plague,  the  provoking 
image  of  jealousy  set  up  before  the  Lord,  the  accursed  thing  which 
hath  provoked  Divine  wrath  and  further  threatens  destruction  ? "  I 
need  give  you  no  other  instance  of  this  evil  spirit  of  jealousy  and 
calumny  than  this.  Here  is  good  measure,  pressed  down,  shaken 
together,  and  running  over.  Enough  and  enough  to  demonstrate  the 
disaffected  and  embittered  spirit  of  some  men  ;  and  what  unkind 
usage  from  some  hands,  those  your  poor  ministers  find  among  you. 
Such  men  (whom  I  wish  either  that  they  were  better  enformed  and 
affected,  or  less  considerable  in  the  Commonwealth)  impute  all  the 
blastings  and  droughts  and  judgments  of  God  upon  the  country  to  the 
defection  and  apostacy  of  their  ministers.  As  if  the  confident  accusers 
themselves  were  men  of  such  unquestionable  innocency,  as  not  to  con- 
tribute anything  to  the  sins  and  sorrows  of  the  country  ;  or  as  if  there 
were  no  other  sinners  among  us  that  are  kindling  the  wrath  of  God 
against  the  land,  and  pulling  down  his  judgments,  but  a  few  despised 
ministers  :  Or  as  if  there  were  no  other  sins  against  the  Lord  our  God 
found  among  us,  to  provoke  the  wrath  of  a  jealous  God,  but  the  sup- 
posed deviations  of  pious,  conscientious,  learned  men,  truly  studious 
of  truth  and  reformation,  and  a  due  progress  therein. 

We  could  quote  page  after  page  from  this  faithful  and  fearless 
discourse,  which  might  be  pondered  to  good  advantage  by  the 
men  in  every  generation  who  set  themselves  up  as  conservators, 
in  opposition  to  freedom  and  progress  in  religious  thought,  and 
who  too  often  become  slanderers  and  persecutors  ;  but  one 
paragraph  more  must  suffice  :  — 

What  peace  can  be  expected  so  long  as  this  trade  of  lying  and  ca- 
lumniating men  of  piety,  worth  and  authority  is  continued  and  driven 
on  among  us  ?  And  indeed  though  it  may  be  thought  by  some  that 
these  wretched  practises  are  but  the  small  devices  of  some  petty  poli- 
ticians and  little  creeping  statesmen  among  us  that  have  no  very  con- 
siderable influence  into  our  publick  affairs  :  yet  I  must  needs  say,  that 
I  look  upon  this  course  of  calumniating  your  best  men,  as  the  very 


CALUMNIATORS  REBUKED.  195 

Gunpowder-Plot  that  threatens  the  destruction  of  Church  and  State. 
Nothing  (as  experience  shews)  is  more  advantagious  to  the  designs  of 
innovators,  than  the  right  knack  of  kindling  and  fomenting  jealousies 
and  fears  in  the  minds  of  men  concerning  magistrates  and  ministers. 
Such  men  are  wont  to  make  and  improve  false  alarms  of  danger,  that 
people  mav  believe  that  religion  and  liberties  are  at  the  stake,  and  in 
danger  to  be  lost !     Designers  are  wont  to  impose  upon  the  credulitie 
and^easiness  of  well  meaning  people  this  way.  .  .  .  Moreover  these 
calumnies  are  immoralities,  and  scandalous  evils,  and  it  is  the  duty  of 
Gods  servants  to  lift  up  their  voice  as  a  trumpet,  to  cry  aloud  and  not 
spare  them  that  are  guilty  whatever  the  issue  be  :  yea  to  cry  to  God 
and  man  for  redress.     And  I  would  humbly  commend  it  to  our  Hon- 
ourable Rulers,  upon  whom  the  lot  of  this  days  Election  shall  fall,  that 
they  would  take  it  into  serious  consideration  and  fixe  upon  some  ex- 
pedient, to  put  these  lying  lips  to  silence,  and  to  find  out  the  principal 
authors' and  fomentors  of  these  mischievous  calumnies.    They  are  cer- 
tainly moral  evils,  and  God  is  angry  with  us  for  them,  (for  he  is  very 
tender  of  the  name  and  reputation  of  pious  rulers  and  ministers)  and 
many  good  people  are  deceived  and  drawn  in  the  simplicity  of  their 
hearts,  into  a  disaffection  to  their  leaders  ;  yea,  and  the  people  of  God 
abroad  are  abused  and  misinformed,  and  these  calumnies  (to  my  knowl- 
edge) are  handed  and  transmitted  over  sea  ;  insomuch  that  many  good 
people  take  it  for  granted  that  most  of  the  leaders  in  this  country  are 
meditating  a  revolt  from  the  good  old  principles  and  practises  of  their 
worthy  predecessors. 

This  sermon  must  have  made  a  deep  impression  upon  those 
who  heard  it  and  upon  those  who  heard  about  it.  It  no  doubt 
prompted  the  brethren  of  the  Third  Church  to  another  attempt 
at  reconciliation  with  the  church  from  which  they  had  felt  it  to 
be  their  duty  to  separate  themselves,  for,  as  appears  from  the 
records  of  the  latter,  a  letter  from  the  "  dissenters  "  was  read 
before  it  on  the  27th  of  June,  and  was  "much  debated."  Its 
further  discussion  was  postponed  to  the  8th  of  July,  when  a  vote 
was  passed  that  it  should  be  answered  by  "the  three  magis- 
trates and  the  three  elders."  An  answer  was  prepared,  accord- 
ingly, and,  after  several  meetings  of  the  First  Church  had  been 
held  to  consider  and  settle  its  terms,1  it  was  transmitted,  on  the 
22d  of  August,  to  Mr.  John  Hull,  addressed,  "  To  our  beloved 
brethren,  Captain  Thomas  Savage,  Mr.  Hezekiah  Usher,  Mr. 
John  Hull,  to  be  communicated  to  the  rest  of  our  brethren  who 
departed  from  us."  It  was  conceived  in  a  much  more  concili- 
atory spirit  than  previous  communications  from  the  same  source 

1  See  First  Church  Records. 


196  HISTORY  OF   THE   OLD   SOUTH   CHURCH. 

had  been,  but  it  did  not  yield  the  point  of  dismissing  and  recom- 
mending the  wives  of  the  seceding  brethren  to  the  watch  and 
care  of  the  new  church.  This  point,  indeed,  the  First  Church 
never  conceded  ;  and  it  was  only  upon  the  recommendation  of 
an  assembly  of  ministers  called,  a  year  later,  to  consider  and 
pass  judgment  upon  the  case,  that  these  long-suffering  women 
recovered  their  good  and  regular  standing  as  members  of  a 
Christian  church.  The  correspondence  which  followed  Mr. 
Oakes's  Election  Sermon  is  given  in  full  in  the  Third  Church 
Narrative,  to  which  we  again  turn  :  — 

After  a  long  silence  the  3d  Church  was  incouraged  by  Magistrates 

and   Elders  of  the  Countrey  to  make  another  Essay  for 

peace,  the  teaching  Elders  of  the  first  Church  allso  pubr 

liquely  prayed  and  exhorted  to  it  this   ensuing  letter  was  sent  unto 

them 

Hoiwurd  Reverend  and  dearely  beloved 

As  the  ey  of  Christ  in  the  midst  of  us  like  a  flame  of  fire,  and  his 
f[eet]  like  fine  brasse  is  a  matter  of  great  aw,  soe  his  severe  com- 
mand to  love  one  another  as  he  hath  loved  us  is  of  deep  meditation 
for  constan[t]  humble  obedience,  the  thoughts  of  both  presse  strongly 
to  have  salt  in  ourselves  and  peace  one  with  another,  for  indeed  what 
better  becometh  the  presence  of  the  Prince  of  Peace  than  peace  in 
his  presence  among  all  his  loyall  subjects,  seing  that  the  Spirit  of 
Christ  is  one  in  all  his  members  and  is  a  spirit  of  love  and  peace, 
hence  that  restlesse  working  in  all  his  faithfull  servants  towards  this 
peace,  making  it  easy  to  them  to  observe  all  those  other  rules  of  mu- 
tuall  forbearance  and  forgivenes  as  God  for  Christs  sake  forgave 
them,  whiles  as  the  Elect  of  God  holy  and  beloved  they  put  on  bow- 
ells  of  mercy  and  kindnes,  humblenes  of  mind  meeknes  long  suffring 
to  forbear  and  forgive  one  another,  if  any  of  them  have  a  quarrell 
against  any,  even  as  Christ  forgave  them  for  the  spirit  of  prayer  is  a 
spirit  of  forgivenes  as  it  is  said  by  our  Lord  Jesus  Matt.  11.  25.  and 
when  ye  stand  praying  forgive  if  ye  have  aught  against  any,  that  your 
ffather  allso  which  is  in  heaven  may  forgive  you  allso  your  trespasses, 
but  if  you  doe  not  forgive  neither  will  your  ffather  which  is  in  heaven 
forgive  you  your  trespasses  for  the  spirit  maketh  intercession  according 
to  the  will  of  God,  and  this  is  his  will  that  ye  forgive  one  another,  after 
his  example,  who  forgave  not  onely  the  knowne  grosse  sins  and  daily 
infirmities  of  his  people,  which  they  confesse  but  sins  that  they  are 
ignorant  of,  else  who  should  stand  before  him,  for  he  knoweth  all 
things,  but  who  of  us  understandeth  his  errours  as  we  know  in  part 
with  our  best  knowledge  soe  we  obey  in  part  in  our  best  obedience,  for 
our  obedience  cannot  exceed  our  knowledge,  what  hath  passed  from 


ANOTHER  APPEAL  FOR   PEACE.  1 97 

us  towards  you  in  these  last  transactions  could  but  be  obedience  in 
part  that  it  was  obedience  is  our  comfort,  that  it  was  but  in  part  we 
hope  doth  humble  us,  that  your  knowledge  may  exceed  ours  in  that 
matter  we  would  humbly  suppose  and  therfore  that  which  to  us  is 
obedience  may  to  you  be  offence,  hence  there  is  a  bar  to  our  Com- 
munion you  being  offended,  did  we  know  as  you  we  hope  we  should 
be  as  ready  through  the  grace  of  Christ  to  yeild  as  you  to  require  a 
particular  acknowledgement,  but  acknowledgement  cannot  be  without 
knowledge,  must  this  be  a  wall  of  separation,  and  must  it  still  keep  of 
our  peaceable  and  Brotherly  Communion,  God  forbid.  Is  there  no 
compassion  for  the  ignorant,  if  we  are  ignorant  is  not  the  blood  of 
Christ  sufficient  without  particular  acknowledgement  to  break  downe 
such  a  wall  between  those  which  live  by  faith  for  the  pardon  of  their 
ignorance  which  they  cannot  confesse,  if  there  be  any  power  in  that 
better  veiw  of  the  blood  of  Christ  to  speak  peace  between  us,  then 
we  humbly  and  earnestly  intreat  you  if  you  have  ought  against  any  or 
all  of  us  in  this  or  any  other  matter  that  you  forgive  us  as  he  hath 
forgiven  you  and  let  there  be  and  continue  brotherly  love  and  Church 
Communion  between  us  as  becometh  the  Churches  of  Saints,  As 
there  is  one  body,  one  Spirit  as  we  are  called  in  one  hope  of  our  call- 
ing one  Lord  one  faith  one  Baptisme  one  God  and  ffather  of  all,  who 
is  above  all  and  through  all  and  in  all,  soe  let  us  be  likeminded  one 
towards  another  according  to  Christ  Jesus  that  we  may  with  one  mind 
and  one  mouth  glorify  God  and  the  ffather  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
and  let  us  to  that  end  according  to  Paulls  exhortation  receive  one  an- 
other notwithstanding  all  matters  of  doubtfull  disputations  between 
us  as  Christ  allso  received  us  to  the  glory  of  God,  whereinsoever 
therefore  we  or  any  of  us  have  done  or  spoken  anything  that  hath  bin 
matter  of  greif  or  occasion  of  offence  to  you  or  any  of  you  we  againe 
and  againe  heartily  desire  you  to  forgive  it  and  forget  it.  and  let  it  be 
no  offence  to  you  that  we  receive  those  of  you  who  desire  it  that  have 
hitherto  held  Communion  at  the  table  of  the  Lord  with  us  into  our 
Communion,  but  grant  your  Loving  dismission  unto  them,  neither  let  it 
be  any  offence  for  any  of  ours  as  they  may  desire  it  to  come  and  par- 
take with  you  in  your  neerest  Communion,  or  of  yours  henceforth  on 
the  like  occasion  to  sit  downe  at  the  Lords  table  with  us,  we  trust  it 
shall  be  no  greif  of  heart  unto  you  afterwards,  we  have  all  the  same 
common  cause  viz  the  Congregationall  way  laid  downe  for  substance 
in  the  Platforme  of  discipline,  the  same  friends,  enemies,  hopes,  feares, 
dangers,  desires,  imbarked  in  the  same  Commonwealth,  and  in  hazard 
to  be  in  the  same  Common  woe,  should  god  let  loose  an  adversary 
against  us,  Oh  let  us  serry  close  togither  in  the  Lord,  union  strength- 
ens, division  weakens,  exposeth  to  contempt,  maketh  a  prey  to  the 
enimy,  multiplieth  iniquity,  and  increaseth  transgression  and  trans- 
gressors among  men,  among  saints,  its  managed  by  another  wisdome 


198  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD   SOUTH  CHURCH. 

than  that  which  is  from  above,  and  therfore  is  suted  to  ends  not  to 
be  desired,  could  the  heathen  come  to  a  forgiving,  forgetting,  burying 
all  offences,  to  heale  publique  breaches  and  strengthen  a  decayed  and 
jeoparded  Commonwealth  by  morall  vertu  and  prudence,  and  will  it 
not  be  below  Christians  to  fall  short  of  heathens  in  like  Case,  should 
we  that  have  through  grace  bin  stated  in  such  a  degree  of  profession 
fall  short,  God  forbid,  Now  God  even  our  owne  God  be  the  very 
God  of  peace,  so  quench  and  calme  our  hearts  by  his  owne  Spirit, 
and  supply  them  with  that  heavenly  oile  that  we  may  be  tenderly 
affected  with  all  brotherly  love  each  to  other  and  may  dwell  together 
as  a  daughter  with  her  mother  in  sweetest  neerest  neighbourhood  to 
his  owne  glory  and  the  furtherance  of  our  everlasting  joy  and  conso- 
lation of  his  people,  we  shall  add  no  more,  but  that  you  are  in  our 
hearts  to  dy  and  to  live  with  you  in  that  capacity  wherein  the  Lord 
hath  set  us,  to  whose  grace  commending  you  and  ourselves,  as  our- 
selves allso  to  your  Brotherly  love,  we  humbly  subscribe  ourselves. 
Your  Brethren  and  servants  in  the  Gospell 

13  :  (4)  1673  Thomas  Thatcher 

Edward  Rainsford 

To  the  Honourd  Reverend  and  beloved  Elders  and  Brethren  of  the 
first  gathered  Church  in  Boston. 

In  the  name  and  with  the  Consent  of  the  Brethren. 

This  letter  was  carryed  to  the  Teaching  Elders  by  T.  S.  H.  U.  and 

J.  H.  The  22th  of  the  6th  in  the  Evening  the  two  deacons  of  the  old 

Church  brought  unto  Mr.  John  Hull  a  letter  subscribed  to 

our  beloved  Brethren  Captaine  Tho  :  Savage,  Mr.  Hez  : 

Usher  Mr.  John  Hull  to  be  Communicated  to  the  rest  of  our  Brethren 

who  departed  from  us.     the  coppy  whereof  followeth.1 

Deare  and  we//  be/oved  Brethre?i  in  our  dearest  Lord  jfesus. 

Yours  of  the  13th  4th  1673  we  received  which  gives  occasion  to 
cleare  ourselves  of  a  misconstruction  of  a  passage  in  our  last  as  if  we 
had  imposed  a  silence  as  to  any  friendly  treaty  with  you,  for  in  truth 
we  would  neither  be,  nor  thought  to  be  men  averse  from  peace,  but 
rath[er]  from  division  and  contention,  the  former  being  our  duty  the 
latter  a[n]  abomination  to  us,  the  Lord  both  yours  and  ours  is  as  ye 
say  the  prince  of  Pea[ce]  and  his  will  it  is  that  we  should  be  at  peace 
with  all  men,  but  more  abundantly  with  such  as  professe  themselves 
to  have  us  in  their  hearts  to  live  and  to  dy  with  us  and  to  have  the 
same  common  cause  viz.  the  Congregationall  way  as  in  the 
booke  called  the  Platforme,  the  same  friends,  enimies,  and 

1  [We  have  compared  this  copy  of  the  Hist.  Society,  and  we  have  made  a  few 
letter  with  a  copy  (evidently  made  at  the  slight  verbal  changes  in  it  to  bring  the 
time)    in  the   possession  of   the   Mass.     two  into  conformity  with  each  other.] 


A    MORE   CONCILIATORY  REPLY.  1 99 

dangers,  imbarked  in  the  same  Common  weale,  and  in  hazard  to  be  in 
the  same  Common  woe,  wherfore  deare  Brethren  we  open  both  armes 
to  receive  and  unit[e]  with  you  for  the  Common  weale,  and  against 
the  Common  woe  of  the  Lords  people  in  th[is]  land,  that  transgress- 
ors may  not  be  favored  and  multiplied  among  us,  a[s]  to  your  desire 
in  yours  of  pardon  of  what  may  have  offended  any  or  all  of  us  in 
your  late  transactions  we  understand  you  to  speake  of  your  depart- 
ing from  us,  which  being  an  houre  of  temptation  may  have  found  in 
you  severall  deviations  from  the  rule,  and  that  you  soe  humbly  heartily 
and  earnestly  againe  and  againe  ask  forgivenes  as  it  implyeth  some 
blameable  proceeding  in  the  action  aforesaid,  (for  we  see  not  what 
roome  there  is  for  pardon  whe[re]  there  is  no  fault  at  all,  soe  we  see 
not  need  of  so  much  pressing  this  knowne  duty  of  Brotherly  forgive- 
nes upon  us)  wherfore  leaving  the  Rule  in  its  owne  entireties,  and 
not  revoking  our  testimony  to  it,  nor  calling  bitt[er]  sweet,  we  doe  in 
our  affection  to  you  passe  by  what  failings  have  escaped  you  in  that 
transaction  (for  soe  our  judgment  was  and  is)  and  desire  that  both 
with  you  and  us  all  bitternes  wrath  and  anger  evill  speaking  and 
clamour  may  be  put  away,  with  all  malice,  and  that  we  may  be  kind 
one  to  another,  tenderhearted,  forgiving  one  another  even  as  God  for 
Christs  sa[ke]  hath  forgiven  us.  Another  desire  of  yours  is  that 
without  our  offence  you  may  receive  some  into  your  Communion  that 
doe  desire  it,  we  conceive  you  to  speak  of  those  sisters  your  wives, 
whome  we  find  in  our  Church  reco[rds]  to  have  desired  a  release  from 
their  Covenant  ingagements.  Now  you  may  please  to  take  notice  that 
after  that  in  the  Case  of  Sarah  Pemerton  one  of  them  the  Church  did 
declare  that  they  looked  on  themselves  as  disingaged  from  any  Cove- 
nant duty  to  her,  and  that  she  ceaseth  to  stand  in  memberly  relation  to 
us  and  accordingly  we  doe  now  declare  in  love  concerning  all  the  afore- 
said sisters  that  they  are  upon  their  owne  irregular  choice  gone  out 
from  us  and  from  any  further  Authority  of  this  Church 

One  request  more  you  have  is  that  you  may  have  Communion  with  us 
at  the  Lords  table  in  which  we  desire  you  Brethren  to  beare  with  us 
that  we  cannot  as  to  our  present  light  fullfill  your  desire,  and  you  may 
the  rather  beare  with  us  herein  because  yourselves  have  laid  a  new  barr 
in  avouching  as  we  conceive  your  departure  to  be  an  act  of  your  obe- 
dience and  that  high  if  we  rightly  understand  you,  Now  if  it  were 
obedience,  we  would  gladly  know  the  scripture  Command  for  it,  that 
soe  we  may  see  your  necessity  of  so  doing  to  avoid  sin,  and  our  sin  in 
gainesaying  you  therein, 

Yet  in  order  to  the  accomplishment  of  your  desire  and  that  this 
division  may  be  forever  buryed  in  the  fuller  Amnestie,  we  would 
rejoice  that  the  Lord  may  guide  in  his  way  to  prevent  any  the  like 
unhappy  breach  in  any  of  the  Churches  of  Christ  among  us. 

Thus  have  we  deare  Brethren  received  and  Considered  your  over- 


200  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

ture  with  all  Brotherly  kindnes,  and  we  hope  that  neither  that  from 
you  nor  this  from  us  will  hinder,  but  further  your  and  our  indeavour  of 
a  fuller  understanding  one  of  another,  neverthelesse  whereto  we  have 
attayned  let  us  walke  by  the  same  rule  farewell  beloved  Brethren  we 
are  Yours  to  love  and  to  esteem  you  in  the  Lord 

19th  6th  mo  :   1673  John  Oxenbridge,  Pastor 

James  Allen  Teacher 
reserving  mine  owne  understanding  and  exception 

John  Wiswell  Elder 
with  the  Consent  of  the  Brethren 

Their  Elders  voted  to  send  their  ruling' elder  Mr.  Wiswell 1  to  see  if 
any  of  our  sisters  would  confesse  their  fault,  then  they 
would  indeavour  to  git  them  a  generall  dismission  to  some 
Church  in  order. 

The  only  sermon  of  Mr.  Thacher  which  has  come  down  to  us 
in  print  was  preached  on  a  public  fast-day,  March  26,  1674. 
Its  text  was  Isaiah  lviii.  5,  6.  It  was  published  four  years 
later,  with  an  Address  to  the  Reader  by  Increase  Mather,2  and 
with  the  following  title,  which  sufficiently  suggests  its  scope : 
"A  Fast  of  God's  Chusing,  Plainly  Opened  For  the  help  of 
those  poor  in  spirit,  whose  hearts  are  set  to  seek  the  Lord 
their  God  in  New  England,  in  the  solemn  Ordinance  of  A  Fast, 
Wherein  is  shewed  1.  The  nature  of  such  a  Fast.  2.  The 
Testimony  God  will  give  thereunto  of  his  gracious  acceptation. 
3.  The  special  Seasons  wherein  God  will  bear  witness  to  such  a 
Fast.  4.  Some  helps  to  Faith  that  it  shall  be  so.  5.  Why  such 
a  Fast  is  so  acceptable  and  successfull.  6.  How  much  this  con- 
cerns Gods  people  in  New  England.  Preached  on  a  Fast  Called 
by  Publick  Authority,  on  26.  1.  74." 

1  [Elder  Penn  had  died  October  30,  Humiliation,  and  therefore  stirred  up 
167 1.]  the  heart  of  his  Servant  beforehand  to 

2  Mr.  Mather  said  in  his  Address  :  "  It  give  instructions  and  Directions  concern- 
is  marvellous  to  consider  (for  his  Spirit  ing  the  acceptable  performance  of  so 
knoweth  what  shall  come  to  pass  in  the  great  a  duty.  Some  that  were  affected 
world,  and  inclineth  the  hearts  of  his  in  hearing  the  Word  preached,  and  that 
Messengers  accordingly,)  how  God  many  did  in  short  hand  take  what  was  de- 
times  causeth  the  words  of  his  Servants  livered,  have  importuned  the  Reverend 
in  their  publick  Ministrations  to  fall  in  Author  to  give  way  unto  its  publication, 
with  his  providential  dispensations  ;  of  unto  whose  desires  he  hath  at  last  con- 
which  we  have  some  instance  in  the  Ser-  ceded.  And  I  know  not  but  that  the 
mon  herewith  emitted,  which  was  de-  publication  of  what  is  in  this  way  pre- 
livered  some  years  agoe,  even  a  little  sented  may  be  as  seasonable  as  the 
before  our  late  troubles.  The  Lord  preaching  of  it  at  first  was."  The  Ad- 
knew  that  Boston,  yea,  that  New  Eng-  dress  is  dated  April,  1678,  six  months 
land  would  have  cause  for  many  days  of  before  Mr.  Thacher's  death. 


ADDRESS   OF  THE    WOMEN.  201 

We  come  now  to  the  closing  sentences  of  the  Third  Church 
Narrative :  — 

The  sisters  being  the  wives  of  the  first  dissenters  and  now  are  the 
third  Church  in  Boston  whose  dismission  from  the  first  t  ](6)l6 
Church  was  soe  often  sought  but  in  vaine,  and  who  had 
bin  now  above  3  yeares  and  a  half  denyed  Communion  with  the  said 
Church  ;  made  their  addresse  to  the  3d  Church  for  their  admission 
with  them  where  they  had  enjoyed  Communion  all  this  time,  the 
Addresse  followeth  :  — 

Reverend  and  much  Esteemed  in  the  Lord. 

Having  long  tyme  wated  in  hope  of  the  reconcilliation  of  the 
churches  and  obteining  a  dismission  to  yourselves  and  after  all  at- 
tempts and  Endeavours  used  by  yourselves  having  this  for  answer 
respecting  ourselves  That  they  looked  at  themselves  as  discharged 
from  any  Covenant  duty  to  us  and  that  wee  cease  to  stand  in  any 
memberly  relation  to  them  And  that  wee  have  upon  our  owne  ir- 
regular choyce,  gone  out  from  them  and  from  any  further  Authority  of 
their  church  Wee  therefore  intreate  you  to  receive  us  into  church 
membership  with  yourselves,  considering  that  meerly  for  holding 
church  Communion  with  yourselves  wee  are  brought  into  the  same 
Condition  with  you  in  relation  to  that  Church  whereof  both  you  and 
wee  were  members,  For  our  dismission  was  at  first  desired,  and  that 
according  to  the  first  Council  you  were  advised  upon  that  churches 
refusall  to  take  it  up  by  a  peaceable  secession,  which  you  did,  and 
according  to  order  joyned  together  into  a  church  Society,  and  officers 
being  orderly  chosen  and  ordeyned  with  you,  wee  thought  it  our  duty 
to  hold  Communion  with  you  being  involved  in  the  same  Cause,  which 
holding  of  Communion  they  call  our  irregular  going  out  from  them  &c 
for  which  indeed  they  never  dealt  with  us  singly  or  together  according 
to  anyknowne  order  of  the  Gospell,  but  according  to  their  vote  on  24: 
2d  1670  in  these  words  [wee  doe  declare  that  wee  cannot  have  Com- 
munion with  such  of  ours  at  the  Lords  table  who  have  and  doe  com- 
municate with  them  untill  they  give  satisfaction.]  they  have  refused 
Communion  with  us:  and  so  (as  may  be  Conceived)  wee  ly  under 
the  same  rule  of  Joyning  to  you  and  being  received  by  you,  as  you 
did  of  Joyning  together  and  receiving  each  other  in  your  first  Coali- 
tion for  they  themselves  being  interpreters  wee  have  made  a  Seces- 
sion from  them  upon  their  refusing  a  dismission  unto  us,  by  holding 
church  Communion  with  yourselves  and  so  are  hopelesse  of  help 
from  them,  except  wee  would  renounce  communion  with  you  which 
we  cannot  in  Conscience  do,  Besides  wee  understand  that  it  hath 
bene  the  advice  of  many  of  the  Reverend  Elders  severall  tymes  at  the 
Election  Courts  Assembled  and  under  the  hands  of  some  of  the  most 
Ancient  of  them,  that  we  should  joyne  unto  you  and  be  received  by 


202 


HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 


you,  which  advice  concurring  with  the  Counsell  given  yourselves  by 
the  Second  Council  in  the  same  case,  wee  submit  unto  and  accordingly 
desire  the  benefit  thereof  •  Earnestly  intreating  the  god  of  all  grace  so 
to  fill  us  with  his  Spirit,  that  wee  may  be  fit  to  renew  our  Covenant 
with  him  and  with  your  church,  and  to  walke  in  covenant  with  him- 
selfe  and  with  yourselves  unto  all  gratious  acceptation  with  him  and 
to  his  Eternall  glory  by  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord,  wee  are  bold  to  sub- 
scribe ourselves,  Dearely  Beloved  in  the  Lord. 

Your  Sisters  in  the  Lord  and  fellowship  of  the  Gospell. 

August  27  :   1674 

Margreatt  Thacher  Elizabeth  Alden 


Elizabeth  Gibbs 
Mary  Norton 
Johanna  Davis 
Hannah  Frary 
Mary  Salter 
Elishua  Thirton 
Sara  Walker 
Mary  Tap  en 


Elizabeth  Beck 
Judith  Hull 
Sarah  Oliver 
Mary  Savage 
Mary  Ellet 
Reanis  Belcher 
Mary  Brackit 


Lidia  Scottow 
Elizabeth  Rainsford 
Elizabeth  Rocke 
Susanna  Dawes 
Sarah  Pemberton 
Johanna  Mason 
Alice  Harper 
Sarah  Bodeman 
Rachel  Rawson 


Delivered  and  thus  superscribed  to  Elder  Rainsford  ffor  the  Rev- 
erend Elders  and  Brethren  of  the  3d  Church  of  Christ  in  Boston.1 

Upon  the  publishing  of  their  addres  unto  the  Church,  the  sisters 
owning  of  it  publiquely,  they  were  all  admitted  members  of  this  3d 
Church.  [October  16.  1674.] 

This  narrative  preceding  was  by  Mr.  Sam  :  Sewall,  Deacons  Ellyot 
and  ffrary  and  Josh.  Scottow  comitted  to  the  reverend  Sam  :  Torry  the 
onely  surviving  Secretary  of  the  last  Councill,  and  the  Assemblies 
Moderator  at  Mr.  Thatchers  Ordination,  by  him  to  be  examined 
and  compared  with  records  of  transactions  relating  to  3d  Church  he 
after  having  it  diverse  moneths  in  his  Custody  returned  it  with  full 
approbation,  and  that  this  is  the  true  coppy  of  that  which  past  his 
examination 


Attests 
2  :  ffe[bruary]  i6o[  ] 

1  [We  have  corrected  this  letter  by 
the  original,  which  is  on  the  files  of  the 
Old  South  Church.  It  was  written  by 
John  Hull,  and  the  names  of  Joanna 
Davis,  Ranis  Belcher,  Mary  Brackett, 
Susanna  Dawes,  Sarah  Pemberton,  Jo- 
anna Mason,  Alice  Harper,  and  Sarah 
Bodman  are  in  his  handwriting.  Lydia 
Scottow  and  Elizabeth  Rock  did  not  join 
the  church  until  the  8th  of  January, 
1674-5.  Joanna  Davis's  name  does  not 
appear  on  the  church  lists.] 

2  [After  the  certificate  of  Mr.  Scottow, 


Josh  :  Scottow  2 


who,  as  we  judge,  drew  up  the  Narrative, 
is  the  following :  — 

Boston  January  25  91-2 

Having  seen  a  transcript  of  the  3d 
Churches  proceedings  containing  one 
hundred  sixtysix  pages  of  writeing  and 
being  desired  to  passe  my  judgement 
on  the  worth  of  the  writeing  therof  do 
accordingly  judge  it  to  be  worth  the 
summe  of  foure  pounds  three  shillings 
money 

Eliezer  Moody.] 


%5 


Hi 

It* 


IT 


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1 
x!4 


JUDGMENT  OF   THE  MINISTERS.  203 

The  final  appeal  of  the  women  upon  which  the  church  acted, 
as  a  formal  application  for  admission  to  its  membership,  was 
supported  by  the  judgment  of  an  assembly  of  ministers  con- 
vened in  the  preceding  month  of  May,  in  a  document  written 
by  the  Rev.  Thomas  Cobbett,  which  has  been  preserved  on  the 
files  of  the  Old  South  :  — 

Upon  a  motion  made  by  the  South  church  of  Boston  unto  such 
Elders  of  other  churches  as  were  there  assembled  upon  the  28  of 
May,  1674,  for  the  resolution  of  this  following  question, 

"What  is  our  duty  towards  those  members  of  the  Old  church  who 
were  and  still  are  secluded  from  communion  with  that  church  in  the 
sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  only  because  of  their  participation 
with  us  therein,  and  who  also  desire  to  join  in  church  fellowship  with 
us  ? " 

Those  elders,  having  inquired  into  and  labored  after  a  right  un- 
derstanding of  the  true  state  of  the  Question  as  it  ariseth  from  mat- 
ter of  fact  and  relates  unto  matter  of  practice  in  the  great  duties  of 
church  communion  and  communion  of  churches,  do,  humbly  and  in 
the  fear  of  God,  offer  our  sincere  understanding  of  the  case  stated  in 
this  question  :  and,  2dly,  our  advice  and  counsell  thereupon. 

1.  That  the  church  inquiring,  respecting  both  its  constitution  and 
administrations  both  of  Doctrine  and  worship,  is,  and  ought  to  be 
acknowledged,  a  true  church  of  Christ,  standing  right  in  the  order  of 
communion  of  churches  in  all  respects  ;  free  and  clear  from  any  just 
scandall  or  offence  given  or  taken.  As  appears  by  the  oft  renewed 
acts  and  constant  practise  of  Communion,  and  by  the  right  hand  of 
fellowship  orderlye  and  mutually  given  and  taken  between  them  and 
generally  all  other  churches  as  occasion  doth  require. 

2.  That  therefore  communion  with  this  church  in  the  participation 
of  the  Lord's  supper  duely  and  regularly  administered  is  not  morall 
evil,  nor  justly  offensive  unto  any  other  church,  any  of  whose  inoffen- 
sive members  shall  orderly  and  occasionally  for  their  own  edification 
and  comfort  desire  to  communicate  with  them  therein,  by  virtue  of 
Communion  of  churches. 

3.  That  therefore  for  any  other  church  to  seclude  or  suspend  a  con- 
siderable number  of  their  own  (otherwise  inoffensive  members)  from 
communion  with  themselves  in  that  holy  sacrament,  meerly  and  only 
for  participation  with  that  church  therein  is  not  justifiable  as  to  the 
grounds  and  reasons  thereof :  but  seems  to  us  to  be  crosse  to  the 
rules  and  order  of  the  communion  of  churches,  and  so  to  their  peace 
and  union. 

4.  That  so  to  seclude  and  suspend  such  and  so  many  members  in- 
definitely from  church  communion  without  the  ordinary  improvement 
and  application  of  rules  of  church  discipline,  or  any  orderly  proceed- 


204  HISTORY  OF   THE   OLD   SOUTH  CHURCH. 

ing  in  a  church  way,  to  call  them  before  the  church  in  public  church 
assembly  to  convince  them  of  the  evil  and  sinfullnesse  of  the  fact,  to 
reduce,  recover  them  and  restore  them  and  that  singly  and  severally, 
each  one  by  themselves,  and  to  let  such  and  so  many  members  to  live 
and  ly  for  divers  years  together  under  such  a  suspension  without  any 
further  proceeding  in  any  church  is  not  justifyable  for  the  manner  of 
it,  there  having  ben  no  regular  forensicall  exercise  of  judiciall  power 
by  the  church  according  to  known  scripture  rules  of  church  discipline, 
nor  any  liberty  or  opportunity  granted  to  reputed  offenders  either  to 
clear  their  innocency,  if  innocent,  or  to  hear  the  church  and  expresse 
their  repentance  if  guilty,  and  therefore  we  cannot  judge  such  a  seclu- 
sion and  suspension  to  be  any  regular  church  censure. 

5.  That  therefore  any  such  declarative  act  of  any  church  whereby 
they  do  in  such  a  way  and  manner  sentence  any  or  so  many  of  their 
own  members  unto  non-communion  with  themselves  and  so  conse- 
quently with  all  other  churches  it  being  neither  properly  an  Ecclesi- 
astical! admonition  nor  excommunication.  It  is  not  (de  jure)  binding 
either  in  foro  Dei  aut  conscientiae,  and  is  therefore  no  reall  regular 
bar  either  unto  those  members  from  joining  with  another  church, 
neither  unto  another  church  from  receiving  them  into  their  fellowship, 
there  having  ben  all  due  means  used  for  their  reconciliation  to  and 
dismission  from  the  said  church  unto  that  which  they  find  more  for 
their  edification  and  consolation  in  the  Lord ;  and  yet,  it  proving  in 
vaine  and  appearing  altogether  impossible  and  (as  to  man)  after  so 
many  years  waiting  utterly  hopelesse,  that  it  should  be  obtained  for 
the  future. 

In  such  a  case  we  judge 

That  such  members  may  joyne,  and  such  a  Church  unto  whome  they 
desire  to  joyn  may  receive  them  into  their  fellowship  without  the 
transgression  of  any  rule  of  Church  order  or  any  just  offence  given 
unto  the  church  unto  which  they  did  belong,  provided  they  be  in  a 
capacity,  by  a  convenient  vicinity  and  other  necessary  circumstances, 
to  walk  with  that  church  constantly  in  the  course  of  church  fellowship, 
and  come  according  to  their  church-Covenant. 

This  judgment  was  signed  by  the  following  clergymen : 
Samuel  Whiting,  Sr.,  of  Lynn,  John  Eliot,  of  Roxbury,  Peter 
Hobart,  of  Hingham,  Thomas  Cobbett,  of  Ipswich,  John  Sher- 
man, of  Watertown,  William  Hubbard,  of  Ipswich,  John  Higgin- 
son,  of  Salem,  John  Wilson,  of  Medfield,  Jeremiah  Hubbard,  of 
Topsfield,  Samuel  Phillips,  of  Rowley,  Joseph  Rowlandson,  of 
Lancaster,  Seaborn  Cotton,  of  Hampton,  N.  H.,  and  John  Hale, 
of  Beverly. 


CHAPTER   IV. 

1675-1683. 


PHILIPS    WAR. THE    QUAKERS. RECONCILIATION. 

UPON  the  abatement  of  the  agitation  on  the  Synodical  ques- 
tion, there  was  a  brief  period  of  quiet  in  the  colony.  The 
historian  says :  "  The  state  of  things  at  this  period  furnishes  no 
especially  exciting  topics  for  conversation.  There  is  no  present 
menace  of  disturbance  from  England.  The  agitation  about  the 
Synodical  question  is  abated.  Quakers  cause  little  apprehen- 
sion, and  Baptists  are  getting  to  be  kindly  regarded.  Now  and 
then  a  villager  who  has  been  at  the  Thursday  lecture  in  Boston 
brings  back  news  respecting  the  King's  attitude  towards  Hol- 
land, or  the  measures  of  Parliament  against  the  Duke  of  York, 
or  the  conjectured  policy  of  Lord  Danby,  or  the  annoyances  of 
English  or  Scottish  Nonconformists.  The  politics  of  town  and 
parish  are  from  time  to  time  presenting  some  new  aspect  ; 
courtships  and  marriages,  births  and  deaths,  claim  notice ; 
militia  training  days  make  a  recreation  and  a  sort  of  festival ; 
and  all  the  year  round,  the  doctrine  delivered  in  the  last  Sun- 
day's sermons  is  matter  for  thought  and  discourse  during  the 
week.  In  the  marts  of  business,  interests  are  more  various,  and 
social  intercourse  has  more  activity  and  show.  But  everywhere 
alike  there  is  a  general  appearance  of  security,  prosperity,  so- 
briety, good  order,  and  content."  1 

The  quiet  of  this  time,  we  are  told,  also,  was  undisturbed  by 
any  general  apprehension  of  danger  from  the  aborigines.  "  For 
more  than  a  generation   there   has    been   no  war  with  them, 

1  Palfrey's  History,  vol.  iii.  pp.  136,  137. 


206  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

though  there  have  been  occasional  difficulties  and  quarrels.  The 
youngest  person  of  European  parentage  who  has  seen  war  on 
this  continent  is  already  almost  too  old  for  military  service."  1 

But  this  brief  period  of  quiet  was  to  be  interrupted,  and  fol- 
lowed by  years  of  terror  and  disaster. 

Massasoit,  the  friendly  chieftain,  died  in  1660,  leaving  two 
sons,  Wamsutta  and  Metacomet,  who,  being  ambitious  of  high- 
sounding  European  names,  came  by  order  of  the  court  at  Plym- 
outh to  be  called  Alexander  and  Philip.  Alexander  lived  only 
two  years  after  his  father,  and  in  1662  Philip  became  chief 
sachem  of  the  Pokanokets.  From  the  very  first,  this  wily 
savage  was  suspected  by  the  colonists  of  Plymouth,  to  whom  he 
professed  allegiance  and  attachment.  In  August,  1662,  they 
summoned  him  to  a  conference  with  them,  when  he  made  many 
protestations  of  friendship,  and  promised  to  adhere  faithfully  to 
the  treaty  engagements  of  his  father  and  brother  ;  the  English, 
on  their  part,  engaging  to  afford  to  him  and  his  people  "  such 
friendly  assistance,  by  advice  and  otherwise,  as  they  justly 
might,"  and  "  at  all  times  to  carry  friendly  towards  them."  But 
Philip  was  almost  constantly  under  suspicion,  although  he 
strangely  succeeded  in  defending  himself  against  the  charges  of 
hostility  and  conspiracy  which,  with  a  good  deal  of  circumstan- 
tiality, were  from  time  to  time  brought  against  him.  In  1671, 
during  one  of  his  periods  of  contumacy,  he  came  to  Boston,  and 
seems  to  have  made  a  favorable  impression  upon  the  leading  men 
here,  for  some  of  them  wrote  to  Plymouth  in  his  behalf,  at  the 
same  time  offering  their  assistance  in  bringing  about  a  friendly 
settlement  of  the  pending  quarrel.  This  proposal  for  arbitra- 
tion was  accepted,  and  Major-general  Leverett,  Mr.  Danforth, 
and  Mr.  Davis  went  to  Plymouth,  and  with  Governor  Winthrop, 
of  Connecticut,  who  had  joined  them,  "had  a  fair  and  deliberate 
hearing  of  the  controversy."  The  result  was,  that  after  listen- 
ing to  all  that  Philip  had  to  say  for  himself,  in  his  relations  with 
the  Plymouth  authorities,  the  arbitrators  "  adjudged  that  he  had 
done  a  great  deal  of  wrong  and  injury  respecting  the  premises, 
and  also  abused  them  by  carrying  lies  and  false  stories  unto 
them  ;  and  they  persuaded  him  to  make  acknowledgment  of  his 
fault,  and  to  seek  for  reconciliation."  He  made  full  submission 
to  the  Plymouth  magistrates,  by  an  instrument  dated  September 
29  of  the  same  year,  and,  in  sign  of  fealty,  he  engaged  to  pay 
yearly  a  tribute  of  five  wolves'  heads,  besides  a  hundred  pounds 

1  Palfrey's  History,  vol.  iii.  p.  132. 


PHILIP'S    WAR.  207 

in  three  years  to  defray  the  charge  which  he  had  now  occa- 
sioned. The  quiet  thus  obtained  continued  until  1674,  when 
the  governor  of  Plymouth  was  informed  by  Sausaman,  a  "  pray- 
ing Indian  "  and  a  preacher,  who  had  been  taught  at  Cambridge, 
that  Philip  was  endeavoring  to  raise  new  troubles,  and  to  engage 
all  the  sachems  round  about  him  in  a  war.  Hearing  that  he 
was  again  under  suspicion  and  that  he  would  probably  be  sent 
for  by  the  court,  he  went  of  his  own  accord  to  Plymouth,  in 
March,  1675,  and  once  more  made  earnest  protestations  of  his 
innocence.  These  did  not  satisfy  the  assistants,  but,  "  not 
having  full  proof,  and  hoping  that  the  discovery  so  far  would 
cause  him  to  desist,  they  dismissed  him  friendly,"  with  some 
words  of  admonition  and  warning.  Soon  after  Sausaman  dis- 
appeared, and  his  murdered  body  was  found  in  a  pond.  Philip, 
who  lived  at  Mount  Hope,  now  a  part  of  the  town  of  Bristol, 
was  daily  becoming  more  bold,  and  at  length  on  Sunday,  the 
20th  of  June,  commenced  hostilities  by  a  raid  on  Swanzey,  the 
nearest  of  the  English  towns  to  his  territory ;  two  houses  were 
then  burned,  and  three  days  later  twelve  more  were  rifled  ;  a 
day  or  two  afterward,  several  of  the  inhabitants  were  massacred, 
and  their  bodies  treated  with  barbarous  indignity.  ' 

We  do  not  propose  to  narrate  the  events  of  the  three  years 
following  the  outbreak  at  Swanzey,  known  in  our  history  as 
King  Philip's  War,  which,  spreading  from  Plymouth  Colony,  over- 
ran a  large  part  of  New  England.  Central  Massachusetts  was 
desolated,  and  almost  every  settlement  beyond  the  Piscataqua 
was  laid  in  ashes.  "  It  was  a  succession  of  ruthless  ravages  on 
a  larger  or  a  smaller  scale.  Outlying  houses  were  fired  by 
night,  while  their  inmates  slept.  Husbandmen  at  their  work, 
and  women  at  the  well,  and  travellers  on  the  road,  were  shot 
down.  Only  in  the  large  towns  could  an  Englishman  leave  his 
door  with  safety.  Every  bush  near  it  might  hide  a  watchful 
marksman."  Of  the  eighty  or  ninety  towns  in  Plymouth  and 
Massachusetts,  ten  or  twelve  were  wholly  destroyed,  and  forty 
others  were  more  or  less  damaged  by  fire,  making  together 
nearly  two  thirds  of  the  whole  number.  There  was  scarcely  an 
English  family  in  the  two  colonies  that  was  not  in  mourning. 
Impoverishment  was  added  to  bereavement.  At  the  termina- 
tion of  hostilities,  the  debt  which  had  been  incurred  by  the 
colony  of  Plymouth  is  believed  to  have  exceeded  the  value  of 
the  whole  personal  property  of  its  people.1 

1  In    this    sketch,    we    have    followed     fourth  and   fifth    chapters    of    the    third 
closely    Dr.     Palfrey's    account    in    the     volume  of  his  History. 


208 


HISTORY  OF   THE    OLD   SOUTH   CHURCH. 


The  members  of  the  Third  Church  bore  their  full  share  of  the 
responsibilities  and  perils  of  this  terrible  time.  William  Davis, 
as  we  have  seen,  went  to  Plymouth  as  an  arbitrator  in  1671, 
when,  it  was  hoped,  arrangements  had  been  made  to  secure  a 
permanent  peace  between  the  red  men  and  their  white  neigh- 
bors. As  soon  as  the  intelligence  of  the  first  attack  on  Swanzey 
reached  Boston,  the  Council,  in  response  to  an  appeal  from 
Governor  Josiah  Winslow,  decided  to  send  messengers  to  the 
Narragansett  and  Nipmuck  tribes  which  were  within  the  juris- 
diction of  Massachusetts,  to  prevent,  if  possible,  an  alliance  on 

their  part  with  Philip,  and  so 
to  circumscribe  the  limits  of 
the  revolt.  These  messen- 
gers were  Edward  Hutchin- 
son, Seth  Perry,  and  Wil- 
liam Tower.  On  the  24th  of 
June,  when  news  of  the  gen- 
eral outbreak  came  to  hand, 
and  a  further  appeal  from 
Plymouth  had  been  received, 
Thomas  Savage  and  Thomas 
Brattle  were  sent  in  haste  to 
Philip,  on  a  mission  of  peace  ; 
but  when  they  reached  Swan- 
zey they  saw  that  the  time 
for  negotiation  and  remon- 
strance was  past,  and  they  returned  to  Boston  without  speak- 
ing with  him.  On  the  same  day  it  was  resolved  to  raise  a 
company  of  foot  soldiers  and  a  troop  of  horse ;  Daniel  Hench- 
man was  appointed  to  the  command  of  the  former,  and  Thomas 
Prentice  of  the  latter.  Other  troops  were  raised  as  the  war 
went  on,  and  the  management  of  the  campaign  was  entrusted 
to  Major  Thomas  Savage.1  Benjamin  Gibbs  held  a  captain's 
commission.  John  Hull  was  treasurer-at-war,  and  some  of 
the  account  books,  a  journal  and  two  ledgers,  kept  by  him  at 


o-firteof 


S~oJu~oM^~ 


1  Edward  Rawson,  as  secretary  of  the 
Council,  wrote  to  the  governor  of  Con- 
necticut, June  2S,  1675  :  — 

"  Major  Generall  Denison  was  chosen 
for  to  goe  General  of  these  forces,  but 
he  being  taken  ill  Captain  Savage  is 
sent  Commander-in-chief,  Captain  Pren- 
tis     commanding     the     horse,    Captain 


Henchman  and  Captain  Mosley  Captains 
of  the  foot.  Our  eyes  are  unto  the  Lord 
for  his  presence  with  them,  and  hope 
you  will  not  be  wanting  in  your  prares 
and  watchfulness  over  the  Indians,  and 
particularly  we  request  you  to  use  your 
utmost  authority  to  restrain  the  Mon- 
hegins  and  Pequods." 


SOLDIERS  IN  PHILIP'S    WAR.  209 

the  time  are  extant.  His  "  system  of  book-keeping  was  a 
sort  of  double  entry,  or  '  a  mixed  method.'  It  was  very  ex- 
haustive, giving  to  every  department  of  the  colony's  transac- 
tions a  separate  ledger  account,  as  well  as  to  every  person  men- 
tioned in  the  journal."  In  these  accounts  we  find  three  of  his 
fellow  church-members,  Theophilus  Frary,  Jacob  Eliot,  and  John 
Morse,  recorded  as  commissaries  of  subsistence.  We  find,  also, 
on  the  rolls,  the  names  of  the  following  members  of  the  Third 
Church  and  congregation  :  Joseph  Belcher,  who  was  wounded 
in  the  knee  and  had  his  horse  killed  under  him  ;  Perez  Savage, 
who  was  severely  wounded  early  in  the  campaign  ;  Nathaniel 
Davenport,  Mr.  Thacher's  son-in-law,  one  of  the  six  captains 
killed  in  the  action  of  the  19th  of  December  ;  Moses  Paine, 
Asaph  Eliot,  Ebenezer  Hayden,  William  Manly,  Samuel  Veazie, 
Simon  Daniel.1  In  February,  1675-6,  Major  Savage  was 
placed  in  command  of  an  expedition  for  operations  in  the  cen- 
tral part  of  Massachusetts.  His  son-in-law,  Benjamin  Gillam, 
was  second  in  command,  and  we  recognize  in  the  lists,  as  Third 
Church  men,  Gilbert  Cole,  David  Raynsford,  Henry  Phillips, 
Richard  Woodye,  Manasseh  Beck,  Benjamin  Thurston,  Thomas 
Savage,  Jr.,  William  Gerrish,  William  Pollard.2 

John  Cunnabell,  who  joined  the  church  in  1689,  was  a  mem- 
ber of  Captain  William  Turner's  company.  He  assisted  in  the 
defence  of  Northampton,  March  14,  and  he  was  at  the  fight 
near  Hatfield  a  few  weeks  later,  when  Captain  Turner  fell. 

While  so  many  of  the  able-bodied  men  of  the  church  were 
exposed  to  peril  in  the  field,  we  have  reason  to  believe  that  the 
older  men  and  the  women  were  doing  their  part  at  home.  The 
Narrative  of  Mrs.  Rowlandson,  of  Lancaster,  who  was  taken 
prisoner  when  that  village  was  sacked  by  Philip,  February  10, 
1676  (her  husband,  the  minister  of  the  town,  being  absent  at  the 
time),  and  ransomed  after  nearly  three  months  of  frightful  suf- 
fering, on  the  2d  of  May,  tells  us  of  their  Christian  sympathy 
and  liberality :  — 

The  twenty  pounds,  the  price  of  my  redemption,  was  raised  by  some 
Boston  gentlewomen  and  Mr.  Usher,  whose  bounty  and  charity  I  would 
not  forget  to  make  mention  of. 

1  We   read   of  Mr.   Andrew  Belcher,  which  there  must  have  been  great  suffer- 

an  enterprising  merchant,  and  a  promi-  ing." 

nent  member  of  the  Third  Church  a  few         2  See  an  interesting  and  valuable  series 

years   later,  going  with  a  sloop    to   the  of  papers  on  Soldiers  in    King  Philip's 

Narragansett    country  in  the   winter    of  War,  by  the  Rev.  George  M.  Bodge,  in 

1675-76,  laden  with  supplies,   "without  the  N.  Etig.  Hist,  and  Gen.  Register. 


2IO  HISTORY  OF   THE   OLD   SOUTH   CHURCH. 

Our  family  being  now  gathered  together,  the  South  Church  in  Bos- 
ton hired  a  house  for  us.  Then  we  removed  from  Mr.  Shepard's, 
(those  cordial  friends,)  and  went  to  Boston  where  we  continued  about 
three-quarters  of  a  year.  Still  the  Lord  went  along  with  us,  and  pro- 
vided graciously  for  us. 

"  There  is  a  friend  that  sticketh  closer  than  a  brother."  Truly  have 
we  found  him  to  be  such  a  friend  to  us  in  whose  house  we  lived,  viz. 
Mr.  James  Whitcomb,  a  friend  near  hand  and  far  off.1 

After  the  death  of  Philip,  hostilities  broke  out  in  another 
quarter.  A  letter  from  Mr.  Thacher  to  his  son  Peter,  afterward 
minister  of  Milton,  who  had  gone  to  England  on  a  visit,  throws 
some  light  on  these  troublous  times:2  — 

Boston.  16.  8.  76. 
My  dear  Sonne  Peter, 

I  have  received  foure  letters  from  you,  whereby  I  have  joyfully  and 
I  hope  thankfully  taken  notice  of  the  kindnesse  of  God  in  your  com- 
fortable voyage  to  and  kind  reception  in  England  by  our  freinds  ;  which 
hath  enlarged  my  desires  to  hear  farther  from  you.  I  hope  also  that 
you  have  long  ere  this  received  mine  to  you.  At  present  you  may 
understand  that  God  hath  utterly  scattered,  delivered  up  and  subdued 
the  heathen  that  first  rose  up  against  us,  delivered  up  Philip  to  death, 
cleared  the  Costs  of  Plimmouth,  Narranganset,  Connecticut,  Quabaag 
Sec.  from  those  bloody  and  blasphemous  heathen  ;  But  behold  a  new 
Enemy  is  broken  out  to  the  East  and  Northward  who  have  layd  wast 
the  Country  &c.  Slaine  my  good  freind  Captain  Lake  and  many 
others  :  and  this  very  day  past  wofull  Tidings  is  come  of  the  taking  in 
by  surrender  Mr.  Scotto's  garrison  at  Stony-point,  he  being  but  the  last 
week  come  from  the  Same  to  Boston  and  leaving  Squire  Joslin,  as  they 
call  him,  cheif  commander  ;  what  the  particular  circumstances  ar  is 
not  yet  certeine  amongst  us  ;  but  this  is  certeine  the  place  is  taken, 
The  garison  strong,  two  great  peices  there  and  many  Small  armes  and 
good  store  of  provisions.  Such  a  spirit  of  fear  and  cowardice  is 
poured  out  on  the  inhabitants  of  those  parts  that  it  is  exceeding  om- 
inous, the  Indians  carry  all  before  them  by  sea  and  land,  on  the  maine 
and  on  the  Islands  in  Casco.  have  taken  severall  vessells,  one  with 
two  great  guns  in  it  &rc     This  part  of  the  warre  is  like  to  be  the  more 

1  [See  A  True  History  of  the  Captivity  1674.      In  tne  Third  Church  Narrative 

and  Restoration  of  Mrs.  Mary  Rowland-  his  name  is  spelled  Rawlinson  and  Row- 

so>i.     Her  daughter,  six  years  old,  was  leyson.     See  ante,  pp.  62,  67.] 

struck  by  a  bullet,  in  her  mother's  arms,  2  We  are  indebted  to  the  Hon.  Peter 

and   died    after    nine    clays    of   suffering  Thacher  for  a  copy  of  this  letter.     It  was 

from  exposure  and  want  of  food  on  the  superscribed :    "  These,   For    his    Sonne, 

march.     Mr.  Rowlandson  was  a  member  Mr.  Peter  Thacher,  At  Mr.  Matthew  Bar- 

of  the  Second  Council  in  1669,  and  one  ker's,  at  Turners-hall,  Cor.  Philpot  Lane, 

of  the  signers  of  the  judgment  of  May,  London." 


LETTER   FROM  MR.    THACHER.  211 

difficult,  because  So  far  off  from  us  :  because  so  neer  the  French,  who 
are  reported  to  be  amongst  the  Indians.  This  day  it  was  said  that 
there  were  twenty  in  the  Exploit  above  signifyed  ;  But  we  have  no 
certeinty  of  it,  and  foolish  Jealosies  may  feigne  that  fear  makes  Scare- 
crows to  affreight  the  fearfull.  and  the  sluggard  says  a  lyon  is  in  the 
way.  So  may  those  fearfull  persons  think  to  hide  their  shame,  by 
such  suggestions.  As  for  myself,  I  at  present  injoy  a  comfortable 
measure  of  health  and  strength  :  tho'  laboring  under  some  weaknes 
Gotten  in  my  sickenesse.  If  you  have  not  more  than  ordinary  En- 
couragement and  a  most  Evident  call  to  stay  in  England  I  hope  I 
shall  see  you  here  if  the  Lord  lengthens  our  lives  to  the  next  Summer. 
The  Lord  guide  your  whole  way  and  blesse  you  with  all  the  blessings 
of  his  everlasting  Covenant :  and  make  you  a  blessing  wherever  you 
come  that  he  may  be  your  Portion.  I  had  almost  forgot  to  tell  you 
that  I  received  a  letter  from  my  brother  Paul  Thacher  that  lives  in 
Salisbury  certifying  that  my  brother  John  dyd  three  yeer  agoe  very 
Poor.  That  my  mother  law's  [sic]  Sister  one  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Coombs 
widdow  to  Mr.  Coombs,  the  great  Anabaptist,  is  alive.  She  was  a 
lively  hearty  Christian  when  I  lived  at  Salisbury  and  I  am  confident 
would  rejoice  greatly  to  See  you ;  being  an  old  freind  of  my  father's. 
If  you  go  thither  I  presume  that  you  will  find  many  old  freinds  that 
will  rejoice  much  to  see  you.  But  I  fear  such  [ruine  ?]  coming  on 
England  that  I  wish  you  here.  To  the  g[racious  father  of  our]  Dear 
Jesus  I  [commend]  you  resting 

your  and  loving  father, 

Thomas  Thacher. 

Your  sister  Betty  is  newly  recovered  blessed  be  God  from  a  sore 
dysentery  flux,  which  is  malignant  and  hath  taken  away  many.  To 
B.  D.  your  salutations  were  very  acceptable.  Your  brother  Thomas 
is  not  yet  returned  from  New  York,  but  is  expected  dayly.  The  Lord 
bring  him  in  safety.  Your  brother  Ralph  and  his  family  as  also  your 
brother  Thomas's  for  ought  I  understand  are  all  in  health. 

If  you  can,  get  Ames  Medulla  and  cases  in  English  for  your  brother 
Ralph,  do  it  and  forget  it  not.  [Here  follows  a  sentence  in  short- 
hand.1] 

Once  again  I  commend  you  to  the  grace  and  Benediction  of  God 
according  to  his  everlasting  covenant. 

18.  8.  76. 

This  day  came  news  to  hand,  that  Mr.  Joslin  was  deserted  by  those 
in  the  garrison  whilst  he  was  treating  with  the  Indians.  So  that  he 
and  foure  more  men  with  three  women  were  faine  to  flee  in  the  night ; 

1  [Mr.  William  P.  Upham,  who  is  very  to  your  [stepjmother,  and  if  there   be 

skilful   in     such     matters,    renders    the  anything  you  would  not  have  her  read, 

sentence  in  short-hand  as  follows  :"  Also,  write  it  in  Greek,  and  forget   not   your 

in  all  your  letters,  to  present  your  duty  brothers."] 


212 


HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 


one  of  the  women  dyd  by  the  way ;  they  fled  in  old  canoos  to  a  place 
not  far  from  Piscataqua  ;  so  that  Mr.  Joslin  was  innocent  in  that  mat- 
ter.1 Present  my  service  to  my  brother  and  sister  Barker  and  love  to 
my  Sonne  and  Daughter  Sheaf.2  Her  mother  received  great  comfort 
in  the  letter  she  sent  and  doth  vehemently  long  for  their  returne. 

Mr.  Hull  mentions  in  his  diary,  in  the  spring  of  1676,  the 
death  of  several  prominent  men,  among  them 
two  of  the  founders  of  the  Third  Church  : 
April  5,  Simon  Willard,  one  of  the  first  set- 
tlers of  Concord,  and  father  of  the  Rev. 
Samuel  Willard,  "  a  pious,  orthodox  man  ;  " 
he  died  at  Charlestown,  during  a  session  of 
the  court  of  assistants  ;  April  24,  "  our  good 
friend  and  partner,"  Peter  Lidget  ;  May  14, 
Hezekiah  Usher,  "  a  pious  and  useful  mer- 
chant;"  3  May  15,  Richard  Russell,  magis- 
trate and  county  treasurer  ;  May  16,  Joshua 
Atwater,  whose  granddaughter,  Mary  Clark, 
married  the  Rev.  Ebenezer  Pemberton ;  May  24,  William 
Davis. 

Samuel  Sewall  records  a  fast  at  the  house  of  Mr.  Benjamin 
Gibbs,  "for  Mr.  Thacher,"  who  was  ill,  May  23,  1676;  he  was 
better  on  the  24th,  and  on  that  day,  Wednesday,  the  Rev.  Sam- 
uel Willard  preached  the  lecture  for  him,  which  we  suppose  to 


1  ["Sabbath  day,  Aug.  20,  [1676]  we 
heard  the  amazing  newes  of  sixty  persons 
killed  at  Quinebeck,  by  barbarous  In- 
dians, of  which  were  Captain  Lake,  Mr. 
Collicot,  Mr.  Padashell.  Dilati  sunt  in 
futurum" 

"  October  1 5.  This  day  we  have  in- 
telligence that  the  Garrison  at  Black- 
point  is  surrendered  to  the  Indians. 
Note,  Captain  Scottow  at  home,  here  at 
Boston." 

"March  13  [1676-7].  Captain  Lake, 
the  Remainder  of  his  Corps,  was  hon- 
ourably buried." 

"  Captain  Thomas  Lake  was,  with  sev- 
eral others,  surprised  and  killed  by  the 
Indians  on  August  14,  near  a  fort  on  Arow- 
sick  Island,  Maine,  during  the  continu- 
ance of  the  war  at  the  eastward.  He 
had  escaped  to  another  island,  and  his 
fate  was  not  known,  nor  his  mangled 
body  recovered,  till  many  months  after- 


wards. His  monument  may  be  seen  on 
Copp's  Hill,  where  he  was  interred, 
though  it  is  not  decorated  with  the  coat 
of  arms  shown  in  Bridgman's  Inscrip- 
tions."    See  Sewall's  Dia7-yP\ 

2  [Perhaps  Sampson  Sheaffe  and  his 
wife  Mehitable,  daughter  of  Jacob 
Sheaffe  and  his  wife  Margaret,  after- 
ward Mrs.  Thacher.] 

3  The  Old  South  Church  has  a  chalice 
which  we  suppose  to  have  been  the  gift 
of  Mr.  Usher.  It  is  eight  inches  in 
height,  and  has  four  marks:  1,  lion  pas- 
sant ;  2,  leopard's  head,  crowned ;  3, 
date-letter,  indistinct ;  4,  maker's  mark, 
M,  mullet  below,  heart-shaped  shield. 
It  bears  the  inscription,  The  Gift  of  H.  V. 
Senior.     (See  the  above  cut.) 

The  same  maker's  mark  is  found  on 
London-made  plate,  1659-1672.  See  Old 
Plate,  Ecclesiastical,  etc.,  by  J.  H.  Buck, 
p.  174. 


SAMUEL   SEW  ALL.  21 3 

have  been  a  lecture  preparatory  to  the  communion.1  Sewall 
says  :  "  Being  distressed  with  melancholy,  and  troubled  con- 
cerning my  state,  I  was  relieved  by  Mr.  Willard's  sermon,  espe- 
cially at  two  places  quoted,"  namely,  "  I  will  show  thee  the  path 
of  life,"  and  "  Now  unto  him  that  is  able  to  keep  you  from  fall- 
ing," etc.  Until  now  Mr.  Thacher  had  had  no  assistance  for 
any  length  of  time  in  the  duties  of  the  pastorate,  and  no  col- 
league had  been  settled  because  the  church  had  been  unable  to 
obtain  the  right  man  for  the  position.  The  destruction  of  Gro- 
ton  by  the  Indians  and  the  dispersion  of  the  church  there  sent 
an  excellent  minister,  Mr.  Willard,  to  Boston,  and  two  years 
later,  having  preached  more  or  less  for  the  South  Church,  he 
was  installed  as  its  colleague  pastor. 

On  the  28th  of  February,  in  the  same  year,  Samuel  Sewall 
married  Hannah,  only  child  of  John  Hull,  and  became  a  mem- 
ber of  the  South  congregation.  He  speaks  in  his  diary,  to 
which  we  shall  so  often  recur  in  this  history,  of  the  benefit  he 
derived  from  Mr.  Thacher's  preaching,  and,  at  length,  of  his 
desire  to  become  a  member  of  his  church. 

Jan.  22  1676-7.  Went  to  Mr.  Thachers,  found  him  at  home, 
mentioned  my  desire  of  communion  with  his  Church,  rehearsed  to 
him  some  of  my  discouragements,  as,  continuance  in  Sin,  wandering 
in  prayer.  He  said  'twas  thought  that  was  the  Sin  Paul  speaks  of, 
Rom.  vii.  At  my  coming  away  said  he  thought  I  ought  to  be  encour- 
aged. 

March  19.  Went  to  Mr.  Thachers.  He  not  within,  so  walkt 
with  Capt.  Scottow  on  the  Change  till  about  5,  then  went  again,  yet 
he  not  come.2  At  last  came  Elder  Rainsford,  after,  Mr.  Thacher, 
who  took  us  up  into  his  Chamber ;  went  to  prayer,  then  told  me  I  had 
liberty  to  tell  what  God  had  done  for  my  soul.     After  I  had  spoken, 

1  See  SewalFs  Diary,  vol.  i.  p.  52.  is  now  Washington  Street,  on  the  corner 

2  [Evidently,  Mr.  Thacher  lived  near  opposite  the  foot  of  Cornhill  and  near 
the  Town  House,  the  first  floor  of  which     Dock  Square. 

was  open  and  was  used  as  an  exchange.         See  Mass.  Archives,  vol.  B  xv.  p.  163, 

Sewall  says  in  his  Diary,  October  12, 1 69 1,  for  petition  of  Margaret  Sheaffe  to  the 

—  "  training-day,"  —  that  he  dined  in  the  General  Court,  in  1662,  for  a  title  to  the 

late  Mr.    Thacher's   study,  with    Major  house  and   land   of    Martha,  widow  of 

Richards,  Major-General  Winthrop,  Mr.  John   Coggan  (we  suppose  the   Albion 

Willard,  Captain    Scottow,  and  others,  lot,  on  the  corner  of  Tremont  and  Bea- 

and  that  Major  Richards  had  served  his  con  streets),  for  which  Mrs.  Sheaffe  had 

time   in  the   house  to   Major   Gibbons,  paid  the   purchase-money  to  Mrs.  Cog- 

We  suppose,  therefore,  that  this  dinner  gan  before  the  latter,  having  been  left 

took  place  in  the  house  which  had  be-  by  the   Lord  "  to  Sathan's  temptations, 

longed  to  Edward  Gibbons,  who  died  in  which   was    too   strong    for    her,    made 

1652;  it  stood  on  the  east  side  of  what  away  with  herself."] 


214  HISTORY  OF   THE    OLD   SOUTH   CHURCH. 

prayed  again.  Before  I  came  away  told  him  my  Temptations  to  him 
alone,  and  bad  him  acquaint  me  if  he  knew  anything  by  me  that 
might  hinder  justly  my  coming  into  Church.  He  said  he  thought  I 
ought  to  be  encouraged,  and  that  my  stirring  up  to  it  was  of  God. 

Friday,  March  30.  I,  together  with  Gilbert  Cole,  was  admitted 
into  Mr.  Thacher's  Church,  making  a  solemn  covenant  to  take  the 
Lord  Jehovah  for  our  God,  and  to  walk  in  Brotherly  Love  and  watch- 
fulness to  Edification.  Goodman  Cole  first  spake,  then  I,  then  the 
Relations  of  the  Women  [Anne  Gannet,  Rebecca  Hackett]  were 
read  :  as  we  spake  so  were  we  admitted  ;  then  altogether  covenanted. 
Prayed  before,  and  after.1 

In  anticipation  of  the  settlement  of  an  associate  minister 
with  Mr.  Thacher,  the  members  of  the  Third  Church,  by  the 
desire  of  Mrs.  Norton,  had  enlarged  her  dwelling-house  to  make 
it  available  for  the  purposes  of  a  parsonage,  and  it  is  possible 
that  Dr.  Hoar  lived  here  for  a  time  on  his  arrival  from  England. 
Mrs.  Norton  now  executed  a  deed  of  the  land  upon  which  the 
addition  to  her  house  had  been  built,  and  this  was  her  second 
deed  to  the  Third  Church. 

To  all  Christian  People  to  whome  these  presents  shall  come  Mary 
Norton  Relict  Widdow  and  Executrix  of  the  Last  Will  and  testament 
of  the  late  Reverend  and  her  deare  Husband  Mr.  John  Norton 
Teacher  of  the  ffirst  Church  of  Christ  in  Boston  in  the  County  of 
Suffolke  in  the  Collony  of  the  Massathewets  in  New  England  send- 
eth  greeting  Know  Ye  that  I  the  said  Mary  Norton  for  divers  good 
causes  and  considerations  me  moveing  thereunto  Especially  for  and 
in  Consideration  of  that  Endeared  affection  that  my  Late  Deare  hus- 
band did  beare  unto  his  and  my  assured  friends  Capt.  Thomas  Sav- 
age Mr.  Edward  Rawson  Mr.  John  Hull  Mr.  William  Davis  Mr.  Hez- 
ekiah  Usher  Mr.  Peter  Oliver  Mr.  Joshua  Scottow  Mr.  Edward  Rayns- 
ford  Mr.  Richard  Truesdaile  and  Mr.  Jacob  Elliott  all  of  the  said 
Boston  in  confidence  of  their  faithfullness  did  on  the  first  day  of 
April  1669  give  and  grant  unto  the  persons  abovementioned  a  certain 
peece  and  parcell  of  my  Orchard  and  Land  to  build  them  a  meeting 
house  upon  and  for  the  building  of  an  house  for  the  Ministry  as  in 
that  Deed  Refference  thereunto  being  had  :  amply  doth  and  may  ap- 
peare  :  And  in  remembrance  of  their  faithfull  love  to  me  since  my 
said  late  deare  husbands  death  and  their  Erecting  a  meeting  house  on 
the  place  and  becoming  a  Church  of  Christ  with  whome  I  have  held 

1  See  SewalPs  Diary,  vol.  i.  pp.  46,  47,  table.      "  I   have  been   exceedingly  tor- 

for  a  statement  of  the  doubts  with  which  mented  in  my  mind,  sometimes  lest  the 

he  was  troubled  in  joining  the  church  and  Third  church  should  not  be  in  God's  way 

in  coming  for  the  first  time  to  the  Lord's  in  breaking;  off  from  the  old,"  etc. 


MRS.   NORTON'S  SECOND   DEED.  21 5 

communion  ever  since  :  And  the  Deacons  of  the  said  Church  Looke- 
ing  to  and  after  the  repaireing  of  my  dwelling  house  wherein  I  live  : 
Upon  their  invitation  and  comeing  of  the  late  Reverend  Doctor 
Leonard  Hoare,  and  for  an  habitation  for  a  Minister  on  my  desire 
and  encouragement  they  have  beene  at  the  sole  charge  of  that  now  ad- 
ditionall  end  or  building  of  a  Cellar  and  house  over  it  Kitchen  Hall 
Cambers  [sic]  and  Garratts  :  having  promised  them  to  give  them  the 
Land  on  which  they  built  with  some  priviledges  thereunto  In  per- 
formance of  which  my  faithfull  promise  Know  all  men  that  I  the  said 
Mary  Norton  Have  absolutely  clearely  and  fully  given  granted  bar- 
gained sold  aliened  enfeoffed  and  confirmed,  and  by  these  presents 
Doe  absolutely  give  grant  bargain  sell  aliene  enfeoffe  and  confirme 
unto  them  the  said  Thomas  Savage  Edward  Rawson  John  Hull  Joshua 
Scottow  Edward  Raynsford  and  Jacob  Elliott  yet  alive  and  to  such  as 
they  have  associated  unto  them  in  Church  ffellowship  or  shall  be  asso- 
ciated to  them  and  to  their  heires  and  successors  for  ever  for  the 
Ends  and  purposes  in  the  first  abovementioned  Deed  of  Aprill  the 
first  1669  is  fully  and  amply  declaired  Reference  thereto  being  had 
may  appeare  all  that  peece  of  Land  on  which  they  built  the  said  Addi- 
tionall  Cellar  Kitchen  Hall  Chambers  garratts  as  it  is  adjoyned  to  the 
Easterly  part  of  my  now  dwelling  house  being  in  breadth  twenty  two 
foot  and  in  Length  from  my  said  house  to  the  Gateway  that  goes  into 
my  Orchard  with  full  and  free  liberty  to  them  the  said  Thomas  Sav- 
age Edward  Rawson  John  Hull  Joshua  Scottow  Edward  Raynsford 
and  Jacob  Elliott  their  heires  and  associates  as  above  said  of  ffree 
Egress  and  Regress  up  and  down  the  stares  on  all  their  occasions 
into  their  Cellar  and  Chambers  and  Garratts  :  with  free  use  of  the 
Kitchen  Cellar  and  Chimney  for  their  washing  and  brewing  from  time 
to  time  :  So  as  they  Interfere  not  with  the  Brewing  and  washing  dayes 
of  such  minister  or  ministers  as  shall  inhabitt  and  dwell  in  that  part 
of  the  dwelling  house  I  now  live  in  :  With  Liberty  in  and  priviledge  of 
the  yard  to  Lay  twenty  Chords  of  wood  in  :  And  also  to  pass  through 
both  the  yards  at  one  End  and  at  the  other  :  and  the  orchard  to  the 
meeting  house  from  time  to  time  and  at  all  times  as  they  and  their 
heires  or  successors  shall  or  may  have  occasion  To  have  and  to  hold 
the  granted  peece  or  parcell  of  Land  with  the  house  thereon  Erected 
with  the  libertyes  priviledges  and  appurtenances  thereunto  bounded 
and  belonging  as  above  Expressed  for  the  Ends  and  uses  of  the  min- 
istry that  now  is  or  from  time  to  time  shall  be  called  by  them  the  said 
Thomas  Savage  Edward  Rawson  John  Hull  Joshua  Scottow  Edward 
Raynsford  and  Jacob  Elliott  and  such  as  now  are  associated  to  them  : 
or  shall  be  associated  to  that  Church  Society  forever  their  heires  and 
assignes  for  their  publick  worshiping  of  God  :  for  the  use  of  their  min- 
isters or  ministry  orderly  chosen  by  the  said  Society  being  the  third 
Church  of  Christ  in  Boston  from  time  to  time  and  at  all  times  for  ever 


2l6  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

And  I  the  said  Mary  Norton  sole  Executrix  of  my  late  Reverend  Deare 
husband  John  Nortons  Last  will  and  Testament  for  me  my  heires  Ex- 
ecutors and  Administrators  doe  Covenant  promise  and  grant  to  and 
with  the  said  Thomas  Savage  Edward  Rawson  John  Hull  Joshua  Scot- 
tow  Edward  Raynsford  and  Jacob  Elliott  their  and  every  of  their  heires 
and  successors  members  of  the  said  Society :  by  these  presents  that  I 
the  said  Mary  Norton  now  am  and  at  the  Ensealing  hereof  stand  and 
be  the  true  and  proper  owner  of  the  above  granted  premisses  and  that 
I  have  good  Right  full  power  and  Lawfull  authority  to  give  grant  bar- 
gaine  and  confirme  the  same  unto  the  said  Thomas  Savage  Edward 
Rawson  John  Hull  Joshua  Scottow  Edward  Raynsford  and  Jacob 
Elliott  and  Company  which  they  shall  associate  to  them  selves  and 
their  successors  and  heires  forever  And  that  the  said  Thomas  Sav- 
age Edward  Rawson  John  Hull  Joshua  Scottow  Edward  Raynsford 
and  Jacob  Elliott  and  their  Company  which  now  are  or  they  shall 
associate  to  them  selves  shall  and  may  at  all  times  for  ever  hereafter 
have  hold  possess  and  enjoy  all  the  above  given  and  granted  premisses 
to  the  use  and  uses  intents  and  purposes  as  above  is  Expressed 
without  the  Least  Lett  denyall  or  contradiction  of  me  the  said  Mary 
Norton  my  heires  Executors  administrators  or  assignes  or  by  any 
other  person  or  persons  whatsoever  having  claimeing  or  pretending  to 
have  or  claime  any  title  Right  or  interest  therein  or  by  from  or  under 
my  late  Reverend  and  Deare  Husband  Mr.  John  Norton  deceased  or 
either  of  our  heires  Executors  administrators  or  assignes  In  Witness 
whereof  I  the  said  Mary  Norton  have  hereunto  set  my  hand  and  seale 
the  thirtieth  day  of  June  in  the  yeare  of  our  Lord  one  thousand  six 
hundred  seventy  and  seven  and  in  the  twenty  ninth  year  of  his 
Majesties  Reigne 

Mary  Norton  [Seal] 

Signed  Sealed  and  delivered  in  the 
presence  of  us  the  grantees  being  al- 
ready in  possession  of  the  above 
granted  premisses 

Jno  Hubbard 
John  Hayward  scr 

This  Instrument  was  acknowledged  by  Mrs.  Mary  Norton  to  be  her 
act  and  deed  this  30th  of  June  1677 

before  mee  Simon  Bradstreet  Assist 

Boston  Jany  13th  1S04    Received  and  Entered  with  Suffolk  Deeds 
Lib  207  fol°  241 

per  Wm  Alline  Regr. 

In  the  summer  of  1677,  the  good  people  of   Massachusetts 
suffered  from  one  of  those  incursions  which  it  was  more  diffi- 


THE   QUAKERS.  21 7 

cult  to  know  how  to  deal  with  and  successfully  to  resist  than 
any  Indian  raids  against  which  they  had  to  defend  themselves. 
The  savages  who  came  stealthily  upon  peaceful  villages  and 
helpless  women  and  children,  with  torch  and  tomahawk,  could 
be  met  only  in  one  way.  There  must  be  war.  There  was  no 
question  that  force  must  be  used,  until  the  leaders  in  the  cruel 
assaults  were  vanquished  and  slain,  and  their  followers  intimi- 
dated if  not  pacified.  But  the  come-outers,  the  Quakers,  who 
now  again  invaded  the  colony,  disturbed  the  public  peace,  and 
testified,  not  in  season,  but  out  of  season,  against  the  established 
institutions  both  of  government  and  religion,  against  both  magis- 
trates and  ministers,  railing  at  them  in  the  streets  and  denoun- 
cing them  in  the  meeting-houses,  — how  could  they  be  silenced 
and  suppressed  ?  They  prophesied  in  the  name  of  the  Lord ; 
they  claimed  to  be  the  followers  of  Jesus  Christ ;  many  of  them 
were  women.  They  would  not  listen  to  reason  ;  they  would  not 
yield  to  entreaty.  There  could  be  no  rest  for  the  colonists,  as 
it  seemed,  while  they  remained  among  them  ;  there  was  nothing 
to  be  done,  therefore,  but  to  expel  them.  When  they  came 
back,  as  they  did  again  and  again,  it  is  not  strange  that  they 
were  treated  as  brawlers,  enemies  to  the  peace  of  the  people, 
and  outlaws,  and  that  they  received  in  their  persons  the  penal- 
ties inflicted  at  the  time  upon  both  sides  of  the  ocean  on  such 
offenders.1 

Dr.  Ellis,  in  the  Puritan  Age,  has  brought  to  light  a  petition 
to  the  General  Court  in  the  autumn  of  1658,  signed  by  twenty- 
five  of  the  leading  men  of  Boston,  against  the  Quakers  as  "  pro- 

1  It  is  very  difficult  for  US  to  recognize  "  With  its  gentler  mission  of  peace  and  good-will, 
in  the  amiable  and  peace-loving  Friends  The  <h°usht  of  the  Quaker  is  living  still." 
of  the  present  century  the  historical  de-  In  a  Boston  pamphlet  in  the  Prince 
scendants  of  these  troublesome  people.  Library,  "  Printed  for  the  Public  Good, 
Whatever  they  may  themselves  say,  in  1741,"  in  defence  of  the  "  Manufactory 
their  steadfast  loyalty  to  their  fathers,  Undertaking,"  and  of  the  paper  money 
they  certainly  are  not  of  the  same  spirit,  which  the  chartered  company  was  author- 
How  different  the  methods  of  the  Gur-  ized  to  issue,  it  is  said  (p.  28) :  "  Num- 
neys,  Frys,  Sturges,  and  Whittiers,  in  pro-  bers  of  the  People  called  Quakers  or 
testing  against  and  denouncing  the  enor-  Friends,  noted  for  their  Honesty,  In- 
mities  of  negro  slavery,  from  those  of  dustry  and  good  Order,  are  Partners  in 
the  men  and  women  who,  in  the  seven-  this  Scheme,  and  many  others  (not  Part- 
teenth  century,  set  themselves  against  ners)  in  Heart  and  Practice  favour  it." 
law  and  order,  and  defied  the  authorities  This  is  testimony  not  only  to  the 
in  both  church  and  state  ;  and  how  dif-  "  good  order  "  which  characterized  the 
ferent,  also,  the  results  !  We  think  there  Friends  in  Boston  in  the  eighteenth  cen- 
is  an  unconscious  recognition  of  this  tury,  but  also  to  the  appreciation  of  their 
difference  on  the  part  of  Whittier,  in  valuable  qualities  by  the  community  in 
these    lines  from  The   King's  Missive ;  the  midst  of  which  they  lived. 


218  HISTORY  OF   THE   OLD   SOUTH   CHURCH. 

fessed  enemies  of  the  Christian  Magistrate  and  seducers  of  the 
people."  Among  the  propositions  offered  for  serious  consider- 
ation is  the  following  :  "  Whether  the  increase  and  strengthen- 
ing of  their  obduracy,  perversity,  malignity  does  not  give  reason 
for  apprehending  a  renewal  of  the  spirit  of  Muncer,  or  John  of 
Leyden,  and  justify,  as  in  other  commonwealths,  a  rule  for  self- 
defence  against  the  incorrigible,  and  require  that  the  penalty  of 
death  be  inflicted  upon  those  returning  from  banishment,  as 
well  our  own  people  as  strangers  ? "  l  The  enactment  of  the 
death  penalty,  by  a  bare  majority  of  the  court,  immediately 
followed  the  presentation  of  this  petition,  and  four  persons  suf- 
fered the  consequences  of  their  persistent  defiance  of  the  law, 
in  returning  again  to  the  jurisdiction  from  which  they  had  been 
banished. 

We  do  not  intend,  in  these  pages,  to  condemn  the  fathers  for 
the  course  which  they  took  with  the  Quakers  ;  there  are  others 
who  are  ready  enough  to  remind  us  of  all  the  motes  which 
floated  in  their  eyes.  At  the  same  time,  we  have  no  intention 
of  justifying  them.  There  was  a  wide  difference  of  opinion 
among  themselves  as  to  what  it  was  right  and  best  to  do  under 
the  trying  circumstances.  Cotton  Mather  said,  in  reference  to 
the  policy  which  had  been  pursued  :  "  If  any  man  will  appear  in 
the  vindication  of  it,  let  him  do  as  he  please ;  for  my  part,  I  will 
not.  I  am  verily  persuaded,  these  miserable  Quakers  would,  in 
a  little  while,  (as  we  have  now  seen)  have  come  to  nothing,  if 
the  civil  magistrates  had  not  inflicted  any  civil  penalty  upon 
them." 

Dr.  Ellis  says  that  the  most  offensive  and  extravagant  of  the 
eccentricities  of  deportment  in  individual  Quakers  occurred  after 
the  harshest  severity  of  the  treatment  of  them  had  been  much 
relaxed.  It  is  at  this  point  that  the  strange  and  painful  narra- 
tive runs  into  the  history  of  the  South  Church.  Samuel  Sewall 
says  in  his  diary,  July  8,  1677  : . "  In  Sermon  time  there  came  in 

1    The  Puritan  Age  and  Rule  in  Mass.,  son,    William    Colborne,    James    Perm, 

by  George  E.  Ellis,  pp.  448,  449.     Mass.  Edward  Raynsford,  Robert  Walker  (?), 

Archives,  vol.  x.  p.  246.     The  petition  is  Thomas  Bumstead,  Thomas  Clark,  The- 

in  the  handwriting  of  that  stalwart  and  odore     Atkinson,     William      Dinsdale, 

uncompromising  conservative,  Anthony  Thomas     Snow,    John    Hull,     William 

Stoddard,  and  in  the  signatures  we  see  Davis,  James  Johnson,  Nathaniel   Wil- 

a  strange  commingling  of  the  men  who  liams,    Henry    Fowning,    John    Evered, 

ten  years  later  were  to   be   on  opposite  alias   Webb,   Hezekiah  Usher,  Thomas 

sides   in   the    controversy   between    the  Marshall,     William     Hudson,     William 

First    and   Third    churches  :     Anthony  Salter,  Henry  Phillips,  Thomas  Savage, 

Stoddard,  Nathaniel  Duncan,  John  Wil-  John  Newgate. 


A    QUAKER   DISTURBANCE.  219 

a  female  Quaker,  in  a  Canvas  Frock,  her  hair  disshevelled,  and 
loose  like  a  Periwigg,  her  face  as  black  as  ink,  led  by  two  other 
Quakers,  and  two  other  followed.  It  occasioned  the  greatest 
and  most  amazing  uproar  that  I  ever  saw."  They  were  ar- 
rested ;  and,  on  the  day  following,  Mr.  Bradstreet  issued  an 
order  to  the  keeper  of  the  prison,  directing  that  they  should  be 
detained  until  legally  discharged.  The  order  began  :  "  Whereas 
there  was  one  man  and  four  women,  Quakers,  committed  to 
prison  yesterday,  being  the  Lord's  day,  for  making  an  horrible 
disturbance,  and  affrighting  the  people  in  the  South  Church  in 
Boston,  in  the  time  of  the  public  dispensing  of  the  Word,  where- 
by several  women,  as  I  am  informed,  are  in  great  danger  of 
miscarrying,"  etc.  The  principal  actor  in  this  disturbance  was 
Margaret  Brewster,  who  came  from  Barbadoes.  She  had  sent 
what  she  called  "A  Warning  from  the  Great  God  of  Heaven 
and  Earth  to  the  Rulers  and  Magistrates  of  Boston,  in  New 
England,  that  they  put  not  in  practice  that  cruel  law  they  have 
made  concerning  swearing."  Thinking  herself  commissioned 
to  denounce  judgment  upon  the  people  for  their  sins,  she  went, 
as  William  Coddington  wrote  to  Ralph  Fretwell,  August  16, 
"into  Thacher's  meeting,  in  sackcloth,  with  ashes  upon  her 
head,  and  barefoot,  and  her  face  blacked.  With  her  was  Lydia 
Wright  of  Long  Island,  and  Sarah  Miles  and  Elizabeth  Bowen 
Jr,  and  John  Easton  Jr.  who  took  her  riding  clothes  and 
shoes  when  she  went  into  the  house.  The  fourth  of  this  month," 
continues  the  letter,  "  they  were  called  before  the  Court  at  Bos- 
ton, and  she  was  sentenced  to  be  whipped  up  and  down  the 
town  with  twenty  lashes  and  the  three  maids  were  to  follow  the 
cart." 

At  the  trial  the  magistrate  asked  Margaret  Brewster,  "  Are 
you  the  woman  that  came  into  Mr.  Thacher's  meeting-house, 
with  your  hair  frizzled,  and  dressed  in  the  shape  of  a  devil  ? " 
She  answered,  "I  am  the  woman  who  came  with  my  hair  about 
my  shoulders,  ashes  upon  my  head,  my  face  colored  black,  and 
sackcloth  upon  my  upper  garments."  Increase  Mather  says  that 
one  of  the  women  who  had  been  frightened  by  her  died  in  con- 
sequence.1 

^  1  Cotton  Mather  says  of  Mr.  Thacher :  all   errors,    Quakerism.    .    .    .  When  he 

"  He  was  one    very  watchful    over  the  heard  of  any  books  left  by  the  Quakers 

souls  of  his  people,  and  careful  to  pre-  in  any  houses  of  his  neighbourhood,  he 

serve  them  from  errors  as  well  as  vices :  would    presently   repair   to    the    houses, 

but  of  all  errors,  he  discovered  an  antip-  and  obtain  those  venomous   pamphlets 

athy  unto  none  more  than  that  sink  of  from  them :  for  which,  that  the  wolves 


220  HISTORY  OF   THE   OLD   SOUTH  CHURCH. 

Mrs.  Norton  made  her  last  will  and  testament  August  20, 
1677,  and  died  a  few  months  afterward,  in  her  seventy-sixth 
year.  John  Hull  says  in  his  diary  :  January  10,  "  Mrs.  Mary 
Norton  fell  speechless.  17th  She  died,  and,  21st  was  interred 
in  her  husband's  tomb."  Her  will  was  admitted  to  probate  on 
the  1st  of  February,  and  was  as  follows  :  — 

In  the  name  of  God  Amen,  The  Twentyeth  day  of  August  in  the 
yeare  of  our  Lord,  One  Thousand  Six  hundred  Seaventy  and  Seven, 
I  Mary  Norton  of  Boston  in  the  Collony  of  the  Massachusetts,  in 
New  England  Relict  Widdow  of  Mr.  John  Norton  Sometime  Teacher 
of  the  Church  of  Christ  in  said  Boston,  being  of  Competent  bodyly 
health,  and  of  sound  and  perfect  memory,  praysed  be  the  Lord  for 
the  same,  doe  make  this  my  last  will  and  Testament  in  manner  fol- 
lowing (that  is  to  say)  ffirst  I  commend  my  Soul  to  God  who  gave  it, 
and  my  body  to  the  Earth  to  be  buryed  in  such  decent  manner  as  to 
my  Executors  hereafter  named  shall  be  thought  meete  and  convenient, 
and  as  touching  such  worldly  Estate  as  the  Lord  hath  Lent  mee,  my 
will  is  that  the  same  shall  be  imployed  and  bestowed  as  hereafter  in 
and  by  this  my  will  is  expressed. 

Imprimis,  I  doe  hereby  revoake  and  make  void,  all  wills  by  me  for- 
merly made,  and  declare  and  appointe  this  my  last  will  and  Testament. 
Item  I  will  that  all  debts  I  justly  owe,  to  any  manner  of  person  or 
persons  whatsoever,  shall  be  well  and  Truly  paid  in  convenient  time 
after  my  decease  by  my  Executors  hereafter  nam'd  Item  I  give  and 
bequeath  unto  Third  Church  of  Christ  in  Boston,  my  now  dwelling 
house  with  all  the  land  belonging  to  the  same,  as  it  is  scittuate  neere  the 
Third  meeting  house  in  Boston  aforesaid,  with  all  Proffitts  priviledges 
Rights  and  appurtenances  whatsoever  to  the  same  belonging  or  apper- 
tayning,  for  the  use  of  the  ministry  in  the  said  Church  successively 
forever,  And  my  will  further  is,  that  the  said  Third  Church,  or  some 
person  or  persons  in  their  behalfe  shall  be  possessed  of  the  said 
house  and  Land,  with  the  Rights  and  appurtenances,  at  and  Ime- 
diatly  after  my  Decease,  for  the  reasons  following  First  Because 
many  of  the  particular  members  of  the  said  Third  church  have 
bene  large  contributors  to  that  meeting  house,  and  Church  treasure, 

barked  more  at  him  than  at  many  other  else  than  the  supremacy  of  their  particular 
men,  and  would  sometimes  come  with  form  of  imbecility ;  means  nothing  less, 
their  faces  hideously  blacked,  and  their  therefore,  than  downright  chaos,  a  Bed- 
garments  fearfully  torn,  into  his  congre-  lam-chaos  of  monomaniacs  and  bores, 
gation,  whereby  the  neighbours  were  What  was  to  be  done  with  men  and 
frighted  unto  the  danger  of  their  lives,  women  who  bore  conclusive  evidence  to 
is  not  at  all  to  be  wondered  at."  the  fall  of  man  by  insisting  on  walking  up 
The  founders  of  New  England  "  knew  the  broad  aisle  of  a  meeting-house  in  a 
that  liberty  in  the  hands  of  feeble-minded  costume  which  that  event  had  put  for- 
and  unreasoning  persons  (and  all  the  ever  out  of  fashion?" — James  Russell 
worse  if  they  are  honest)  means  nothing  Lowell,  Among my  Books. 


MRS.   NORTON'S    WILL.  221 

from  whence  they  issued  Secondly  because  of  the  great  Charge 
that  the  brethren  of  the  said  Third  Church  have  bene  at  in  build- 
ing their  meeting  house.  Thirdly,  because  I  conceive  it  will  prove 
inconvenient  for  a  minister  to  live  so  neere  a  meeting  house,  where 
he  doth  not  preach,1  Provided  alwaies  that  the  said  Third  Church  or 
some  person  or  persons  in  their  name  and  behalfe,  pay  or  cause 
to  be  paid  unto  the  first  Church  of  Christ  in  Boston,  the  full  and 
Just  summe  of  One  hundred  Pounds  of  Lawfull  money  of  New  Eng- 
land, within  the  space  of  one  yeare  next  after  my  decease,  and  my  will 
is  that  the  payment  of  the  said  summe  and  tender  thereof  be  made  at  or 
in  my  now  dwelling  house  Item  I  Give  and  bequeath  unto  my  Couzen 
John  Norton,  the  summe  of  Twenty  pounds  to  be  paid  unto  him  within 
one  yeare  next  after  my  decease  Also  I  give  unto  my  said  Couzen 
John  Norton  the  use  of  all  my  said  Late  husbands  bookes  Provided  he 
give  sufficient  security  to  the  sattisfaction  of  my  Executors  that  the 
said  bookes  shall  not  be  sold  nor  carryed  out  of  this  Country,2  also 
my  will  is  that  in  Case  my  said  Couzen  John  Norton,  shall  have  a  Son 
or  Sons,  that  shall  be  fitted  for  the  worke  of  the  ministry,  that  then 
such  Son  or  Sons  shall  also  have  the  use  of  the  said  bookes,  to  them 
and  their  heires,  the  like  Security  remayning,  that  the  said  bookes  be 
not  sold  from  the  family,  But  in  case  my  said  Couzen,  John  Norton, 
shall  dye  without  any  Son,  who  shall  be  fitted  for  the  worke  of  the 
ministry  my  will  is  that  then  the  said  bookes  shall  be  divided  equally, 
and  that  one  halfe  part  of  them  shall  be  delivered  for  the  use  of  Har- 
vard Collidge  at  Cambridge,  and  the  other  halfe  part  of  them  to  be  to 
the  use  of  these  five  ministers  and  their  children  who  shall  be  brought 
up  to  the  worke  of  the  ministry,  Namely  Mr.  Phillips  of  Rowley  Mr. 
Torrey  preacher  at  Weymoth,  Mr.  Josiah  Flint  preacher  at  Dorchester 
Mr.  George  Shove  preacher  at  Tanton,3  Mr.  Noah  Newman  preacher 
at  Rehoboth.  And  my  will  is,  that  if  Either  or  any  of  the  Said  Min- 
isters dye  without  a  Childe,  that  shall  be  brought  up  to  the  worke  of 
the  ministry,  that  then  such  bookes  given  unto  him  or  them,  as  afore- 

1  [This  confirms  our  supposition  that  3  [For  an  account  of  the  Rev.  George 
Mr.  Thacher  lived  near  the  First  Church  Shove,  third  minister  of  Taunton,  and 
meeting-house,  and  had  to  pass  its  doors  successor  there  of  the  Rev.  Nicholas 
in  going  to  his  own.]  Street,  see  Emery's   Ministry  of  Taun- 

2  [The  word  "  cousin  "  is  here  used  for  ton,  vol.  i.  pp.  171-176. 

"  nephew."  John  Norton  graduated  at  Mr.  Shove  married  for  his  second 
Harvard  College  in  167 1,  in  the  same  wife,  February  16,  1675,  Hannah,  widow- 
class  with  Samuel  Sewall,  Peter  Thacher,  of  Thomas  Walley,  Jr.,  and  sister-in-law 
and  Thomas  Weld  ;  he  married  Mary,  of  the  Hon.  John  Walley,  of  Boston ; 
daughter  of  Arthur  and  Joanna  Mason,  she  died  in  1685.  Of  his  death,  April  21, 
was  minister  of  the  Hingham  church,  1687,  Sewall  says  in  his  diary:  "Mr. 
and  died  October  3,  17 16.  The  library  George  Shove  was  a  principal  Light  in 
bequeathed  to  him  consisted  of  159  folio  those  parts  |  Taunton],  and  the  death  of 
volumes,  and  452  quarto,  octavo,  and  their  Saint  George  at  this  time  calls  for 
duodecimo.]  special  mourning."] 


222  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

said,  shall  be  return 'd  to  my  Executors  or  the  Survivors  of  them,  to 
be  distributed  to  such  poore  Schollars,  or  ministers,  as  they  shall  see 
meete.  Item  I  give  and  bequeath,  unto  my  Sister  Mrs.  Lucy  Norton, 
my  Silke  gowne  and  Petticote  Item  I  give  and  bequeath,  unto  Grace 
Clarke,  the  wife  of  Thomas  Clarke  of  Ipswich,  Mary  Harris  of  Mid- 
letowne  Anne  Clap  wife  of  Nicholas  Clap  of  Dorchester,  all  my 
wearing  apparrell,  that  I  shall  Leave  undisposed  of,  to  be  equally 
divided  between  them,  And  that  Mrs.  Rawson  Wife  of  Mr.  Edward 
Rawson,  shall  see  and  order  the  said  Devision  to  be  made  betweene 
them.  Item  I  give  and  bequeath,  unto  my  Couzen  Edmund  Fernely  of 
Westcreting  hall  in  the  County  of  Sufrolke  in  England,  to  his  brother 
Thomas  and  to  his  Two  sisters  Elizabeth  and  Mary,  the  summe  of 
Tenn  pounds  in  New  England  money  apiece,  to  be  paid  unto  them  or 
their  order  in  New  England  within  one  yeare  next  after  my  decease 
Item  I  give  unto  Mrs.  Mary  Willard  wife  of  the  late  Major  Willard, 
the  summe  of  five  pounds  in  money  And  to  old  Mrs.  Broughton  five 
pounds  Item  to  Mrs.  Sarah  Leverett,  wife  of  the  now  Governor  John 
Leverett,  the  summe  of  fifty  Pounds,  Also  to  Mrs.  Tabitha  Bowler  of 
Virginia  five  pounds  to  buy  her  a  peece  of  plate,  Item  I  Give  to 
James  Peirce  of  London,  Chirurgeon,  the  summe  of  Thirty  pounds  in 
New  England  money,  Also  to  Mr.  Peter  Thacher  and  Ralph  Thacher 
fifty  shillings  apeice  in  Moneys  Also  to  Mr.  Rawson  the  elder  Tenn 
pounds,  to  my  brother  Mr  William  Norton  Twenty  Shillings  to  Mr. 
Thomas  Norton  Twenty  Shillings,  to  Mr.  Eliott  the  Elder  Twenty 
Shillings,  to  Mrs.  Mary  Danforth  of  Roxbery  Twenty  Shillings,  and  to 
Major  Generall  Dennison  forty  Shillings,  Also  I  Give  Severall  Small 
Legacies  to  sundry  persons,  whose  names  I  have  communicated  unto 
my  faithfull  friend,  Mr.  John  Hull  of  said  Boston,  which  I  neede  not 
here  perticulerly  insert,  Item  I  Give  and  make  over  by  these  pres- 
ents, all  my  deeds  and  other  writings  that  Concerne  my  said  house 
and  Land,  in  said  Boston,  unto  Capt  John  Hull,  and  Mr.  Jacob  Elliott, 
all  of  Boston  aforesaid,  as  Trustees  for  the  said  Third  Church  of 
Christ  in  Boston,  for  the  end  and  use  before  declared  Item  my  will 
is  that  if  there  be  anything  doubtfull,  or  that  may  be  variously  inter- 
pretted  in  this  my  last  will,  that  the  same  shall  be  decided,  resolved 
and  finally  determined  by  the  major  part  of  my  Executors  hereafter 
named.  Item  my  will  is  that  if  either  my  brother  William  Norton,  or 
either  or  any  of  his  Sons,  shall  Trouble  or  molest  my  Executors,  or 
Legatees,  by  Suites  of  Law  or  otherwise  whereby  they  shall  be  dam- 
nified, then  the  dammage  shall  be  made  good,  to  such  party  or  par- 
tyes,  out  of  the  books  that  I  have  ordered  unto  my  Couzen  John 
Norton  And  farther  my  will  is  that  my  Executors  detayne  the  Same, 
untill  the  said  Trouble  (if  any  be)  shall  be  fully  issued,  Also  my  will 
is,  That  if  Either  or  any  of  my  Legatees,  give  Trouble  to  my  Execu- 
tors or  other  Legatees  in  any  thinge  relating  to  the  Legacies  given,  in 


MRS.   NORTON'S  ESTATE.  223 

and  by  this  my  last  will  and  Testament,  That  then  the  said  Legacy 
given  to  such  person  or  persons  shall  utterly  cease,  and  he  or  they 
shall  have  no  benefitt,  by  this  my  last  will  Item  I  Give  and  bequeath, 
the  full  remainder  of  my  Estate,  that  is  undisposed  of  in  and  by  this 
my  last  will,  unto  my  Executors  hereafter  named,  to  be  equally  divided 
betwene  them.  Item  I  do  hereby  nominate,  constitute,  authorize 
and  appointe  John  Leverett  Esquire  now  Governor  of  the  said  Massa- 
chusetts Collony,  Mr.  Edward  Rawson  Secrettary  Capt  John  Hull 
Treasurer  of  said  Collony,  and  Mr.  Jacob  Elliott  of  said  Boston  the 
Executors  of  this  my  last  will  and  Testament.  In  Witnesse  whereof, 
I  the  said  Mary  Norton  have  hereunto  sett  my  hand  and  seale  the  day 
and  yeare  first  above  written 

Mary  Norton  and  a  Seale. 

Signed  and  Sealed,  and  what  is  Contayned 
in  these  foure  pages,  was  published  by  the 
above  named  Mary  Norton  as  her  last  will 
and  Testament  in  the  presence  of  us,  Seven 
words  in  the  Eighteenth  line,  and  Three 
words  in  the  Twenty  fifth  line,  being  first 
oblitterated  in  the  Third  page 

Samuel  Sewall 

Daniell  Quinsey 

John  Alcocke 

John  Hayward  scr. 

Samuel  Sewall  and  Daniell  Quinsy  made  Oath  in  Court  pr°  Febry 
1677  tnat  tney  were  present  and  did  see  Mrs.  Mary  Norton  Signe  and 
Seale,  and  her  publish  this  Instrument  to  be  her  last  will  and  Tes- 
tament, and  that  then  she  was  of  a  disposing  minde  to  their  best  un- 
derstanding 

Attested  p 

IsA  Addington 

It  seems  to  have  been  understood  between  Mrs.  Norton  and 
the  leading  men  in  the  Third  Church  that  this  church  was  to 
be  in  effect  residuary  legatee  under  her  will ;  that  it  was  to  come 
into  possession,  at  her  death,  of  her  house  and  the  remainder  of 
the  land  ;  and  that  it  was  to  assume  the  payment  of  her  funeral 
expenses,  of  whatever  bills  were  then  due,  and  of  certain  lega- 
cies.1 It  is  possible  that  both  she  and  the  church  expected  that 
her  property,  independently  of  the  real  estate,  would  be  larger 
than  it  proved  to  be  on  the  settlement  of  her  affairs.     We  have 

1  John  Hayward  wrote  to  John  Hull,  to  speake  to  the  deacons  to  pay  me  ten 
on  a  scrap  of  paper  which  lies  before  us,  shillings  which  was  promised  for  draw- 
February  16, 1677  :  "  Please  to  remember     ing  Mrs.  Norton's  will." 


224 


HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 


the  papers  and  accounts  before  us,  many  of  them  in  the  hand- 
writing of  John  Hull,  and  the  inventory,  certified  to  by  Thomas 
Savage  and  Henry  Alline.  "  The  old  dwelling-house,"  that  is, 
the  house,  not  including  the  addition  which  had  recently  been 
built,  "  and  that  part  of  the  land  that  is  yet  undisposed  of,"  was 
valued  at  ^400,  lawful  money  of  New  England  ;  the  library  at 
^200 ;  debts  due  to  the  deceased  at  ^200  ;  and  there  were 
personal  effects  of  nominal  value.  The  only  available  asset 
was  the  money  due  to  the  estate.  The  papers  show  that  the 
executors,  or  Mr.  Hull,  who  transacted  the  business,  collected 
^206.17.6,  and  that  against  this  they  or  he  disbursed  for  funeral 
expenses,  outstanding  bills,  and  part  of  the  legacies  ,£207.1.8. 
There  remained  the  legacy  of  ;£ioo  to  the  First  Church,  of 
^40  to  members  of  the  Ferneley  family  in  England,  and  of 
,£30  to  Mrs.  Norton's  nephew,  James  Peirce  or  Pearse,  of  Lon- 
don, all  which  the  deacons  of  the  Third  Church  discharged,  as 
against  the  value  of  the  house  and  land  which  came  to  them 
under  the  will.1  But  there  had  been  other  disbursements  made 
by  them,  amounting  with  these  legacies  to  £500  at  least,  as 
appears  from  an  instrument  executed  in  1687  by  Edward  Raw- 
son,  Joshua  Scottow,  and  Jacob  Eliot,  which  we  shall  presently 
give  in  full,  and  in  which,  as  a  consideration  moving  Mrs.  Nor- 


1  Mr.    Hull     collected    from     Robert 
Brimsden  and  Enoch  Greenleaf 

;£  206. 1 7. 6 
He  disbursed 

For  funeral  expenses  67.12.11 

"    mourning  for  John 

Norton  .  .  .  .  13.  5.  o 
"  sundry  bills  .  .  .  20.  3.  9 
"         "       legacies  .     .  106.  o.  o 


^207.  1.  8 
The  legacies  paid  from  the  estate  were 
as  follows :  — 

Mrs.  Sarah  Leverett  .  .  .50.  0.0 
Mrs.  Rachel  Rawson  .  .  .10.  0.0 
Mrs.  Mary  Willard.  ...  5.  0.0 
Mrs.  Mary  Broughton      .     .     5.  0.0 

John  Norton 20.  0.0 

Ralph  Thacher 2.10.0 

Peter  Thacher 2.10.0 

Daniel  Denison 2.  0.0 

Martha  Ofield 2.  0.0 

Mrs.  Mary  Danforth    .     .     .     1.  0.0 

Mrs.  Ann  Eliot 1.  0.0 

Mrs.  Batt 1.  0.0 


Mrs.  Jane  Pole 1.0.0 

Mrs.  Mary  Greenleaf  .     .     .  1.0.0 

William  Norton 1.0.0 

Elias  Corlett 1.0.0 


;£  106.0.0 
One  of  Mr.  Hull's  memoranda  is  as 
follows :  — 

Leagicies  to  Pay  for  Mrs.  Mary  Nor- 
ton which  the  ch.  must  repay 

To  Abyel  Stiles 1.0.0 

To  Mrs.  Lack.  Symonds    .     .     1.0.0 

To  Mr.  Edmund  Fernly     .     .  1 0.0.0 

Thomas  Fernly      .     .   10.0.0 

Eliz  Fernly         .     .     .  10. 0.0 

Mary 10.0.0 

Tabitha  Bowler     .     .     5.0.0 

James  Peirce     .     .     .  30.0.0 

Thomas  Norton     .     .     1.0.0 

To  1  ch.  of  Boston      .     .       1 00.0.0 


Ben  Davis  a  debt  he  saith 
Rhoda  Porter  for  candles  . 


£  1 78.0.0 

•  3-18-4 

14.0 


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MRS.  NORTON  AND    THE    THIRD   CHURCH.  225 

ton  to  convey  her  real  estate  to  the  Third  Church,  mention  is 
made  of  "  disbursements  for  her  in  repayring  her  dwelling 
house,  and  afterwards  taking  downe  six  chimneys  and  building 
new  in  their  place  etc,  errecting  a  new  end  and  addition  to 
the  said  dwelling  house,  paying  and  discharging  severall  debts 
and  legacies  which  shee  had  resolved  by  her  last  will  and  testa- 
ment should  be  paid,  in  all  to  the  value  of  five  hundred  pounds 
at  least,  as  in  the  deacons  bookes  of  accounts  do  appeare." 
From  this  statement,  it  appears  that  the  Third  Church  paid  at 
various  times  to  Mrs.  Norton  and  to  her  estate  five  hundred 
pounds,  New  England  money,  against  the  gift  by  her,  at  various 
times,  of  property  for  which  her  husband,  in  1659,  Pa^  two 
hundred  pounds  sterling.  This,  however,  was  not  all.  When 
Samuel  Sewall  was  in  England  in  1689,  he  "  paid  forty  pounds 
to  the  heirs  of  Mr.  Stephen  Winthrop,  for  releases  of  Meeting- 
house Ground  "  and  his  own  warehouse.1  The  church,  there- 
fore, paid  for  the  land  which  came  into  its  possession  all  that  it 
was  worth  at  the  time,  and  perhaps  considerably  more.  In  say- 
ing this,  we  do  not  desire  to  detract  in  the  slightest  degree  from 
the  credit  of  Mrs.  Norton  as  one  of  the  founders  and  benefac- 
tors of  the  Third  Church.  She  was  warmly  attached  to  the 
men  and  women  with  whom  she  had  cast  in  her  lot,  and  to  the 
principles  for  the  sake  of  which  she  and  they  had  seceded  from 
the  old  church.  She  intended,  no  doubt,  to  make  a  contribu- 
tion as  valuable  as  that  of  any  other  founder,  and  whether  or 
not  her  intention  was  literally  fulfilled,  she  deserves  honorable 
and  grateful  remembrance  from  the  membership  in  every  gen- 
eration. As  we  have  already  said,  she  would  never  have  thought 
of  claiming  for  her  gift  any  consideration  beyond  and  above 
that  accorded  to  the  gifts  of  John  Hull,  Thomas  Savage,  and 
the  other  founders  of  the  church  ;  certainly,  she  never  would 
have  consented  to  the  imposition  for  all  time  upon  the  Third 
Church,  with  which  she  was  in  full  sympathy,  of  conditions 
which  she  did  not  lay  upon  the  First  Church,  by  whose  recent 

1  Sewall  Papers,  vol.  i.  p.  286.  Winthrops,    on    account    of    the    Land 

On  the  return  voyage  from  England  the    South  Meeting   House   stands    on, 

Sewall  wrote    in   his   diary,    concerning  be   given    the    persons    concerned,  that 

this   payment,   November  20,  16S9:  "If  so  I  [who?]  have  done  them  no  good, 

it  should  Please  God,  who  is  Righteous  may    doe    them    no  hurt.     Provided  no 

in  all   his  Ways,   and    Holy    in   all  his  damage  happen  by  a  Bond  I  have  given 

Works,  to  put  an  End   to  my  Life  be-  the  Winthrops,  or  one  of  their  Husbands, 

fore  I  come    to    Boston,   my  Desire  is  a  Copy  of  which  is   in   my  Papers."  — 

.  .  .  that  the  Money  laid   out  with  the  Ibid.,  vol.  i.  p.  282. 


226  HISTORY  OF   THE   OLD  SOUTH   CHURCH. 


action  she  had  been  much  aggrieved.  To  this  latter  church  she 
bequeathed  one  hundred  pounds,  to  be  used  according  to  its 
discretion  ;  upon  what  she  gave  or  intended  to  give  to  the 
former,  she  could  not  have  wished  to  keep  a  mortmain  grasp 
for  all  time.  We  should  not  have  thought  it  necessary  to  be 
thus  explicit  on  this  subject,  if  it  had  not  become  the  habit  of 
those  outside  the  church  and  congregation,  who  from  time  to 
time  seek  to  meddle  in  the  direction  of  its  affairs,  to  invoke 
the  name  of  Mary  Norton,  and  to  make  her  liberality  a  pretext 
for  their  interference. 

Mr.  Willard  was  admitted  to  the  membership  of  the  South 
Church  February  12,  1677-S,  and  was  installed  as  colleague 
pastor,  or  teacher,  a  few  weeks  later,  March  31.  No  particu- 
lars of  the  installation  services  have  come  down  to  us.  He  was 
a  son  of  Simon  Willard,  one  of  the  first  settlers  of  Concord,  — 
a  very  prominent  man  in  the  colony.  Samuel  was  born  in 
Concord,  January  31,  1640,  and  graduated  at  Harvard  College 
in  1659.  On  the  13th  of  July,  1664,  as  we  learn  from  the  Rox- 
bury  Church  Records,  a  church  was  gathered  at  Groton,  and  he 
was  ordained  as  its  minister.1  He  had  been  preaching  there  for 
several  months,  and  the  town  had  voted  "  That  Mr.  Willard,  if 
he  will  accept  it,  shall  be  their  minister  as  long  as  he  lives, 
which  Mr.  Willard  accepts,  except  a  manifest  Providence  of 
God  appeared  to  take  him  off."  Such  a  providence  appeared 
in  1676,  when,  on  the  13th  of  March,  the  village  was  destroyed 
by  the  Indians,  and  the  little  flock  was  dispersed.2  Mr.  Wil- 
lard came  to  Boston,  and  we  hear  of  his  beginning  to  preach 
almost  immediately  at  the  Third  Church,  of  which  his  father 
had  been  from  the  first  a  steadfast  friend.  Of  his  removal 
hither,  Mr.  Pemberton  said  in  a  funeral  sermon,  preached  thirty 
years  later  :  — 

1  Mr.  Willard  married,  August  S,  1664,  ing  and  begin  to  repair  our  habitations 
Abigail,  daughter  of  the  Rev.  John  Sher-  again,  if  God  permit ;  and  for  the  true 
man,  of  Watertown  ;  and,  secondly,  July  performance  of  this  agreement  we  do 
29,  1679,  Eunice,  daughter  of  Edward  engage  the  forfeiture  of  our  whole  right 
Tyng.  in  Groton  unto  those  who  do  go  up  and 

2  Many  of  the  people  went  to  Concord,  carry  on  the  work." 

and  remained  there  until  the  spring  of  Soon  after  the  resettlement  of  the 
1678.  At  a  town  meeting  of  the  inhab-  town,  measures  were  taken  for  the  erec- 
itants  of  Groton,  held  in  Concord  on  the  tion  of  a  new  meeting-house.  Mr.  YYil- 
12th  of  December,  1677,  "such  as  were  lard,  however,  had  gone  to  Boston,  and 
present  did  then  and  there  agree,  that  if  had  accepted  a  call  to  the  pulpit  of  the 
the  Providence  of  God  prevent  not  by  South  Church.  The  Rev.  Gershom  Ho- 
death  or  sickness,  or  by  the  enemy,  that  bart  was  settled  as  his  successor.  —  But- 
then  we  will  go  up  in  the   spring  follow-  ler's  History  of  Groton,  pp.  85,  S6. 


S^y  v  -  1<j~iakc^-^  .  -y<>o-cAj>x 


THE  REV.   SAMUEL    WILLARD.  227 

At  first  in  his  younger  years,  his  master  committed  to  his  pastoral 
care  a  flock  in  a  more  obscure  part  of  this  wilderness  :  But  so  great 
a  light  was  soon  observed  through  the  whole  land  :  And  his  Lord 
did  not  design  to  bury  him  in  obscurity,  but  to  place  him  in  a  more 
eminent  station,  which  he  was  qualify'd  for.  The  providence  that 
occasioned  his  removal  to  this  place  was  an  awful  judgment  upon  the 
whole  land  ;  yet  was  eventually  a  mercy  in  this  respect,  that  it  made 
way  for  the  translation  of  this  bright  star  to  a  more  conspicuous  orb  ; 
where  his  influence  was  more  extensive  and  beneficial ;  and  in  this  it 
was  a  great  blessing  to  this  congregation,  to  this  town,  nay,  to  all  New 
England. 

In  the  same  sermon,  we  have  a  very  full  and  discriminating 
estimate  of  Mr.  Willard's  qualifications  for  the  conspicuous 
position  to  which  he  was  now  called.  "  In  him,  bountiful  heaven 
was  pleased  to  cause  a  concurrence  of  all  those  natural  and 
acquired,  moral  and  spiritual  excellencies,  which  are  necessary 
to  constitute  a  great  man,  a  profound  divine,  a  very  consider- 
able scholar,  and  an  heavenly  Christian."  "  The  God  of  nature 
was  pleased  with  a  liberal  hand  to  bestow  on  him  those  natural 
intellectual  endowments,  which  laid  the  foundation  of  great 
improvement  in  knowledge.  And  did  from  his  youth  presage 
uncommon  service  for  God  and  his  people,  which  his  master 
had  designed  him  for.  In  natural  endowments,  he  appeared  as 
the  elder  son  among  many  brethren  :  in  these  very  few,  if  any, 
could  pretend  to  stand  upon  a  level  with  him."  We  learn  fur- 
ther that  he  had  a  copious  fancy  and  a  quick  and  accurate  per- 
ception ;  in  argument  he  was  profound  and  clear.  His  piety 
was  consistent,  devoted,  self-denying,  and  confiding.  His  learn- 
ing was  extensive  and  solid,  especially  in  theology,  which  was 
his  favorite  study,  "and  a  great  divine  must  of  necessity  be  a 
great  clerk." 

"  His  discourses,  were  all  elaborate,  acute  and  judicious  ;  the 
matter  being  always  weighty,  and  his  subjects  well  chosen, 
suited  to  the  state  of  his  flock,  and  every  way  adapted  to  make 
them  wiser  and  better.  His  common  discourses  might  have 
been  pronounced  with  applause  before  an  assembly  of  the  great- 
est divines."  "His  style  was  masculine,  not  perplexed,  but 
easy  as  well  as  strong."  His  delivery  was  characterized  by 
"  gravity,  courage,  zeal  and  prudence,  and  with  tender  solicitude 
for  perishing  souls.  And,  when  the  matter  required  it,  no  man 
could  speak  with  greater  pathos  and  pungency."  "  He  knew 
how  to  be  a  son  of  thunder  to  the  secure  and  hardened,  and  a 


228 


HISTORY  OF    THE   OLD   SOUTH  CHURCH. 


son  of  consolation  to  the  contrite  and  broken  in  spirit."  "  His 
public  prayers  were  always  pertinent  and  pathetical,  animated 
with  a  spirit  of  devotion  and"  marked  by  "an  uncommon  com- 
pass of  thought."  As  a  pastor,  he  was  distinguished  for  "pru- 
dence, faithfulness  and  impartiality."  "  All  his  talents  and 
acquisitions  were  consecrated  "  to  the  service  of  Christ,  and  over 
the  whole  was  shed  the  lustre  of  a  "  remarkable  and  unaffected 
modesty,"  and  a  "spirit  truly  pacific."  He  was  ardently  at- 
tached to  the  work  of  the  ministry,  and  unusually  diligent  in 
performing  its  various  duties.1 

After  Mr.  Willard  had  been  admitted  to  the  church,  but  be- 
fore his  ordination,  a  vote  was  passed  which  was  recorded  by 
him,  and  which  undoubtedly  had  his  approval.  It  was  a  step 
towards  the  mitigation  of  the  severe  rules  which  then  governed 
the  admission  of  members  to  the  churches. 


1  [We  have  in  our  possession  a  paper 
containing  an  abstract  evidently  made 
from  an  account-book  kept  by  the  dea- 
cons, which  shows  the  sums  paid  to  the 
various  pastors  from  1669  to  1740,  with 
other  items  of  expenditure.  We  copy  it 
entire  :  — 
1669 
Dec   19   Mr.  Thacher  1st  minister  40/ 

p  Week 
Contributed  this  year  from  7  to  S£ 
Ministers  had  provisions  etc.  sent  in  to 

the  Value  of  130/. 
Bell  cost  £\Z. 

Deacons  Frary  and  Eliot  Brackett  Tomp- 
son 

[There  is  a  mistake  in  connection  with 
the  last  name.  It  should  be  Williams.] 
A  present  of  ,£20  made  Mr.  Thacher  ) 

1672 ; 

Do  20  Do  1674 

Do  5  Mrs.  Norton  > 

^75  I 
Help  by  the  Ministers  pd.  p  the  Ch.  @ 

20/  p  diem 
Revd.  Mr.  Willard  settled  1678,  his  wood 

allowed  him  cost  8/  p  Cord. 
1677-8  Contrib.  abt  no/,  p  Week 
1679      raised  to         140/. 
1685  abt  no/, 

from    1686   to    1694  abt    100/.  to    1703 

abt  no/. 


Mr.  Willards  Salary  60/  ) 
Mr.  Pembertons  Do  40/  )  1701 

The  Ch.  allowed  Mr.  Willard  ^10  p 
annum  for  Entertaining  the  Elders,  be- 
sides abt  £6  for  Every  Election 

After  Mr.  Willards  Death  1707  Mr. 
Pemberton  had  50/  and  presently  after 
60/  p  Week  Salary,  and  20/  for  help. 

Deacons  Hill,  Checkley,  Green,  Hench- 
man, Simpson  Hubbard. 

Contrib.  1703  To  1708  150/  To  170/ 
To  1711  abt  180/.  1711  and  12  abt  ^"12 
dureing  the  Old  Ch.  meeting  there  after- 
wards abt  £8. 

The  Ch.  allowed  Mrs.  Willard  £40  p 
annum  for  her  Support  and  ^10  for 
Entertaining,  for  4  years  after  his  Death 
and  then  the  same  to  Mr.  Pemberton  for 
Election  and  Elders. 

Dr.  Sewall  invited  to  preach  17 13 
allowed  him  20  p  Week  Settled  Sept.  and 
then  40/  Anno  1714  50/  and  Mr.  P.  70/ 
1716  Mar.  Dr.  Sewall  60/.  1719.  Oct. 
65/.  1725  July  85/  1730  Aug.  120/. 
1740  May  180/. 

Mr.  Prince  preacht  1st  time  after  his 
return  from  London  Aug  26  17 17.  Set- 
tled in  1718  @  40/.  p  Week  1719  Oct 
65/.  1725  July  85/.  1730  Aug.  120/. 
1740  May  1S0/. 

Capt  Belcher  left  ^50.  Legacy  to  the 
Ch.] 


DEATH   OF  MR.    THACHER.  229 

February  14,  1678. 

At  a  Church  meeting  ; 

That  it  shall  be  left  to  the  discretion  of  the  Eldership  ;  in  case  any 
that  desire  fellowship  with  the  Church,  through  scruple  of  Conscience 
shall  bee  unwilling  to  consent  that  his  Relation  shall  be  read  before  the 
Church,  apprehending  it  not  to  bee  according  to  rule  to  require  it ; 
and  they  shall  otherwise  Judge  him  a  person  desirable  for  communion  ; 
that  the  relation  of  such  person  or  persons  given  to  the  Elders,  and 
by  them  attested  to  the  church,  shall  be  received  as  if  it  had  bin  made 
before  the  Church,  provided  that  in  other  cases  our  common  and  con- 
stant practice  shall  be  attended. 

Consented  to  by  the  Church. 

Mr.  Thacher  did  not  long  survive  to  enjoy  the  benefits  of 
the  co-pastorate,  nor  was  he  permitted  to  see  the  completion 
of  the  first  decade  of  the  church's  history.  Under  his  min- 
istry the  admissions  to  its  membership  had  increased  from  the 
original  twenty-eight  to  two  hundred  and  seventeen ;  but  only 
in  elevated  spiritual  vision  could  he  have  anticipated  its  future 
enlargement,  influence,  and  prosperity.  Only  to  the  borders  of 
the  promised  land  might  he  go  with  the  people  of  God  whose 
wise  and  honored  leader  he  had  been  through  many  hard  and 
bitter  experiences. 

Cotton  Mather  gives  the  following  account  of  Mr.  Thacher's 
last  sermon,  —  preached  at  the  North  Church,  —  and  of  his  sick- 
ness and  death :  — 

It  happened  that  this  excellent  man  preached  for  my  father  a  ser- 
mon on  1  Peter  iv.  18:  "The  righteous  scarcely  saved; "the  last 
words  of  which  sermon  were,  "  When  a  saint  comes  to  die,  then  often 
it  is  the  hour  and  the  power  of  darkness  with  him  ;  then  is  the  last 
opportunity  that  the  devil  has  to  vex  the  people  of  God ;  and  hence 
they  then  sometimes  have  the  greatest  of  their  distresses.  Do  not 
think  him  no  godly  man  that  then  meets  with  doubts  and  fears  ;  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  then  cries  out,  My  God,  my  God,  why  hast  thou 
forsaken  me  ?  God  help  us  that  as  we  live  by  faith,  so  we  may  walk 
in  it !  "  And  these  proved  the  last  words  that  ever  he  uttered  in  any 
sermon  whatever.  For  visiting  a  sick  person,  after  his  going  out  of 
the  assembly,  he  got  some  harm,  which  turned  into  a  fever,  whereof 
he  did,  without  any  "  hour  and  power  of  darkness  "  upon  his  own 
holy  mind,  expire  on  October  15,  167S.1 

1  [Mr.   Thacher  is   supposed  to  have  penses  amounted    to    ^45.6.3.      His    li- 

been  buried   in    Mr.  Sheaffe's  tomb,  in  brary   was  valued   by  Increase    Mather 

King's     Chapel    burying -ground;     but  and  John  Usher  at  £1 10,  and  consisted 

strange  to  say,  there  is  no  inscription  to  of  160  volumes  in  folio,  120  in  quarto, 

show  that  this  was  so.     His  funeral  ex-  130  in  octavo,  with  a  considerable  num- 


230  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD   SOUTH   CHURCH. 

Among  the  many  tributes  to  his  memory,  perhaps  the  most 
interesting  is  a  Greek  verse,  written  by  Eleazar,  an  Indian 
youth  then  studying  in  Harvard  College,  and  preserved  for  us 
in  the  Magnalia  ;  the  following  is  a  translation  :  — 

Though  earth  contains  his  dust,  his  name  is  yet  immortal: 
It  shall  light  the  future  ages  as  o'er  the  past  it  beamed  : 

While  his  soul,  set  free  from  prison,  seeks  the  ever-open  portal 
Where  the  shining  ones  are  waiting  to  welcome  the  redeemed. 

Mr.  Thacher's  youngest  son,  Peter,  arrived  in  Boston,  on  his 
return  from  England,  May  9,  1677.  He  kept  house  here  in 
1679,  occasionally  supplying  the  pulpits  of  the  Second  and  Third 
churches.  There  are  a  few  entries  in  his  diary,  at  this  time, 
which  seem  to  belong  to  our  history. 

March  2.  I  preached  at  the  South  Church  in  the  afternoon  for 
Mr.  Willard.  My  text  was  out  of  the  94  Ps.  n  v  about  the  vanity  of 
thought  [The  Lord  knoweth  the  thoughts  of  man,  that  they  are 
vanity.]  the  Lord  was  pleased  gratiously  to  help  and  assist  both  in 
praying  and  preaching,  blessed  be  his  holy  name,  tho  I  was  greatly 
surprized  with  fear  and  sorrow  remembring  my  Honoured  and  Dear 
Father. 

March  16.  I  heard  Mr.  Willard  both  parts  of  the  day.  .  .  .  About 
4  aclock  the  morning  Governor  Leverit  Dyed. 

April  3.  I  was  at  a  fast  at  the  first  church  in  Boston  occasioned 
by  the  death  of  Governor  Leveret.  Mr.  Mather  preached  in  the  fore- 
noon Isa.  3  —  1.  2.  3,  in  the  afternoon  Mr.  Willard  prayed,  then  Mr. 
Allen  preached  34  Ps.  18.  there  was  much  of  god  to  be  seen  in  carry- 
ing forth  his  servants  both  in  preaching  and  praying. 

April  27.  This  day  was  Sacrament  at  our  Church  which  I  was  at. 
Mr.  Willard  preached  in  the  morning  Mr.  Foster  in  the  afternoon.1 

May  25.  Was  the  Sabbath  and  I  was  at  the  South  Church  both 
parts  of  the  day  heard  Mr.  Willard  of  Christs  being  altogether  lovely 
and  Mr.  Higginson  8  Ezek  15  this  day  I  received  the  sacrament. 

August  7.  Night  about  Twelve  or  one  a  Clock  there  was  fire  brock 
out  at  Grosses  and  prevailed  exceedingly  for  soe  much  that  most  of 
the  considerable  warehouses  were  burnt  and  abundance  of  dwelling 
Houses.  Mr.  Ting  Mr.  Nowell  &c.  were  burnt  out  of  house  and  home. 
It  is  judged  that  there  was  consumed  by  the  fire  above  five  and  twenty 
hundred  thousand  pound  \sic\  lost  in  that  fire.     I  was  to  preach  the 

ber  of  small  books.  The  inventory  of  his  and  Peter  Thacher.     He  succeeded  the 

estate  included  "  1  negro  maide  Nan  "  Rev.  Joseph   Haynes  as  pastor   of   the 

and     "  1     negro     man    Franke."     Mrs.  First  Church,  Hartford,  in  1679  or  1680, 

Thacher  died  February  24,  1693-4.]  and  died  "  in  his  prime  or  youth,"  August 

1  [We  suppose  this  was  the  Rev.  Isaac  20,  1682.     See  Walker's  History  of  the 

F"oster,  a  classmate   of   Samuel    Sewall  First  Ch.  in  Hartford,  pp.  212-220.] 


THE   SYNOD    OF  1679.  23 1 

next  Sabbath  for  Mr.  Willard  and  had  almost  prepared  upon  the  Heb. 
but  when  I  saw  the  fire  mind  soe  run  upon  the  4.  Amos  1 1  ["  Ye  were 
as  a  firebrand  plucked  out  of  the  burning"]  that  I  must  preach  upon 
it  the  next  Sabbath.  This  fire  was  the  most  dreadful  that  ever  was  in 
New  England.  It  was  Judged  to  be  wilfully  done,  the  wind  dureing 
the  fire  was  very  little  and  that  which  was,  was  favourable.  It  was 
North  West  as  I  Judged  but  as  soon  as  ever  the  fire  stayed  the  wind 
came  East  and  North  East  a  very  fresh  gaile  which  if  it  had  done  soe 
before  it  would  have  carried  most  of  the  towne.1 

Aug  24.  Sabbath,  I  was  at  the  South  Church  both  parts  and  heard 
Mr.  Willard.  This  day  wee  had  a  Contribution  for  those  that  were 
burnt  out  to  which  I  gave  five  shillings.  After  this  the  Church  stayed 
to  chouse  Messengers  for  the  Synod,  and  Major  Savage,  Capt.  Hull 
and  myselfe  were  chose  to  Joyne  with  the  Elders. 

The  last  entry  brings  us  to  the  Synod  of  1679,  known  as  the 
Reforming  Synod.  There  had  been  a  long  period  of  material 
prosperity  in  the  colony.  Hutchinson  says  that  "the  colony 
about  this  time  [1669]  made  a  greater  figure  than  it  ever  did  at 
any  other  time.  Their  trade  was  as  extensive  as  they  could  wish. 
Some  of  the  magistrates  and  principal  merchants  grew  very 
rich,  and  a  spirit  of  industry  and  economy  prevailed  throughout 
the  colony."  The  same  historian  says,  also,  that  during  this 
time  there  had  been  a  gradual  and  rapid  decline  of  religious 
life,  the  effect  in  part,  as  was  believed,  of  the  prevailing  worldly 
prosperity,  but  more  especially  of  "  the  mingling  of  politics  and 
religion  from  the  beginning,"  and  the  "  prostituting  of  the  mys- 
teries of  our  holy  religion  to  mere  secular  views  and  advan- 
tages." This  condition  of  affairs  gave  great  uneasiness  to  the 
more  sober-minded  and  religious  portion  of  the  community  ;  it 
was  seriously  and  earnestly  discoursed  upon  in  several  elec- 
tion sermons  as  well  as  in  the  regular  pulpit  utterances  of  the 
clergy ;  and  to  quote  the  words  of  Thomas  Prince,  "  it  grew 
very  visible  and  threatening,  and  was  generally  complained  of 
and  bewailed  bitterly  by  the  pious."  The  feeling  of  sorrow  was 
soon  succeeded  by  one  of  alarm,  for,  as  was  thought,  the  dis- 
pleasure of  the  Most  High  began  to  be  manifested  in  the  events 
of  his  providence.  "Consuming  disasters  befel  the  labors  of 
the  husbandman  ;  losses  at  sea  were  uncommonly  numerous  ; 

1  [John  Hull  thus  describes  the  extent  Mill  Creek  to  Mr.  Oliver's  dock,  not  one 

of  this  fire  :  "  Aug.  8.     About  midnight  house  nor  warehouse  left ;  and  up  from 

began    a   fire   in    Boston,    an    alehouse,  my  warehouse  to  Mr.  Skerret's,  thence 

which,  by  sunrise,  consumed  the  body  of  to  Mr.  Hezekiah   Usher's,  thence  to  Mr. 

the  trading  part  of  the  towne :  from  the  Thacher's,  thence  to  Thomas  Fitch's."] 


232  HISTORY  OF   THE   OLD   SOUTH   CHURCH. 

desolating  fires  wasted  the  chief  seats  of  trade  ;  a  dreadful  pesti- 
lence raged  through  the  colony ;  and,  in  the  political  horizon,  a 
cloud  was  gathering  of  most  portentous  aspect." 

On  the  other  hand,  Cotton  Mather  gives  us  a  much  less 
gloomy  view  of  the  moral  and  religious  character  of  the  colony 
at  this  time.  He  says  :  "  New  England  was  not  become  so  de- 
generate a  country,  but  that  there  yet  was  preserved  in  it  far 
more  of  serious  religion,  as  well  as  of  blameless  morality,  than 
was  proportionably  to  be  seen  in  any  country  upon  the  face  of 
the  earth." 

In  May,  1679,  the  General  Court,  in  compliance  with  a  me- 
morial addressed  to  it  by  John  Eliot,  Increase  Mather,  and 
eighteen  others,  "reverend  elders,"  called  upon  the  churches  to 
send  elders  and  messengers  to  a  synod  to  be  held  in  the  follow- 
ing September.  We  give  a  copy  of  the  call  addressed  to  Mr. 
Willard,  which  is  still  preserved  on  the  files  of  the  church,  with 
a  private  note  from  Mr.  Secretary  Rawson  accompanying  it.  It 
is  addressed  :  These  fore  the  Rever'd  Mr.  Saml  Willard,  Teacher 
to  the  3d  Church  in  Boston  To  be  communicated  to  the  Church. 

Rev'nd.  Sir.     These  are  only  to  inform  yourself  and  church  of  the 
underwritten  Generall  Court's  Answer  and  order,  not  doubting  of  your 
and  their  obedience  and  complyance  therewith  at  the  time,  remayning 
Your  friend  and  servant 

Edw.  Rawson  Secty 
Boston  nth  July  1679 

At  a  Generall  Court  held  at  Boston,  28th  of  May  1679  :  In  answer 
to  a  motion  made  by  some  of  the  Reverend  elders,  that  there  might 
be  a  convening  of  the  Elders  and  messengers  of  the  churches  in  the 
form  of  a  Synod,  fore  the  revisall  of  the  platforme  of  discipline  agreed 
upon  by  the  churches  1647  ;  and  what  else  may  appeare  necessary  for 
the  preventing  schisms,  heresies,  profaneness,  and  the  establishment 
of  the  churches  in  the  faith  and  order  of  the  Gospel :  This  Court  doe 
approve  of  the  said  motion  ;  and  order  their  assembling  for  the  ends 
aforesaid,  on  the  second  Wednesday  in  September  next  at  Boston. 
And  the  Secretary  is  required  to  give  seasonable  notice  hereof  to  the 
several  churches.  And  it  is  further  ordered  that  the  charge  of  this 
meeting  shall  be  borne  by  the  churches  respectively.  By  order  of  the 
Court 

Edw  Rawson  Sectry. 

Questions  given  in  were.  1  Quest.  What  are  the  evils  that  have 
provoked  the  Lord  to  bring  his  judgments  on  New  England  ?  2  Quest. 
What  is  to  be  done  that  so  those  evils  may  be  reformed  ? 


THE  REFORMING  SYNOD.  233 

While  the  several  churches  were  really  independent  in  the 
management  of  their  own  affairs,  the  mutual  relations  of  church 
and  state  were  such  that  they  could  be  brought  together  au- 
thoritatively, to  take  united  action,  whenever  any  seeming 
exigency  required  it.  Nor  does  the  calling  of  a  synod  by  the 
General  Court  seem  so  strange,  when  we  know  that  all  the 
members  of  the  court  were  also  church-members,  and  that  there- 
fore the  whole  body  of  freemen  in  the  court  was  only  a  meeting 
of  representatives  of  all  the  churches.  "  In  the  General  Courts 
of  magistrates  and  deputies,  none  but  church-members  could 
legally  sit,  or  have  a  voice  in  choosing  others  to  sit.  .  .  .  Thus, 
when  the  General  Court  took  cognizance  of  ecclesiastical 
affairs,  it  was  but  the  whole  body  of  the  church  legislating  for 
its  parts  ;  and  this,  with  the  important  peculiarity  that  all  the 
legislators  by  whom  the  church  exercised  its  supreme  power 
were  of  the  laity.  The  system  had  no  element  of  prelacy  or 
presbytery  :  it  was  pure  democracy  installed  in  the  ecclesiastical 
government."  : 

The  proposal  for  a  synod  was  received  and  acted  upon  by  the 
churches  with  becoming  solemnity.  A  general  fast  was  ob- 
served, "  that  the  gracious  presence  and  Spirit  of  God  might  be 
obtained  "  for  its  direction.  At  the  appointed  time,  September 
10,  a  very  full  representation  from  the  churches  convened  in 
Boston.  Mr.  Willard  was  present,  and  Edward  Raynsford,  John 
Hull,  Thomas  Savage,  and  Peter  Thacher  accompanied  him,  as 
messengers  from  the  Third  Church.2  Mr.  Sherman,  of  Water- 
town,  and  Mr.  Oakes,  of  Cambridge,  were  chosen  moderators. 
The  deliberations  began  with  "  a  day  of  prayer  with  fasting 
before  the  Lord."  "  Several  days  were  spent  in  discoursing 
upon  the  two  grand  questions  laid  before  them,  with  utmost 
liberty  granted  unto  every  person  to  express  his  thoughts  there- 

1  Palfrey's  Hist,  of  N.  E)ig.,  vol.  ii.  p.  prevented  by  our  Testimony,  wee  are 
40.  willing  to   send   our  Messengers   to  it : 

2  The  First  Church  voted,  August  5,  Tho  whatever  is  theire  determined,  wee 
to  send  its  elders  and  messengers  to  the  looke  upon  and  judge  to  bee  no  further 
Synod,  but  evidently  with  some  hesita-  binding  to  us  than  the  light  of  Gods 
tion,  fearing,  possibly,  that  the  questions  word  is  thereby  cleared  to  our  Con- 
at  issue  between  it  and  the  Third  Church  sciences."  This  last  sentence  contains 
might  be  brought  forward.  To  its  vote  the  very  essence  of  Congregationalism, 
it  added  this  proviso  :  "  Tho  wee  doe  No  synod  or  council  has  any  right  to 
not  see  light  for  the  calling  of  a  Synod  legislate  for  the  local  churches.  It  may 
att  this  time,  yett  there  being  one  called  :  commend  its  views  "unto  the  serious 
that  what  good  theare  is  or  may  bee  consideration  of  all  the  churches  and 
motioned  may  bee  encouraged  and  evill  people,"  but  beyond  this  it  may  not  go. 


234  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

upon.  A  committee  was  then  appointed  to  draw  up  the  mind  of 
the  assembly  ;  which  being  done,  it  was  read  over  once  and  again, 
and  each  paragraph  distinctly  weighed ;  and  then,  upon  mature 
deliberation,  the  whole  was  unanimously  voted,  and  presented 
unto  the  General  Court."  1  In  an  act  passed  October  15,  1679, 
the  Result  was  "commended  unto  the  serious  consideration  of 
all  the  churches  and  people  in  the  jurisdiction,"  and  all  persons 
were  enjoined  and  required,  "  in  their  respective  capacities,  to 
a  careful  and  diligent  reformation  of  all  those  provoking  evils 
mentioned  therein,  according  to  the  true  intent  thereof,  that  so 
the  anger  and  displeasure  of  God,  many  ways  manifested,  may 
be  averted  and  his  favor  and  blessing  obtained."  2 

The  Synod  appointed  "  a  committee  of  elders  "  to  draw  up  a 
confession  of  faith  for  the  churches,  and  assembled  again  on 
the  1 2th  of  May,  1680,  to  take  action  upon  what  had  been  pre- 
pared. In  the  preface  to  the  Confession  it  is  said  :  "  That 
which  was  consented  unto  by  the  elders  and  messengers  of  the 
Congregational  churches  in  England,  who  met  at  the  Savoy, 
being  for  the  most  part,  some  small  variations  excepted,  the 
same  with  that  which  was  agreed  upon  first  by  the  Assembly 
at  Westminster,  and  was  approved  of  by  the  Synod  at  Cam- 
bridge in  New  England,  anno  1648,  as  also  by  a  General  As- 
sembly in  Scotland,  was  twice  publicly  read,  examined  and 
approved  of;  that  little  variation  which  we  have  made  from  the 
one,  in  compliance  with  the  other,  may  be  seen  by  those  who 
please  to  compare  them." 

Of  the  Confession  of  1680  we  would  speak  with  the  utmost 
respect.  It  is  the  work  of  great  and  good  men.  It  is  the  result 
of  the  best  thought  of  that  and  the  preceding  time  upon  the 
profound  and  awful  questions  with  which  it  deals.  It  is  a  part 
of  the  history  of  the  ancient  churches  of  Massachusetts.     These 

1  ["16  Sept.  79.     There  was  fast  in  from  the  Church  to  the  Synocie." — Peter 

the    Synod   Mr.    Higginson    began   and  Thacher's  MS.  Diary. .] 

prayed,  then  Mr.  Cobbet  preached  Isa  2  In  this  account  of  the  Synod  of  1679 

63.  7.    Mr.  Buckley  prayed,   in  the  after-  we  have  followed  Dr.  Wisner,  who  has 

noon  Old  Mr.  Eliot  prayed  Mr.  Mather  condensed  the  statements  of  Mather  in 

preached  99  Ps.  6.     Then  Mr.  Cobbet  the  Magnalia,   and    Hutchinson   in   his 

went  to  prayer  who  was  Exceeding  in-  History.     Palfrey    says     of    the    Result 

larged.   there  was  much  of  god  appeared  (drawn    up   by   Increase    Mather),    that 

in  him.     I  desire  to  blesse  god  for  this  it  is  "  chiefly  remarkable  for  its  freedom 

day  my  heart  was  much  drawen  forth  from  that  sectarian  jealousy  which  would 

this  day  and  in  family  prayer  after  ward."  have   marked    any  similar   document  in 

"6.   Octo.  79.      The    deacons    of   our  earlier   times."      It    contains    a   passing 

Church  came  and  brought  mee  five  pound  reference    to  the  Quakers  and  Baptists, 

for  preaching  and   being   a   Messenger  but  no  repressive  measures  are  proposed. 


OWNING    THE    COVENANT.  235 

churches  may  never  have  adopted  it  formally,  —  it  does  not 
appear  that  the  Old  South  ever  adopted  it  by  formal  vote,  — 
and  it  has  no  binding  force  upon  them  now;  but  it  represents 
historically  and  authoritatively  the  doctrinal  position  of  these 
churches  and  of  their  ministers  in  the  seventeenth  century,  and 
it  should  always  be  read  in  the  light  of  the  period  which  pro- 
duced it,  and  never  in  the  brighter  and  clearer  light  which  shines 
upon  our  homes  and  altars  to-day.1 

''Very  remarkable,"  says  Cotton  Mather,  "  was  the  blessing  of 
God  on  the  churches  "  which  conformed  to  the  recommendations 
of  the  Synod,  "  not  only  by  a  great  advancement  of  holiness  in 
the  people,  but  also  by  a  great  addition  of  converts  to  their 
holy  fellowship.  And  many  thousand  spectators,"  he  adds, 
"  will  testify  that  they  never  saw  the  special  presence  of  God 
our  Saviour  more  notably  discovered  than  in  the  solemnity  of 
these  opportunities."  The  additions  to  the  Third  Church  dur- 
ing the  next  six  or  twelve  months  were  not  as  many  as  from 
such  a  statement  as  this  we  should  expect  to  find  ;  but  we  can- 
not help  thinking  that  the  register  is  defective  here,  as  we 
know  it  to  be  elsewhere,  for  only  two  admissions  are  recorded 
during  the  entire  year  1681,  —  Eunice,  second  wife  of  the  Rev. 
Mr.  Willard,  and  Mary  Baker. 

We  have,  however,  striking  evidence  of  the  religious  interest 
which  prevailed  among  the  families  of  the  congregation  at  this 
time  in  the  register  of  the  baptismal  covenant,  and  an  illustra- 
tion also,  as  we  think,  of  the  light  in  which  this  covenant  was 
regarded,  and  how  it  was  made  use  of  by  the  first  members  of 
this  church.  On  the  30th  of  April,  1680,  seventy-nine  persons 
owned  the  covenant  ;  of  these,  at  least  thirty  were  children  of 
the  founders.  So  far  as  we  can  judge,  they  were  all,  or  nearly 
all,  young  people,  and  this  was  their  first  step  in  the  open  con- 
fession of  Christ's  name  and  of  their  purpose  to  lead  a  religious 
life.  Most  of  them  in  later  years  became  members  in  full  com- 
munion of  this  or  some  other  church.  Among  the  number 
were  three  children  of  Elder  Raynsford,  Solomon,  Elizabeth 
(Grenough),  and  Mary  ;  three  daughters  of  Deacon  Frary,  Han- 

1  A  manual  was  printed  in  1841  (and  only  in  a  qualified  sense,  as  explained  in 

another  edition    in    1855),    entitled  The  the   text.     Manuals  had  previously  been 

Confession  of  Faith  and  Form  of  Cov-  prepared,  in  1826  and  1833,  in  which  the 

enant  of  the  Old  South  Church,  etc.,  in  same  statement  about  the  Confession  of 

which  the  Confession  of  1680  was  given  16S0  was  made,   but  only  the  Form  of 

in  full  and  was  declared  to  be  that  of  the  Covenant  adopted  by  the  Church  in  1769 

Old    South  Church.     This   was    correct  was  printed. 


236  HISTORY  OF   THE    OLD   SOUTH   CHURCH. 

nah  (Walker),1  Mehetabel  (Lilly),  and  Abigail  (Arnold)  ;  Joseph, 
son  of  Deacon  Eliot;2  Mary,  daughter  of  Thomas  Savage, 
wife  of  Thomas  Thacher,  Jr.,  and  mother  of  the  Rev.  Peter 
Thacher,  of  Weymouth,  afterward  of  Boston  ;  Elizabeth,  daugh- 
ter of  John  Alden,  who  married  first  John  Walley  (not  the 
Hon.  John  Walley),  and  then  Simon  Willard  ;  four  children  of 
William  Davis,  Benjamin,  one  of  the  founders  and  first  deacons 
of  Brattle  Street  Church,  Mary  (Frost),  Huldah  (Raynsford), 
and  Ruth  (Royce)  ;  three  children  of  William  Dawes,  Jonathan, 
Mary  (Webster),  and  Rebecca  (Marshall)  ;  two  daughters  of 
John  Morse,  Elizabeth  (Eustis)  and  Hannah  (Dawes);  three 
sons  of  Edward  Rawson,  Grindall  (the  Rev.  Grindall  Rawson, 
of  Mendham),  William,  and  John  ;  two  daughters  of  Mrs.  Joanna 
Mason,  Joanna  (Breck)  and  Abigail  (Gillam)  ;3  three  sons  of 
Peter  Oliver,  Daniel,  Nathaniel,  and  James  ;  two  sons  of  Josiah 
Belcher,  John  and  Jonathan  ;  Hannah,  daughter  of  John  Hull, 
and  wife  of  Samuel  Sewall ; 4  four  children  of  Thomas  Brattle, 
Thomas,  afterward  treasurer  of  Harvard  College,  William, 
afterward  the  Rev.  William  of  Cambridge,  Elizabeth,  wife  of 
Nathaniel  Oliver,  and  Katharine,  who  married  first  John  Eyre, 
and  then  Wait  Winthrop  ;  three  children  of  James  Pemberton, 
Mary  (Breame),  Joseph,  and  Benjamin  ;  Abigail,  daughter  of 
the  Rev.  Samuel  Willard,  who  married  first  the  Rev.  Benjamin 
Estabrook,  and  secondly  the  Rev.  Samuel  Treat  ;  Mehetabel, 
daughter  of  Benjamin  Thurston;  Daniel  Ouincy ;  John  Eyre; 
and  Joseph,  son  of  Joseph  Belknap. 

The  Charlestown  church  had  been  twice  bereaved  since  its 
kindly  dismission  of  Mr.  Thacher  to  the  membership  of  the 
Third  Church,  with  a  view  to  his  becoming  its  minister.  Mr. 
Symmes  died  in  1671,  having  passed  the  limit  of  threescore 
years  and  ten,  and  Mr.  Shepard  in  1677,  in  the  prime  of  life. 
The  latter  had  borne  the  name  of  an  honored  father,  the  minis- 
ter of  Cambridge,  and  had  given  it  to  a  son  who  was  destined 

1  Hannah  Frary  married  first  Isaac  3  Arthur  Mason  did  not  join  the  Third 
Walker,  and  secondly  Andrew  Belcher,  Church  until  1704,  about  four  years  be- 
father  of  Jonathan  Belcher,  governor  of  fore  he  died.  His  daughter,  Joanna, 
Massachusetts,  and  afterward  of  New  called  by  John  Dunton  "  the  very  Flower 
Jersey.  of  Boston,"  married  first  Robert  Breck, 

2  Asaph  Eliot,  another  son  of  Deacon  and  then  Michael  Perry.  She  became  a 
Eliot,  owned  the  covenant  two  months  member  of  the  First  Church. 

before,  on  the  23d  of  February.    He  died  4  Mrs.   Sewall  became  a   member  of 

September  3,   1685.      Sewall   speaks   of  the  church  in  full  communion,  1  January, 

his  sickness,  death,  and  funeral,  in  his  16S8-9.     It  was  during    her    husband's 

Diary,  vol.  i.  p.  94.  absence  in  England. 


AN  ANCIENT  LETTER-MISSIVE.  237 

to  succeed  him  in  the  pastorate.  This  young  man  graduated  at 
Harvard  College  in  1676,  —  his  only  classmates  being  Thomas 
Brattle  and  Jeremiah  Cushing,  —  and  while  he  was  yet  little  more 
than  twenty  years  of  age,  says  Cotton  Mather,  he  preached  his 
first  sermon  at  Charlestown,  "  with  a  very  charming,  solid,  and 
serious  gravity,"  from  the  text  Exod.  xv.  2,  "  He  is  .  .  .  my 
father's  God,  and  I  will  exalt  him."  The  hearts  of  the  people 
were  drawn  towards  him,  and  in  due  time  they  called  him  into 
the  sacred  succession.  Their  letter-missive  to  the  Third  Church, 
inviting  it  to  the  ordination,  is  the  oldest  document  of  the  kind 
upon  its  files,  and  is  worthy  of  careful  perusal,  both  for  the 
quaint  and  beautiful  simplicity  of  its  language,  and  for  the  light 
which  it  throws  upon  the  fellowship  of  the  churches  at  this 
time,  as  exhibited  among  them  mutually  in  the  settlement  of 
their  pastors.  "  The  calling  together  of  pastors  and  delegates 
from  other  churches  "  had  grown  "  into  a  custom,  though  the 
inherent  right  of  each  church  to  ordain  their  own  officers  was 
constantly  affirmed."  "The  calling  in  of  councils  to  perform 
the  ordination  services  was  understood  to  be,  in  theory,  nothing 
more  nor  less  than  the  church  itself  performing  them  by  proxy, 
on  the  principle  qui  facit per  alium  facit  per  se.  In  their  rea- 
sonings on  the  subject,  to  leave  the  ultimate  decision  of  the 
question  to  other  churches,  whether  a  company  of  believers 
should  be  a  church  and  have  a  pastor,  would  be  to  adopt  the 
Presbyterian  rule,  which  they  had  no  thought  of  adopting  ;  to 
leave  it  to  the  good  pleasure  of  neighboring  ministers  would  be 
to  resume  the  yoke  of  prelacy,  which  they  had  just  thrown  off."  x 

Honoured  Reverend  and  Beloved  in  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

It  having  pleased  God,  after  His  afflicting  hand  upon  us,  by  the 
death  of  our  faithfull  Shepard  and  frustration  of  other  endeavours  for 
supply,  to  Give  us  Some  revivall  by  raising  up  the  Son  of  our  Blessed 
Shepard  ;  whom  Judging  by  the  observation  and  experience  we  have 
had  of  him  not  only  to  have  drunk  in  the  principles,  but  also  to  be 
very  Considerably  endued  with  the  Amiable  and  Christian  spirit  of 
his  father ;  We  have  unanimously  Called  and  prevailed  with  to  under- 
take, with  the  help  of  God,  the  office  of  a  Pastour  among  us. 

1  Joseph  S.  Clark's  Historical  Sketch,  siastical     organism  —  independency    or 

pp.    23,  24.     The    author   says   further:  self-government  —  was  not    endangered 

"  Every  step   taken    towards   uniformity  thereby.       So    that    these    seeming     re- 

and  affiliation  during  this  period  [1630  to  straints,  which  the  usages   of  the  times 

1640]   was  taken  with   the   utmost    cau-  were  throwing  upon  their  liberty,  they  re- 

tion,  and  not  till  it  was  clearly  seen  that  gardedas  merely  the  bonds  of  fellowship, 

the  fundamental  principle  of  their  eccle-  which  did  not  trammel  their  freedom." 


238  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

In  order  to  the  execution  of  that  office  we  doe,  according  to  the 
Custome  of  the  Churches  in  these  parts,  by  these  our  Letters  entreat 
you  to  afford  us  the  presence  of  your  Teaching  Officer  with  such  other 
Messengers  as  shall  seeme  Good  to  you  upon  may  the  fifth  next  com- 
ing at  nine  in  the  morning,  to  joyn  with  the  Elders  and  messengers 
of  other  Churches  we  have  sent  unto,  in  the  Ordination  of  the  Rever- 
end Mr.  Thomas  Shepard  ;  that  so  by  the  Laying  on  of  the  hands  of 
the  Presbytery,  he  may  be  lawfully  authorized  to  discharge  the  worke 
of  a  Pastour  in  this  part  of  God's  flock. 

So  craving  your  prayers  to  the  great  Shipheard  for  such  an  Influ- 
ence upon  the  Labours  of  our  Shepard  as  may  cause  an  Increase  of 
his  flock  and  the  spirituall  growth  of  each  member  therein,  we  com- 
mend you  also  to  the  same  God  and  the  word  of  his  grace,  and  Rest 
Your  Bretheren  and  Servants  in  Christ  Jesus, 

Signed  in  the  Name  and  by  the  Order  of  the  Church  of  Christ  in 
Charlestowne 

Laur.  Hammond 
John  Cutler 
Joseph  Lynde 
John  Phillips 
Tho  :  Greaves 
Charlestowne  April  4  1680 

We  have  a  brief  account  0.  this  ordination  in  Sewall's 
diary  :  — 

The  reverend  Mr.  Thomas  Shepard  was  ordained  May  5,  1680  by 
Mr.  Sherman,  Mr.  Oakes  Giving  the  Right  Hand  of  Fellowship. 
Mr.  Sh.'s  Text  Heb.  13.  20  —  That  great  Shepherd  of  the  Sheep.1 

Five  years  later  this  promising  young  pastor  was  gathered  to 
his  fathers. 

Simon  Bradstreet,  who  was  chosen  governor  of  the  colony  on 
the  death  of  John  Leverett,  joined  the  church,  together  with  his 
wife,2  May  22,  1680.     He  was  the  son  of  a  Non-conformist  cler- 

1  [Sewall's  Diary,  vol.  i.  p.  82.  The  letters-missive.  Peter  Bulkely  wrote  on 
text  given  above  may  have  been  that  of  the  death  of  the  first  Thomas  Shepard  : 
Mr.  Sherman's  charge.  Cotton  Mather  Fitly  his  name  and  office  were  the  same  : 
says  that  the  pastor  elect  preached  from  Shepherd  by  office—  Shepard  too  by  name.] 
Ezek.  xxxiii.  7,  "  O  Son  of  man,  I  have  set  2  Anne,  second  wife  of  Simon  Brad- 
thee  a  watchman  unto  the  house  of  Is-  street,  was  a  daughter  of  Emanuel  Down- 
rael."  At  Mr.  Shepard's  funeral,  June  9,  ing,  and  widow  of  Joseph  Gardner,  who 
1685,  the  bearers  were  Mr.  Mather,  Mr.  was  killed  in  King  Philip's  War.  She 
Symmes,  Mr.  Willard,  Mr.  Hubbard,  of  was  the  junior  by  nearly  forty  years  of 
Cambridge,  Mr.  Nathaniel  Gookin,  Mr.  her  second  husband.  They  were  mar- 
Cotton  Mather.  We  see  above  how  ried  june  6,  1676.  He  died  in  1697,  she 
much  play  upon  the  name  there  was  in  the  Jn  1713. 


SIMON  BRADSTREET. 


239 


gyman,  was  born  at  Horbling,  Lincolnshire,  in  1603,  was  edu- 
cated at  Emanuel  College,  Cambridge,  and  came  to  New  Eng- 
land with  Governor  Winthrop  in  1630.  He  was  assistant  forty- 
eight  years,  by  annual  election,  deputy  governor  in  1678,  and 
governor  from  1679  t0  T6S6.  He  was  one  of  the  first  settlers 
of  Andover,  and  lived  there  for  many  years,  but  after  the  death 
of  his  first  wife,  Anne  Dudley,  a  highly  gifted  woman,  in  1672, 
he  moved  to  Salem,  and  thence  to  Boston.  He  brought  to  the 
Third  Church  a  letter  from  the  First  or  North  Church  of  Ando- 
ver, of  which  we  give  a  reproduction  slightly  reduced  in  size  :  — 

One  of  the  recommendations  of  the  Reforming  Synod  had 
been  the  observance  of  seasons  of  special  humiliation  and 
prayer,  accompanied  by  a  public  and  solemn  renewal  of  church 
covenants.  The  Third  Church  responded  heartily  to  this  rec- 
ommendation, and  held  a  fast  with  great  solemnity  on  the  29th 
of  June,  1680,  "publicly  acknowledging  their  sins  and  the  sins 
of  the  people  at  large,  binding  them  to  a  faithful  reformation, 
and  consecrating  themselves  and  their  offspring  anew  to   the 


240  HISTORY  OF   THE  OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

service  of  God."  The  form  of  covenant  used  on  this  occasion 
was  entered  upon  the  records  by  Mr.Willard,  and  was  as  fol- 
lows :  — 

June  29  16S0  The  Church  renewed  Covenant  as  followeth 

Wee  who,  through  the  exceeding  riches  of  the  grace  and  providence 
of  God,  do  continue  to  be  a  church  of  Christ,  being  now  assembled 
in  the  holy  presence  of  God,  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
after  humble  confession  of  our  manifold  breaches  of  the  Covenant  be- 
fore the  Lord  our  God,  and  earnest  supplication  for  pardoning  mercy 
through  the  blood  of  Christ,  and  deep  acknowledgment  of  our  great 
unworthinesse  to  be  owned  to  be  the  Lord's  covenant  people  ;  also  ac- 
knowledging our  own  inability  to  keep  covenant  with  God,  or  to  per- 
forme  any  spirituall  dutye,  unlesse  the  Lord  Jesus  do  enable  us  therto 
by  his  Spirit  dwelling  in  us  ;  and  being  awfully  sensible  that  it  is  a 
dreadfull  thing  for  sinfull  dust  and  ashes  personally  to  transact  with 
the  infinitelye  glorious  majesty  of  heaven  and  earth  :  we  do,  in  humble 
confidence  of  his  gracious  assistance  and  acceptance  through  Christ, 
each  one  of  us  for  ourselves,  and  joyntly  as  a  Church  of  the  Living 
God,  explicitly  renew  our  covenant  with  God  and  one  with  another,  in 
manner  and  forme  following,  i.  e. 

We  do  give  up  ourselves  to  that  God  whose  name  alone  is  Jehovah, 
Father,  Son  and  Holy  Ghost,  the  one  only  true  and  living  God,  and  to 
our  blessed  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  as  our  only  blessed  Saviour,  Prophet, 
Priest,  and  King  over  our  soules,  and  only  Mediator  of  the  Covenant  of 
Grace,  promising  (by  the  helpe  of  his  Spirit  and  grace)  to  cleave  unto 
God  as  our  chiefe  good,  and  to  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  by  faith  and 
Gospel-Obedience,  as  becometh  his  Covenant  people,  forever. 

We  do  also  give  up  our  offspring  to  God  in  Jesus  Christ,  avouching 
the  Lord  to  be  our  God  and  the  God  of  our  children,  and  ourselves 
with  our  children  to  be  his  people  :  humbly  adoring  the  grace  of  God, 
that  we  and  our  offspring  with  us  may  be  looked  upon  to  be  the  Lord's. 

We  do  also  give  up  ourselves  one  to  another  in  the  Lord,  and  accord- 
ing to  the  will  of  God  ;  freely  covenanting  and  binding  ourselves  to 
walke  together  as  a  right  ordered  congregation  and  Church  of  Christ, 
in  all  the  waves  of  his  worship,  according  to  the  holy  rules  of  the  word 
of  God,  promising,  in  brotherlye  love  to  watch  over  one  another's 
soules  faithfully,  and  to  submit  ourselves  to  the  discipline  and  govern- 
ment of  Christ  in  his  Church,  and  duly  to  attend  all  those  ordinances 
which  Christ  hath  instituted  in  his  Church,  and  commanded  to  be 
attended  by  his  people,  according  to  the  order  of  the  Gospel,  and  de- 
grees of  Communion  unto  which  we  have  attained,  not  resting  in 
measures  attained,  but  pressing  after  all. 

And  whereas  the  Messengers  of  these  churches  who  have  met  to- 
gether in  the  name  of  Christ,  to  enquire  into  the  Reason  of  God's  con- 


RENEWING    THE   COVENANT.  24 1 

troversye  with  this  people,  have  taken  notice  of  many  provoking  evils 
and  procuring  causes  of  the  judgments  of  God  upon  New  England  ; 
so  farre  as  we,  or  any  one  of  us,  have  bin  guilty  of  provoking  God  by 
any  sin  therein  discovered  to  us,  we  desire  from  our  hearts  to  bewaile 
it  before  the  Lord,  and  humbly  to  entreat  for  pardoning  mercy  for  the 
sake  of  the  blood  of  the  everlasting  Covenant,  and,  as  an  expedient  to 
Reformation  of  these  evils,  or  whatsoever  else  have  provoked  the  eyes 
of  Gods  glory  among  us,  we  do  freely  engage  and  promise  as  in  the 
presence  of  God, 

First,  that  wee  will  (Christ  helping)  endeavour,  every  one  of  us,  to 
reforme  our  heart  and  life,  by  seeking  to  mortifye  all  our  sins,  and  labor- 
ing to  walke  more  closelye  with  God  than  ever  yet  we  have  done : 
and  will  continue  to  worship  God,  in  publick,  private,  secret,  and  this 
without  formality  or  hypocrisye  :  and  more  fully  and  faithfully  than 
heretofore  to  discharge  all  Covenant  dutyes  one  to  another  in  Church 
Communion. 

Secondly,  to  walke  before  God  in  our  houses  with  a  perfect  heart ; 
and  that  we  will  uphold  the  worship  of  God  therein  continually,  accord- 
ing as  he  in  his  word  doth  require,  both  in  respect  of  prayer  and 
reading  the  Scriptures,  that  so  the  word  of  God  may  dwell  richly  in  us  : 
and  will  do  what  in  us  lyes  to  bring  up  our  children  for  Christ,  that 
they  may  become  such  as  they  that  have  the  Lord's  name  put  upon 
them  by  a  solemn  dedication  to  God  in  Christ  ought  to  be,  and  will 
therefore,  (as  need  shall  be)  Catechise,  exhort  and  charge  them,  to 
fear  the  Lord,  and  endeavour  to  set  an  holy  example  before  them,  and 
be  much  in  prayer  for  their  conversion  and  salvation. 

Thirdly,  to  endeavour  to  be  pure  from  the  sins  of  the  times,  especially 
those  sins  which  have  bin  by  the  late  Synod  solemnly  declared  and  evi- 
denced to  be  the  evils  that  have  brought  the  judgments  of  God  upon 
New  England  ;  and  in  our  place  to  endeavour  the  suppression  thereof, 
and  be  carefull  so  to  walke  as  that  wee  may  not  give  occasion  to 
others  to  sin  or  speake  evill  of  our  holy  profession. 

Now,  that  wee  may  observe  and  keep  this  sacred  covenant,  and  all 
the  branches  of  it,  inviolable  forever,  we  desire  to  deny  ourselves,  and 
depend  wholly  upon  the  power  of  the  eternall  Spirit  of  grace,  on  the 
free  mercy  of  God,  and  merit  of  Christ  Jesus  :  and  where  wee  shall 
faile,  there  to  waite  upon  the  Lord  Jesus  for  pardon,  acceptance  and 
healing,  for  his  names  sake. 

This  Covenant  was  solemnly  acknowledged  and  engaged  in  by  the 
whole  church,  June  29,  1680. 

Not  long  after  this  solemn  service,  on  the  16th  of  August,  Ed- 
ward Raynsford  died,  "  being  old  and  full  of  days."  He  was 
ordained  ruling  elder  in  1670,  on  the  day  of  Mr.  Thacher's  in- 
stallation, and  he  is  the  only  member  of  the  Old  South  Church 


242  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD   SOUTH   CHURCH. 

who  ever  served  that  office.  The  question  of  filling  the  vacancy 
was  considered  from  time  to  time,  but  no  action  was  taken.  The 
First  Church  advanced  two  of  its  deacons  to  the  ruling-elder- 
ship as  late  as  1701. 

Another  founder,  and  an  eminent  man  in  church  and  state, 
Thomas  Savage,  died  February  14,  1682.1  On  the  next  Lord's 
Day,  Mr.  Willard  preached  a  funeral  sermon,  which  was  printed 
with  the  title  "  The  Righteous  Man's  Death  a  Presage  of  Evil 
Approaching."     We  quote  a  few  sentences  from  it :  — 

God  hath  now  for  a  long  time  been  pleading  with  New  England  in 
this  kind ;  how  many  precious  names  are  there  registred  in  the  black 
bill  of  a  few  years?  nor  is  his  anger  turned  away,  but  his  hand  is 
stretched  out  still.  And  now  God  calls  us  again  to  a  further  occasion 
of  deep  consideration,  by  that  awful  hand  of  his  in  the  sudden  and 
unexpected  departure  of  that  precious  one  from  us,  and  that  at  such  a 
time  as  this.  I  know  he  was  gathered  to  his  People  in  a  good  old  age 
and  full  of  dayes.  He  lived  long  enough  for  himself,  but  dyed  too 
soon  for  us  :  I  will  not  be  curious  in  noting  the  day  of  his  removal, 
though  I  believe  that  it  deserves  its  remark  :  nor  need  I  give  light  to 
his  personal  worth,  which  challenged!  a  sorrowful  remembrance  of  us ; 
his  own  works  shall  praise  him  in  the  gates  :  And  though  some  evil 
tongues  (which  evermore  account  much  deserving  a  fault)  have  sought 
to  blemish  him,  yet  his  name  shall  live  in  despite  of  envy  itself.  His 
long  service  in  publick  imployment ;  and  his  skilfulness  in  that  ser- 
vice ;  his  great  dexterity  in  military  Discipline  (a  thing  now  little 
valued  by  degenerate  spirits)  and  his  great  industry  in  propagating  it 
to  those  under  his  guidance  ;  his  love  to  his  Country,  testified,  not 
in  a  few  empty  words,  but  real  deeds  ;  his  adventuring  of  himself  in 
the  highest  places  of  the  field,  in  the  greatest  difficultyes  and  hazards, 
and  that  once  and  again,  at  such  time  as  eminentest  dangers  threatned 
us,  and  enemies  flushed  with  success  were  most  insolent;  yea,  and 
then  when  for  his  years  he  might  have  received  his  white  wand,  and 
been  acknowledged  to  be  Miles  emeritus  ;  his  tender  care  for  the  wel- 
fare of  this  people  (under  the  weight  whereof,  there  is  good  ground  to 
think,  that  he  sunk  and  dyed)  these  things  I  say,  besides  his  upright- 
ness towards  God  as  a  private  Christian,  his  tenderness  and  love  to 
his  brethren  as  a  member  of  the  Church,  his  affability  and  sweet 
deportment  towards  all  men  in  his  ordinary  converse,  speak  eminently 
his  worth,  and  our  loss.  He  is  now  gone  from  an  unthankful  world, 
to  receive  his  reward  with  God.     But  that  which  most  of  all  should 

1  The  Rev.  Peter  Thacher  says,  in  his  death  this  morning  before  break  of  day." 
diary,  February  14,  1681  -  2  :  "This  February  20.  "  Went  to  Major  Savages 
night  I  heard  of  Major  Savages  sudden     funeral." 


RECONCILIA  TION.  243 

affect  us,  is,  that  by  his  removal,  the  gap  is  wider,  and  we  left  the 
more  naked. 

The  time  for  reconciliation  between  the  First  and  Third 
churches  was  now  come.  The  members  of  both  must  have 
been  drawn  somewhat  nearer  together  during  the  revival  of 
religious  interest  of  which  we  have  been  speaking  ;  and  as  the 
Anglican  hierarchy  was  threatening  the  peace  and  liberty  of  the 
colony,  they  may  have  determined  to  forget  their  differences, 
and  to  unite  their  forces  in  the  presence  of  the  common  enemy.1 
Years  before  this,  President  Oakes  told  the  people,  in  a  sermon 
from  which  we  have  already  quoted,  that  they  were  endangering 
their  religious  liberties  by  their  uncalled-for  controversies.  He 
reminded  them  that  God  had  brought  them  into  this  wilderness, 
that  they  might  here  set  up  his  way  and  worship  in  the  purity 
and  gospel  glory  of  it ;  that  here  they  had  seen  the  orderly 
administration  of  the  ordinances,  and  church  officers  duly  quali- 
fied and  ruling  authoritatively  in  the  Lord,  according  to  the 
gospel,  using  their  power  to  edification,  and  not  destruction ; 
and  that  here  they  had  to  a  considerable  degree  been  enlighten- 
ing the  world  as  to  the  pattern  of  God's  house.  He  expressed 
the  conviction  that  God  had  been  doing  for  them  that  which 
shall  be  done  more  universally  and  gloriously  hereafter ;  and 
then  he  solemnly  warned  them  that  their  differences  were  pre- 
paring the  way  for  those  who  would  "make  no  difference  be- 
tween synodists  and  anti-synodists,  old  or  new  church-men," 
but  would  oppress  them  all  alike. 

The  first  step  formally  taken  was  a  vote  adopted  by  the  old 
church,  in  kindly  and  courteous  terms,  and  sent  to  Mr.  Willard 
by  the  hands  of  its  minister,  Mr.  Allen,2  and  Mr.  Samuel  Nowell, 

1  "An  effort  was  made  in  that  year  to  don,    May   29,    1682,  he   said,   in   refer- 

establish  an  Episcopal  church  in  Boston,  ence  to  the  First  and  Third   churches  : 

Both  societies  regarded  such  a  church  as  "  But  now,  heering  of  my  proposals  for 

a  common  enemy,  and  so  both  came  to-  ministers  to  be  sent  over,  (for  they  have 

gether  and  united  their  energies  to  pre-  very  good   correspondancy  with  some  of 

vent  its  establishment."  —  Ellis's  History  the   clarks    of    the    Council),   they    are 

of  the  First  Church,  pp.  134,  135.  joyned    together,  about  a  fortnight   ago 

The  forms  of  the  English  Church  were  and  pray  to  God,  to  confound  the  devices 

not  introduced  into  Boston  until  1686,  of  all  who  disturbe  their  peace  and  lib- 

but  Edward  Randolph  had  been  schem-  erties." 

ing  and  plotting  for  several  years,  and  2  The  Rev.  John  Oxenbridge  died 
Edward  Rawson  had  been  one  of  the  December  2S,  1674,  after  a  brief  pastor- 
most  prominent  and  persistent  in  resist-  ate,  and  Mr.  Allen  had  sole  charge  for 
ing  him.    Writing  to  the  Bishop  of  Lon-  several  years. 


244  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD   SOUTH  CHURCH. 

an  eminent  magistrate;  the  original  document  has  been  pre- 
served, and  we  present  a  fac-simile  somewhat  reduced  in  size  :  — 

At  a  lectin  a    of '  t/fe,  /irft    Shurc^    m  Jtrttari, 
Jljirtl  23-  }£l%- 

O^    .  (Vl2lt~flC7r    you.    Vre.    lutllino  lxet//>rna    tfie  J\_u £^    in     it?  ~* 

^niirz-neji t    ana   ■no!  re-v-(TX.e  iriq     Vour    Jeffrinonit  t-/?trticn-&o 
VIZ.   fnat  J\uie,  <rf  hhur en    Order',  urrft'tn   ?ire  ftaifc  prvferftta 
Mjie-nt  -unto,  atttLis  ■firu#&frt&>  cui  t&Judarneii?ofy^$frurcn£J 
a/W'eco.&ie&n),  Waif. '  Jtfttfcipt '  effapxttf '  tfreujtout)   <7o 
Sorai'vc  any/oroeSt    aJe.offinc&t  reyecfrna  trurjofve/,  ftfat 
*re  fu^e.  fiatrtjuitfu  &>»n  /a/en  a/  oxtr^otftentiiio  ffiret&reri- 

^JV  ill  it-net   &  e-xpZoierittgcct  it  &  fminfj  prefin^  *,  & 

Zetfni,   anc  tfat  fify,    tftief^J  to  fijn'fi,  fy  tMtiy.f&r 
approbation  ffft£*t%*6j  arvd  $uJnc?nj  anj^etna^orz  £or*^ 
I*  to  foSrnju/a^nJiftft^tfefterTU.  &.  acceftatffe,,  t&t 
it  may   &■  %ecc*rJe*  -fy    fto/rf,  in  rnwtn-ii  of 'art  £**>**» 
$iJuz,  of  Mat  u-rzc<rmfCrrtaJ&  &  /?  <P^£^    an/H^ 

jfcfed  m  t&Jffirmafivc  tojevfer.  / 

*~4*~f*j  d-J^tpp  ot-Q^yJ-. 

The  reply  of  the  Third  Church,  agreed  upon  at  a  meeting 
held  on  the  3d  of  May,  was  equally  courteous,  and  was  commu- 
nicated personally  through  Mr.  Willard  and  Mr.  John  Hull :  — 

Worshipfull,  Reverend^  and  Beloved : 

As  wee  cannot  but  with  grief e  acknowledge  the  great  evil  that  there 
is  in  Divisions,  from  the  sad  experience  which  we  have  had  of  the 
dangerous  influence  which  the  distance  that  hath  bin  between  you  and 
us  hath  had  in  this  land  ;  so  wee  desire  heartily  to  acknowledge  the 


THE   OLIVE   BRANCH  ACCEPTED.  245 

goodnesse  of  God,  in  moving  of  your  hearts  to  looke  towards  a  pacifi- 
cation ;  and  with  great  thankfulnesse  to  accept  at  your  hands  the  kind 
tender  of  reconciliation  made  unto  us  ;  to  the  furthering  whereof,  God 
forbid  that  wee  should  wilfully  put  any  obstruction,  who  rather  desire 
to  put  all  the  hands  we  have  to  the  promoting  of  it ;  as  being  sensible 
of  the  truth  of  what  he  intimated,  2.  Sam.  2.  26.  that  if  the  sword 
devoure  for  ever,  it  will  be  bitterness  in  the  end. 

As  for  the  condition  of  accommodation  which  hath  bin  presented  to 
us  from  yourselves  by  the  worshipfull  Samuel  Nowell  esqr.  and  the 
reverend  Mr.  James  Allen,  wee  are  fully  and  freely  ready  to  subscribe 
it.  As  wee  have  publickly  (and  particularly  in  the  last  Synod)  ac- 
knowledged the  platforme  of  Church  Discipline  which  was  agreed 
upon  by  the  Elders  and  messengers  of  these  churches,  to  bee  for  the 
substance  of  it  Orthodox,  soe  wee  do  now  in  particular  professe,  that 
we  do  believe  Chap.  13th  of  that  Booke,  throughout,  to  be  according 
to  rule,  and  the  mind  of  God  in  his  word,  respecting  that  case  therin 
treated  of ;  and  that  any  deviation  therfrom  is  Irregular,  and  wherin 
any  of  our  sinfull  infirmityes  have  been  grievous  to  any  or  all  of  your 
Church,  wee  aske  forgivenesse  both  of  God  and  of  yourselves  ;  and 
desire  dayly  to  pray,  what  we  know  not  teach  thou  us,  and  if  we  have 
done  amisse  wee  will  do  so  no  more.  For  ourselves  wee  are  heartily 
content,  that  all  things  wherin  we  judge  ourselves  to  have  bin  ag- 
grieved may  be  buried  in  oblivion. 

The  God  of  peace  direct  you  to  a  good  and  happy  issuing  of  this 
great  affaire,  which  you  have  so  candidly  begun,  and  cover  all  the  fail- 
ings of  his  people  under  the  robe  of  Christ's  Righteousnesse,  graunt- 
ing  unto  us  all  the  blessings  of  the  Gospel  of  peace,  and  to  yourselves 
the  Blessednesse  of  peace-makers  : 
So  pray, 

Worshipfull,  Reverend,  and  Beloved  : 
your  Brethren  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
Samuel  Willard 
in    the    name    and  with  the 
To  the  Rev.  Mr.  James  Allen,  free    and    full    vote    of    the 

teacher  and  Mr.  John  Wiswall,  brethren  of  the  third  gathered 

ruling  elder,  of  the  first  gathered  church  in  Boston 

church  in  Boston.     These 

To  be  communicated 

to  the  church.1 

To  this  response,  the  First  Church,  at  a  meeting  held  May  7, 
adopted  the  following  rejoinder  :  — 

1  [These  letters  appear  in  Mr.  Emer-  letter,  we  have  followed  the  draft  in  his 

son's  History  of  the   First  Church,  and  own  handwriting,  which  is  on  the  files  of 

in  the  notes  to  Dr.  Wisner's  Historical  the  Old  South.    The  variations  are  slight 

Sermons.      In    printing    Mr.    Willard's  and  unimportant.] 


246  HISTORY  OF   THE    OLD   SOUTH   CHURCH. 

Honoured,  Worshipfull,  Reverend,  Beloved  in  the  Lord : 

We  have  received  your  return  by  the  worshipfull  Mr.  John  Hull 
esqr.  and  the  reverend  Mr.  Samuel  Willard,  to  our  motion  to  hear, 
wherein  you  express  your  thankful  reception  and  full  concurrence  with 
the  condition  of  accommodation  therein  mentioned,  which  we  declare 
to  be  acceptable  to  us.  And,  wherein  our  sinful  infirmities  have  been 
grievous  to  you  or  any  of  your  church,  we  mutually  ask  forgiveness  of 
God  and  you.  And  desire  all  offences  we  judge  have  been  given  us, 
may  be  forgiven  and  forgotten,  desiring  to  forgive  others,  even  as  we 
believe  God  for  Christ's  sake  hath  forgiven  us. 

And  we  further  entreat,  that  both  our  motion  and  your  return  and 
this  conclusion  may  be  recorded  with  you,  as  it  shall  be  with  us,  in 
memory  of  a  happy  issue  of  our  uncomfortable  dispute  and  the  way  of 
our  peace. 

Now  the  God  of  peace,  that  brought  again  from  the  dead  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  that  great  shepherd  of  the  sheep,  by  the  blood  of  the 
everlasting  covenant,  make  you  perfect  in  every  good  work  to  do  his 
will,  working  in  you  that  which  is  most  well  pleasing  in  his  sight, 
So  pray, 

Honoured,  Reverend,  Beloved : 
your  brethren  in  the  faith  and 
fellowship  of  the  gospel, 

James  Allen 
John  Wiswall 
with  the  full  and  unani- 
mous   consent    of    the 
brethren. 

Cotton  Mather  thus  writes  of  the  reconciliation  of  the  two 
churches : — 

Indeed,  for  a  considerable  while,  tho'  the  good  men  on  both  sides 
really  Loved,  Respected,  and  Honoured  one  another,  yet  thro'  some 
unhappy  misunderstandings  in  certain  particular  Persons,  the  Com- 
municants of  these  two  particular  Churches  in  Boston,  like  the  two 
distinguish'd  Rivers,  not  mixing,  tho'  running  between  the  same 
Banks,  held  not  Communion  with  one  another  at  the  Table  of  the 
Lord :  but  in  two  sevens  of  Years,  that  Breach  was  healed,  and  unto 
the  general  Joy  of  the  Christians  in  the  neighbourhood,  both  the 
Churches  kept  a  Solemn  Day  together,  wherein,  Lamenting  the  In- 
firmities that  had  attended  their  former  Contentions,  they  gave  Thanks 
to  the  Great  Peace-Maker  for  effecting  this  Joyful  Reconciliation. 
The  Schism  was  not  so  long  lived,  as  that  which  happened  at  Antioch, 
about  the  Ordination  of  a  Minister ;  whereof,  Theodoret  says,  it  en- 
dured Fourscore  and  Five  Years.1 

1  [Magnalia,  Book  V.  p.  83.   The  Rev.     went  to  Boston  fast  and  thanksgiving  of 
Peter  Thacher  writes  :  "  14.  7.  1682.     I     the  first  and  third  Churches  who  are  re- 


DEATH  OF  JOHN  HULL.  247 

One  third  of  the  dissenting  brethren  of  1669,  who  would  have 
rejoiced  to  see  this  reconciliation  and  to  participate  in  it,  "died 
without  the  sight."  Mr.  Thacher  and  Elder  Raynsford  had 
been  transferred  to  the  church  invisible  and  indivisible ;  and 
the  following  brethren  also  had  been  called  home,  in  the  order 
in  which  we  give  their  names  :  Peter  Oliver,  Richard  Trewsdale, 
William  Salter,  Hezekiah  Usher,  William  Davis,  Benjamin 
Gibbs,  Benjamin  Thurston,  John  Morse,  and  Thomas  Savage. 
On  the  other  hand,  Mr.  Davenport  and  Elder  Penn,  and  many 
of  the  brethren  of  the  First  Church,  had  passed  into  the  imme- 
diate presence  of  their  Lord.  May  we  not  think  that  in  the 
upper  air  there  had  been  no  renewal  of  the  strife  of  earth,  but, 
rather,  that  a  happy  reconciliation  had  been  reached  there,  long 
before  the  surviving  members  of  the  two  churches  had  sheathed 
their  carnal  weapons  ? 

John  Hull  closed  his  honorable  and  useful  life  October  1, 
1683.1  Six  days  later,  Mr.  Willard  preached  his  funeral  ser- 
mon from  Numbers  xxiii.  10,  "  Let  me  die  the  death  of  the 
righteous,  and  let  my  last  end  be  like  his,"  and  bore  the  follow- 
ing testimony  to  his  character  and  worth  :  — 

They  are  little  things  to  be  put  into  the  account,  and  weigh  but  light 
in  the  commendations  we  have  to  give  him,  to  say  this  government 
hath  lost  a  magistrate;  this  town  hath  lost  a  good  benefactor;  this 
church  hath  lost  an  honourable  member ;  his  company  hath  lost  a 
worthy  captain  ;  his  family  hath  lost  a  loving  and  kind  husband,  father, 
master;  the  poor  have  lost  a  liberal  and  merciful  friend  ;  that  nature 
had  furnished  him  with   a  sweet    and    affable   disposition  and  even 

united.     Mr.  Allen  preached  in  the  fore-  by  Governor  Winthrop,  May  1,  1647.    A 

noon,  Mr.  Willard  in  the  afternoon."  few  months   before  his  death,  June  20, 

Benjamin  Walker  writes  in  his  diary  :  16S3,  he  wrote  to  his  agent,  Mr.  Thomas 

"May  18  1730   First  church  meet  to  con-  Glover,  in  London,  to  advance  ^500  on 

sider   whither   they   will    Inlarge    their  his  account  to  Mr.  Joseph  Dudley  and 

principals  (viz)  to  baptize  children  that  Mr.  John   Richards,  the   agents  of   the 

their  parents  were   not   in   communion,  colony,    "  to   buy  our   peaceable   enjoy- 

and   to   lay  aside  making   public   state-  ment   of   men,   though    the    Lord   hath 

ments."     The    Half-way   Covenant   was  freely  lent  us  the  so  long  enjoyment,"  — 

not    recognized    by    the    First    Church  that  is  to  say,  to  be  given  to  Charles  II. 

until  March  3,  1731.  The  Second  Church,  in  exchange  for  favors  expected, 
admitted  a  member  under  it,  for  the  first         The  Rev.  Peter  Thacher  writes  :  "  Oct. 

time,  January  15,  1693,  an^  for  the  last  5,  1683.     My  dear  and  I  went  to  Boston 

time  in  1786.]  to  Capt.  Hull's  funerall,  and  as  the  magis- 

1  John  Hull  was  born  at  Market  Har-  trates  and   ministers   were   in  his  great 

borough,    Leicestershire,  December    18,  room  the  summer  [a  horizontal  beam  or 

1624,  and  came  to  New  England  in  his  girder]  crakt  thro'  and  the  flower  sunk 

eleventh   year,  with    his   father,  Robert  an  inch  under  us.     I  had  a  scarfe  and 

Hull.    He  was  married  to  Judith  Quincy,  gloves." 


248 


HISTORY  OF   THE    OLD   SOUTH   CHURCH. 


temper;  that  Providence  had  given  him  a  prosperous  and  flourishing 
portion  of  this  world's  goods  ;  that  the  love  and  respect  of  the  people 
had  lifted  him  up  to  places  of  honour  and  preferment.  This,  this, 
outshines  them  all,  that  he  was  a  saint  upon  earth  ;  that  he  lived  like 
a  saint  here,  and  died  the  precious  death  of  a  saint,  and  now  has  gone 
to  rest  with  the  saints  in  glory.  This  has  raised  those  relics  of  his 
above  common  dust,  and  made  them  precious  dust.  When  conscience 
of  duty  stimulated  me  to  perform  my  part  of  his  exequies,  and  put  me 
upon  it  to  do  him  honour,  methoughts  justice  required,  and  envy  itself 
would  not  nibble  at,  this  character ;  and,  if  the  tree  be  to  be  known  by 
its  fruits,  his  works  shall  praise  him  in  the  gates. 

The  more  we  know  of  John  Hull,  the  more  we  are  led  to 
admire  the  vigor  of  his  mind  and  the  strength  of  his  religious 
character.  He  could  not  have  had  many  advantages  in  early 
life,  but  he  became  a  thoroughly  trained  merchant,  and  he  was 
able  to  hold  his  own  with  liberally  educated  men.  His  note- 
books show  him  to  have  been  well  read  in  the  classics.  The 
papers  which  we  are  able  to  trace  to  his  pen,  during  the  con- 
troversy with  the  First  Church,  are  among  the  best  in  style  and 
expression  that  have  come  down  to  us  from  that  period.  His 
diligence  as  an  annalist  was  exceptional ;  and  it  is  probable  that 
we  are  indebted  largely  to  his  example  and  influence  for  the 
invaluable  diaries  of  his  son-in-law,  Samuel  Sewall. 


-Ml 


fe'gfcl  5f* 


CHAPTER   V. 


i 683- i 696. 

THE    INTER-CHARTER    PERIOD. WITCHCRAFT. 

ON  the  23d  of  October,  1683,  Joseph  Dudley  and  John 
Richards  arrived  from  England  with  the  intelligence  that 
a  blow  which  had  long  threatened  the  colony  had  been  struck, 
and  that  a  writ  had  been  issued,  which,  as  Dr.  Palfrey  says, 
"  summoned  it  to  stand  for  the  defence  of  its  political  existence 
and  of  the  liberty  and  property  of  its  people,  at  the  bar  of  a 
court  in  London."  During  the  same  week,  Edward  Randolph 
landed  in  Boston  with  the  notification  of  the  quo  warranto,  which 
he  presented  to  the  governor  and  General  Court.  In  the  midst 
of  the  consternation  which  followed,  a  public  fast  was  held,  of 
which  the  Rev.  Peter  Thacher  has  left  us  an  account  :  — 

9  Nov.  1683  I  went  to  Boston  was  at  the  fast  of  the  generall 
Court  and  Elders;  Mr.  Willard  preached  Prov.  16.  3.  which  was  his 
text.     [Commit  thy  works  unto  the  Lord,  and  thy  thoughts  shall  be 


250  HISTORY  OF   THE   OLD   SOUTH   CHURCH. 

established.]  then  prayed  and  Mr.  Adams  went  to  prayer  then  Mr. 
Increase  Mather  preached  Rev.  3.  10  [Because  thou  hast  kept  the 
word  of  my  patience,  I  also  will  keep  thee  from  the  hour  of  tempta- 
tion, which  shall  come  upon  all  the  world,  to  try  them  that  dwell 
upon  the  earth.]  Mr.  Torry  concluded  with  prayer,  wee  sang  46  ps. 
and  soe  concluded  about  two  a  Clock  in  the  afternoon.  Wee  Eat  a 
bit  of  cake  and  drank  a  glasse  of  wine  and  then  the  governor  pro- 
pounded two  cases  of  Conscience  to  the  Elders  and  requested  their 
help  therein.  In  order  to  the  facilitating  of  the  work  of  the  generall 
Court  who  met  about  the  \guo  warranto^  which  was  out  against  the 
patent,  and  the  ministers  considering  of  it  together  at  Mr.  Willards 
did  conclude  that  if  the  patent  was  forfeited  by  law,  then  it  was  best  to 
resigne  it  up  to  his  majesty  for  such  regulation  as  might  make  it  most 
fit  for  his  majesty's  service,  that  soe  the  Essentialls  of  the  patent 
might  be  continued,  and  the  patent  continued. 

A  "  Declaration  "  from  the  king  was  made  known  to  the 
people,  that  if  the  colony,  before  prosecution,  would  yield  full 
submission  to  his  pleasure,  he  would  regulate  their  charter  for 
his  service  and  their  good,  and  with  no  further  alterations  than 
should  be  necessary  for  the  support  of  the  government  here. 
The  governor  and  a  majority  of  the  assistants  voted  an  humble 
address  to  his  majesty,  saying  that  they  would  not  contend  with 
him  in  a  course  of  law,  as  they  relied  on  the  gracious  intima- 
tion of  his  purpose  to  regulate  and  modify  the  charter,  and  not 
to  annul  it.  This  action  seems  to  have  had  the  approval  of  Mr. 
Willard  and  most  of  the  elders  ;  but  Increase  Mather  was  op- 
posed to  it,  and  under  his  lead  the  deputies  refused  to  agree  to 
the  address.  Hutchinson  says  that  if  this  vote  of  the  assist- 
ants had  received  the  concurrence  of  the  deputies,  "  it  is  doubt- 
ful whether  the  consequent  administration  of  government  would 
have  been  less  arbitrary  than  it  was  upon  the  judgment  against 
the  charter,  but,  upon  the  Revolution,  they  might  have  reas- 
sumed  their  charter,  as  Rhode  Island  and  Connecticut  did  their 
respective  charters,  —  there  having  been  no  judgment  against 
them."  1 

The  proceedings  by  quo  warranto  were  dropped,  and  a  new 
suit  was  begun  in  the  Court  of  Chancery.  On  the  18th  of  June, 
1684,  a  decree  was  entered  vacating  the  charter,  and  on  the  23d 
of  October  next  following  this  was  made  final.  More  than  a 
year  and  a  half  passed,  however,  before  Edward  Randolph 
returned  with  an  exemplification  of  the  judgment,  and  with 
commissions  for  the  officers  of  a  new  government. 

1  Mem.  Hist,  of  Boston,  vol.  i.  pp.  374,  375. 


A    FAST  AT   JUDGE   SE WALL'S.  25  I 

In  1685  Cotton  Mather  was  ordained  as  colleague  pastor  with 
his  father  over  the  Second  or  North  Church. 

Sabbath  May  3rd,  a  letter  read  from  the  N.[orth]  Church  wherein 
Mr.  Willard  and  Messengers  desired  to  be  sent  in  order  to  ordain 
Mr.  Cotton  Mather,  Pastor  of  that  Church  ;  signed,  Increase  Mather, 
at  the  desire  and  order  of  the  Church.  The  Governour  [Simon  Brad- 
street]  and  self  with  the  Deacons  [Peter  Brackett  and  Jacob  Eliot], 
nominated  to  goe.1 

Wednesday,  May  13.  1685.  Mr.  Cotton  Mather  is  ordained  Pastor 
by  his  Father,  who  said,  My  Son  Cotton  Mather,  and  in's  sermon 
spake  of  Aaron's  Garments  being  put  on  Eleazer,  intimating  he 
knew  not  but  that  God  might  now  call  him  out  of  the  world.  Mr. 
Eliot  [of  Roxbury]  gave  the  Right  Hand  of  Fellowship,  calling  him 
a  Lover  of  Jesus  Christ.     (Sewall.) 

A  few  days  later,  at  a  fast  observed  at  the  house  of  Samuel 
Sewall,  we  see  all  the  ministers  of  the  three  churches  taking 
part  together.  The  Rev.  Joshua  Moodey,  of  Portsmouth,  hav- 
ing been  driven  away  from  his  church  by  the  persecutions  of 
Governor  Cranfield,  of  New  Hampshire,  was  acting  as  an  assist- 
ant to  Mr.  Allen.  The  venerable  John  Eliot  offered  prayer  on 
this  interesting  occasion. 

Friday  May  22d  1685,  had  a  private  Fast:  the  Magistrates  of  this 
town  with  their  Wives  here.  Mr.  Eliot  prayed,  Mr.  Willard  preached. 
I  am  afraid  of  Thy  judgments  —  Text  Mother  [Mrs.  Hull]  gave.  Mr. 
Allen  prayed  ;  cessation  half  an  hour.  Mr.  Cotton  Mather  prayed ; 
Mr.  Mather  preached  Ps.  79,9.  Mr.  Moodey  prayed  about  an  hour 
and  half  ;  Sung  the  79th  Psalm  from  the  8th  to  the  End  :  distributed 
some  Biskets,  and  Beer,  Cider,  Wine.  The  Lord  hear  in  Heaven  his 
dwelling  place.     (Sewall.) 

On  the  27th  of  May,  at  a  General  Court,  the  following  proc- 
lamation for  a  public  fast  was  agreed  upon  :  — 

1  [In  the  records  of  the  Second  Church,  self    in  imposing    hands."  —  Two    Dis- 

Dr.  Increase  Mather  says:  "2d  month,  courses   by    the    Rev.    Henry   Ware,   Jr. 

5th  day   1685.     The  brethren    stayed  in  (1821),  p.  49.    The  italics  are  Dr.  Ware's, 
the  meeting-house  and  unanimously  con-  "  May  it  not  be  hoped  that  the  next 

sented,  that  the  13th  day  of  May  should  attempted  change  in  our  polity  will  be 

be  the  day  for  my  son  Cotton's  ordination  either  the  disuse  of  ecclesiastical  coun- 

as  their  pastor ;  and  that   letters  should  cils  altogether,    except    in    cases    where 

be  sent  to  the  two  churches  in  Boston,  the  fellowship  of  the  churches  is  mainly  to 

to    Charlestown,    Cambridge,    Roxbury,  be  expressed,  as  in  the  settlement  and  dis- 

Dorchester,  to  desire  them  to  send  their  mission  of  pastors,  and  the  gathering  of 

messengers  to  give  us  the  right  hand  of  churches,  or  their  employment  merely  as 

fellowship  ;  that  Mr.  Allen  and  Mr.  Wil-  referees  ?  " —  Hist.  Sketch,  by  Dr.  Joseph 

lard  should  be  desired  to  join  with  my-  S.  Clark,  p.  283.     The  italics  are  ours.] 


252  HISTORY  OF   THE   OLD   SOUTH   CHURCH. 

This  Court  having  taken  into  their  serious  consideration,  that  in 
respect  of  afflictive  Sicknesses  in  many  Places,  and  some  Threatenings 
of  Scarcity  as  to  our  necessary  food,  and  upon  other  Accounts  also, 
we  are  under  solemn  Frowns  of  the  Divine  Providence  ;  being  like- 
wise sensible,  that  the  People  of  God  in  other  parts  of  the  World  are 
m  a  low  Estate, 

Do  therefore  appoint  the  Sixteenth  day  of  July  next,  to  be  set  apart 
as  a  Day  of  publick  Humiliation  by  Fasting  and  Prayer  throughout 
this  Colony,  exhorting  all  who  are  the  Lord's  Remembrancers,  to 
give  Him  no  rest,  till  Isai.  62.  7.  He  establish  and  make  Jerusalem 
a  Praise  in  the  Earth  :  And  do  hereby  prohibit  the  Inhabitants  of  this 
Jurisdiction  all  servile  Labour  upon  the  said  Day. 

The  sentence  "  upon  other  accounts  also  "  was  as  direct  a 
reference,  perhaps,  as  it  was  thought  best  by  the  magistrates  to 
make  to  the  political  troubles  then  threatening  the  colony. 

We  have  intimations  at  this  time  of  the  occasional  presence 
of  Quakers  in  the  town  and  in  the  meeting-houses  :  — 

Thorsday  June  18.  A  Quaker  comes  to  the  Governour  and  speaks 
of  a  Message  he  had  which  was  to  shew  the  great  calamities  of  Fire 
and  Sword  that  would  suddenly  come  on  New  England.  Would  fain 
have  spoken  in  the  Meeting  house,  but  was  prevented. 

Sabbath,  June  21,  1685.  Mr.  Solomon  Stoddard  preaches  in  the 
Afternoon  from  Gal.  5.  17.  shewing  that  there  is  a  principle  of  Godli- 
ness in  every  true  Believer  •  and  how  it  differs  from  Moral  Vertue  &c. 
Some  little  disturbance  by  a  Quaker  about  the  time  of  Baptism. 
(Sewall.) 

As  we  have  seen,  the  church  voted,  February  14,  1678,  that 
candidates  for  admission  to  membership  should  be  excused,  when 
they  desired  it,  from  the  reading  of  their  "relation  "  before  the 
Church  and  congregation.  The  church  now  decided  that  hence- 
forward persons  might  be  admitted  to  membership  in  the  pres- 
ence of  the  Church  only. 

[1685  August  14.]  At  night  Mr.  Willard,  Eliot  Jacob,  Robert  Walker, 
Frary,  Nathaniel  Oliver,  Benjamin  Davis  meet  here  to  discourse.  Be- 
cause the  two  last  named  desire  to  come  into  the  Church  without  mak- 
ing any  Relation  at  all  ;  or  having  Mr.  Willard  report  the  Substance 
of  what  they  said  to  him.1 

1  [Benjamin   Davis   was    one    of    the  "  to  lay  aside  the  relation  of  experiences 

founders,  1699,  and  Nathaniel  Oliver,  one  which  are  imposed  in  other  churches,  in 

of  the  first  members,  of  Brattle    Street  order   to   the  admission  of    persons   to 

Church.      In  organizing  that  church,  it  the    Lord's    table."      Mr.    Davis    was  a 

was  determined,  among   other   matters,  deacon  in  Brattle  Street  Church.] 


REGULATION  OF  SEATS.  253 

This  day  [Friday]  August  28.  is  a  Church  Meeting  at  which  'tis  con- 
sented that  Persons  may  be  taken  in,  the  Church  only  being  present, 
and  not  the  Congregation  :  at  the  same  time  Mr.  Benjamin  Davis,  Mr. 
Nathaniel  Oliver,  and  Mr.  Samuel  Checkly  were  propounded. 

Sabbath-day,  September  13,  1685.  Mr.  Benjamin  Davis,  Nathaniel 
Oliver,  Samuel  Checkly  and  his  wife  [a  daughter  of  Joshua  Scottow]  are 
received  into  the  Church,  which  is  a  Sabbath  or  two  sooner  than  I 
expected.  The  Lord's  Supper  not  being  to  be  administered  till  Octo- 
ber 4th.  Samuel  Checkly  had  most  in's  Relation  :  two  wear  Perriwigs  : 
viz  :  Davis,  Checkly.     (Sewall.) 

The  following  is  from  the  church  records  :  — 

At  a  church  meeting.  Octob.  26,  1685.  Some  expositions  presented 
to  the  Church  about  Regulation  of  seats  in  the  Meeting  House  ;  espe- 
cially Pews. 

1.  That  these  are  not  to  be  counted,  (though  built  at  private  men's 
Charges),  to  be  an  Inheritance  in  Fee-simple  ;  because  not  so  in- 
tended by  the  grantors,  nor  any  record  or  evidence  for  it  pleadable  by 
the  grantee,  but  many  living  witnesses  to  the  Contrary. 

2.  It  is  but  equal  that  they  who  built  the  seats  should  enjoy  them, 
as  long  as  they  ordinarily  attend  the  Assembly  in  publick  worship, 
and  their  Children  after  them,  or  so  many  of  them  as  they  shall  leave 
their  interest  to  or  shall  (in  case  they  have  not  determined  it,  and  there 
be  need  of  it)  be  appointed  by  the  order  of  the  Overseers  of  the  Seats, 
deputed  by  the  Church. 

3.  If  such  Parents  dy  in  the  Infancy  of  their  children,  the  Overseers 
shall  no  farther  give  liberty  to  any  of  sitting  in  their  seat,  than  with 
condition  to  relinquish  it  agen,  when  such  children  are  come  to  age 
and  demand  their  right. 

4.  It  is  both  illegall,  unequall,  and  contrary  to  the  true  intention  of 
the  grant  of  the  Pews,  for  an  owner,  when  he  removes,  or  shall  have 
no  more  use  of  his  Seat  to  sit  in  himself,  to  sell  or  give  his  right  to 
whom  he  sees  meet,  without  the  approbation  of  the  Overseers ;  both 
because  it  is  contrary  to  the  intendment  of  the  first  grant,  and  opens  a 
door  to  confusion,  and  so  the  most  unworthy  may  be  preferred  before 
the  most  deserving. 

5.  If  such  builder,  leaving  the  house,  requires  his  charge,  the  Over- 
seers shall  order  his  re-imbursement  by  the  Church,  which  they  shall 
either  receive  agen  for  the  church,  of  such  whom  they  agen  grant  it 
to,  or  referre  it  to  the  Churches  dispose,  as  they  in  prudence  shall  see 
meet. 

6.  Where  two  families  are  equally  interested  in  one  seat,  and  there 
falls  out  difference  between  them  about  their  seat,  or  sitting,  the 
said  Overseers  are  empowered  to  issue  the  controversy  ;  and  if  the  par- 
ties concerned  will  not  submit  to  their  determination,  they  shall,  if 


254  HISTORY  OF   THE    OLD   SOUTH  CHURCH. 

Church  members,  be  lyable  to  Answer  it  to  the  Church,  if  otherwise  to 
the  Civill  authority.1 

7.  For  the  further  managing  of  this  affair  we  commend  to  the  Over- 
seers. 

1.  That  they  take  an  account  of  the  Pews  and  the  present  pro- 
prietors, who  either  have  themselves  built,  or  are  the  Children  of  such, 
in  lawfull  possession. 

2.  That  when  any  seat,  so  considered,  is  vacant,  they  do  not  pres- 
ently dispose  of  it,  till  they  first  enquire  whether  there  be  not  some 
person  or  persons,  to  whom,  on  the  foresaid  grounds,  there  may  be 
speciall  Reason  to  determine  it. 

3.  That  they  be  desired  to  grant  no  more  pews,  without  the  appro- 
bation of  the  Church. 

These  were  deliberated  upon,  and  voted  by  the  church,  Oct :  26.  85. 

The  same  time  the  worshipfull  Samuel  Sewall  Esq  was  chosen  to 
join  with  Mr.  Jno  Joyliffe  and  Capt.  Joshua  Scotto,  and  Capt.  Wm. 
Geresh  in  the  oversight  of  the  seats.2 

In  November  of  the  same  year  Theophilus  Frary  was  ordained 
deacon,  having  been  elected  to  the  office  several  months  before. 

[Sabbath,  November  8,  1685.]  In  the  Afternoon  Mr.  Willard  Or- 
dained our  Brother  Theophilus  Frary  to  the  Office  of  a  Deacon. 
Declared  his  Acceptance  January  nth  first,  and  now  again.  Pro- 
pounded it  to  the  Congregation  at  Noon  :  Then  in  Even  propounded 
if  any  of  the  Church  or  other  had  to  object  they  might  speak :  Then 
took  the  Church's  Vote,  then  called  him  up  to  the  Pulpit,  laid  his 
Hand  on's  Head,  and  said  I  ordain  Thee  &.c,  gave  Him  his  charge, 
then  Prayed,  and  sung  the  2d  part  of  the  84th  Psalm.  Four  Children 
Baptised  before  the  Ordination.  Thomas  Eyre  ;  William  [Colman], 
Eliza  [Landon],  Joseph  [Belknap].  So  God  in  some  measure  is  build- 
ing our  House  when  pulling  down  others.     (Sewall.) 

The  ministers  of  the  colony  had  fixed  upon  the  3d  of 
December  as  a  day  for  public  thanksgiving,  and  Mr.  Willard 
called  on  Samuel  Sewall  to  ask  him  to  obtain  the  official  appro- 
bation of  Governor  Bradstreet.  The  governor  hesitated,  and 
proposed  to  submit  the  question  to  his  council.     The  trouble 

1  [The  sixth  vote,  attested  by  Samuel     their  seating  before  Mr.  Willard  and  the 
Checkley,  is  to  be  found  in  Mass.  Ar-     Overseers." 

chives,  vol.  ii.  p.  39.]  The  disputants  were  probably  Rebecca 

2  [Sewall  tells  us  of  one  of  the  first  wife  of  Thomas  Harris,  and  Mary  Baker, 
cases  which  came  before  the  overseers  Mr.  Joyliffe  died  November  23,  1701. 
for  adjustment  January  25,  1685-6  :  "He  had  been  blind,  and  laboured  un- 
"  Mrs.  Harris  and  Baker  present  their  der  many  infirmities  for  a  long  time." 
mutual  offences  against  each  other  as  to  (Sewall.)] 


A    COUNCIL   AT  MALDEN.  255 

was  with  the  terms  of  the  proclamation  which  it  would  be  neces- 
sary to  issue :  "  The  difficulty  of  printing  an  Order  is,  lest  by 
putting  in,  or  leaving  out,  we  offend  England."  The  proclama- 
tion should  give  specific  reasons  for  the  observance  of  the  day, 
and  it  was  not  desirable  to  express  those  reasons.  It  was 
suggested,  therefore,  whether  it  would  not  be  convenient  for  the 
churches  to  observe  the  day  without  an  "  Order  from  Authority 
as  usual."  Here  the  matter  rested,  so  far  as  the  authorities 
were  concerned,  and  the  ministers  went  forward  upon  their  own 
responsibility. 

Sabbath-day,  November  15  1685.  In  the  Afternoon  Mary  Smith, 
Widow,  Mr.  Wheelwright's  Grandchild,  was  taken  into  Church ;  then 
Mr.  Willard  mentioned  what  the  Elders  had  done  as  to  a  Thanks- 
giving, and  propounded  to  the  Church  that  we  might  have  one  on  the 
First  Thorsday  in  December :  because  had  Fasted,  and  God  had  gra- 
ciously answered  our  Prayers  ;  so  should  meet  Him  in  the  same  place 
to  give  Thanks  for  that,  and  any  other  Providence  that  hath  passed 
before  us.     Silence  gave  Consent,  no  one  speaking.     (Sewall.) 

A  council  was  held  at  Maiden,  April  7,  1686,  to  which  the 
South  Church  was  invited.  Deacon  Eliot  and  Samuel  Sewall 
were  chosen  to  accompany  Mr.  Willard,  as  delegates. 

March  28.  Letter  read  from  Maldon,  directed  to  the  three  Churches 
in  Boston,  desiring  Council  respecting  their  Pastor,  Mr.  Tho.  Chiever, 
who  is  charged  with  scandalous  immoralities,  for  which  hath  not  given 
satisfaction.1  Mr.  Eliot  and  my  self  to  accompany  Mr.  Willard  thither 
next  Wednesday  come  Sennight,  7th  April. 

April  7.  Get  up  about  4  mane  to  go  and  accompany  Mr.  Willard  to 
Maldon,  went  most  by  Water,  some  by  Land.  Those  that  went  by 
Water  were  landed  at  Switzer's  Point,  then  went  two  miles  on  foot. 
(Sewall.) 

The  next  entry  on  the  church  records  is  as  follows  :  — 

At  a  Church  meeting  May  25,  1686. 

Voted  that  the  worshipfull  Richard  Wharton  Esqr  shall  have  a  pew 
granted  him  for  his  family  in  the  meeting  house  before  the  pew  of 
Mrs.  Mary  Dudley,  and  up  to  the  pulpit  stairs,  and  that  the  Overseers 
of  the  seats  be  desired,  with  the  advice  of  the  Deacons,  to  lay  it  out 

1  [The  Rev.  Thomas  Cheever  was  son  wards   regained    the   public   confidence, 

of    the    famous    schoolmaster,    Ezekiel  and  was  ordained  pastor  of  the  church 

Cheever.       He    was    ordained    July    27,  in  Chelsea  in   1715,  where  he  continued 

16S1.     Charges  against  him  were  made  for  about  thirty-five  years,  dying  at  the 

and  sustained  before  a  council,  and  he  age  of  ninety-one.     (Eds.  of  the  Sewall 

was  dismissed  May  20,  16S6.     He  after-  Papers.)] 


256  HISTORY  OF   THE    OLD   SOUTH   CHURCH. 

for  him,  and  according  to  their  prudence  order  the  manner  of   the 
building,  so  as  shall  bee  most  fitting.1 

The  Rev.  John  Bailey  had  been  preaching  for  more  than  a 
year  as  assistant  to  Mr.  Willard.  This  faithful  man  was  born 
in  Blackburn,  Lancashire,  in  1643,  and  began  his  ministry  in 
the  neighborhood  of  Chester,  at  the  age  of  twenty-two;  but  he 
was  soon  silenced  for  his  non-conformity,  and  suffered  imprison- 
ment for  a  time  at  Lancaster.  He  afterward  went  to  Limerick, 
and  preached  there  with  great  success  for  fourteen  years.  Here 
he  was  offered  church  preferment,  even  a  bishopric,  upon  the 
first  vacancy,  if  he  would  conform;  but  this  he  could  not  do,  and 
again  he  was  sent  to  prison.  On  his  trial  he  said  to  the  judges: 
"  If  I  had  been  drinking,  and  gaming,  and  carousing  at  a  tavern 
with  my  company,  my  lords,  I  presume  that  would  not  have 
procured  my  being  thus  treated  as  an  offender.  Must  praying 
to  God  and  preaching  of  Christ,  with  a  company  of  Christians, 
that  are  as  peaceable  and  inoffensive,  and  serviceable  to  his 
Majesty  and  the  Government  as  any  of  his  subjects,  must  this 
be  a  greater  crime  ?"  The  recorder  answered,  "  We  will  have 
you  to  know  it  is  a  greater  crime."  With  this  strength  of  prin- 
ciple, Mr.  Bailey  had  great  gentleness,  sweetness,  and  sensitive- 
ness of  nature.  John  Dunton,  the  London  bookseller,  who 
heard  him  preach  while  he  was  at  the  South  Church,  says  that 
his  text  was,  "  Looking  unto  Jesus,"  and  he  adds,  "  I  thought  he 
spake  like  an  angel."  In  the  summer  of  1686  he  accepted  a 
call  from  the  church  in  Watertown,  and  he  was  installed  there 
in  the  autumn.2  We  catch  a  few  glimpses  of  his  ministry  in 
Boston  at  this  period,  in  Sewall's  diary :  — 

Thorsday,  March  12,  1684-5.     Mr.  Jorm  Bayly  preached  from  Amos 

1  [Richard  Wharton  was  a  large  land-  Bethiah,  became  a  communicant  in  1691. 
holder,  a  public-spirited  citizen,  a  judge  His  affairs  were  found  to  be  much  in- 
of  the  Court  of  Pleas  and  Sessions,  volved,  after  his  death.] 
and  a  councillor  under  Dudley  and  An-  2  For  a  sketch  of  Mr.  Bailey's  life,  see 
dros.  To  oppose  the  measures  of  the  Ellis's  History  of  the  First  Church,  pp. 
latter,  he  went  to  England  in  1687,  and  150-155.  Mr.  Bailey  returned  to  Boston 
died  there  May  14,  1689.  He  married,  in  1693,  an<^  preached  as  an  assistant  to 
first,  Bethiah,  daughter  of  William  Tyng ;  Mr.  Allen  at  the  First  Church,  until  his 
secondly,  Sarah,  daughter  of  the  Rev.  death  in  1697.  His  second  wife  was  a 
John  Higginson  ;  and  thirdly,  Martha,  daughter  of  Richard  Wilkins,  the  book- 
daughter  of  John  Winthrop,  Jr.  His  seller.  She  joined  the  South  Church, 
name  does  not  appear  on  the  list  of  in  which  she  had  been  brought  up,  in 
members,  but  his  first  wife,  Bethiah,  169S,  and  in  1699  she  became  the  sec- 
owned  the  covenant  in  167 1,  and  his  ond  wife  of  the  Rev.  Peter  Thacher,  of 
third  wife,  Martha,  in  1679;  ms  daughter,  Milton. 


THE   REV.    JOHN  BAILEY.  257 

4.  12,  and  Mr.  Willard  from  2  Cor.  4.  16-18;  both  Sermons  and 
Prayers  Excellent. 

Friday  morn  May  8th  1685.  Mr.  John  Bayly  preached  the  Lecture 
for  Mr.  Mather,  [probably  the  day  before,]  from  Ps.  37.  4.  Delight 
thyself  also  in  the  Lord  &c. 

Thorsday  Septr.  3.     Mr.  Jno.  Bayly  preached  the  Lecture. 

Note,  Sabbath-day,  Septr.  20.  Mr.  Jno  Baily  preaches  with  us  all 
day :  Mr.  Willard  at  Watertown.  In  the  Afternoon  from  those  words 
of  Job,  Till  my  Change  come.     Doct.  Death  a  very  great  Change. 

Thorsday  [Jan  13,  1686]  exceeding  cold  :  Mr.  Jno  Bayly  preaches 
the  Lecture  for  Mr.  Mather  from  Eccles.  9.  10.  Whatsoever  thy  hand 
&c. 

Fast-day  March  25,  1686.  Mr.  Willard  exerciseth  all  day,  Mr. 
Bayly  being  constrained  to  keep  house  by  reason  of  the  Gout. 

Mr.  Jno  Bayly  preaches  his  farewell  Sermon  from  2  Cor.  13,  n. 
Goes  to  Watertown  this  week.     July  25,  1686. 

July  28.  A  considerable  Troop  from  Watertown  come  and  fetch 
Mr.  Bayly,  some  of  ours  also  accompany  them. 

We  have  before  us  a  receipt,  signed  by  Samuel  Sevvall  as  a 
member  of  the  council,  for  money  collected  at  the  South  Church 
on  the  8th  of  August,  but  for  what  specific  purpose  we  do  not 
know  :  — 

Augt  13.  1686 
Reed  the  day  above  written  of  Capt  Jacob  Eliot  and  Capt.  The- 
ophilus  Frary  Deacons  of  the  South  Church  in  Boston  Two  and  Thirty 
pounds  four  shillings  and  2d  in  Money  ;  and  two  Bills  ;  one  for  fourty 
shillings  in  Corn,  the  other  for  four  shillings  in  Bisket  at  16s  pr  [ 
being  the  Contribution  made  last  Sabbath  in  Answer  to  the  Brief  put 
forth  by  the  Honble  President  and  Council 

I  say  Reed 

p.  Sam  Sewall. 

The  queen's  birthday  was  celebrated  on  Saturday,  September 
25,  by  the  officers  of  some  frigates  lying  in  the  harbor,  with 
music,  cannon,  and  bonfires,  and  the  noise  and  excitement  were 
allowed  to  invade  the  stillness  and  sanctity  of  the  Sabbath  eve. 

Sabbath,  Septr  26.  Mr.  Willard  expresses  great  grief  in's  Prayer 
for  the  Profanation  of  the  Sabbath  last  night.  Mr.  Lee  preaches  for 
us  in  the  afternoon  from  Isa.  52.  7.  Said  that  all  America  should  be 
converted,  Mexico  overcome,  England  sent  over  to  convert  the  Na- 
tives, look  you  do  it.1     (Sewall.) 

1  [This  was  the  Rev.  Samuel  Lee,  of  husband  was  Mr.  John  George,  a  mer- 
Bristol.  His  daughter,  Lydia,  joined  chant  of  good  standing ;  her  second,  the 
the   Third    Church   in    1695.     ^er  nrst     Rev.  Cotton  Mather,  whom  she  survived.] 


258  HISTORY  OF   THE   OLD   SOUTH   CHURCH. 

The  Rev.  Charles  Morton  was  installed  as  pastor  of  the 
Charlestovvn  church  on  Friday,  November  5.  He  had  been  a 
clergyman  of  the  Established  Church,  and  lost  his  living  under 
the  Act  of  Uniformity  in  1662.  He  objected  to  the  laying  on 
of  hands  at  this  time,  as  throwing  a  shadow  upon  his  previous 
ordination  ;  and  what  had  hitherto  been  the  usage  in  this  re- 
spect was  waived  in  his  case,  as  it  had  been  a  month  before  at 
the  installation  of  Mr.  Bailey  at  Watertown.  Mr.  Morton's  text 
was  Rom.  i.  16:  "For  I  am  not  ashamed  of  the  gospel  of 
Christ."  "  He  took  occasion  to  speak  of  the  5th  of  November 
very  pithily,  and  said  the  just  contrary  to  that  Epistle  was 
taught  and  practised  at  Rome.  Mr.  Mather  spoke  in  praise  of 
the  Congregational  way,  and  said  were  [he]  as  Mr.  Morton,  he 
would  have  Hands  laid  on  him.  Mr.  Moodey  in's  prayer  said, 
though  that  which  would  have  been  gratefull  to  many  was 
omitted,  or  to  that  purpose." 

At  a  Church  meeting,  Octobr.  11.  1687. 

Voted  that  Mr.  Moses  Pain  and  Captain  James  Hill  be  joyned  with 
Capt.  Sewal  and  Capt.  Scotto  and  Mr.  Jno.  Joyliffe,  in  the  oversight 
of  the  seats. 

The  position  of  the  New  England  colonies  as  an  integral  part 
of  the  British  Empire  was  for  a  long  period  a  peculiar  one. 
Nominally  dependencies  of  the  Crown,  their  people  acted  inde- 
pendently in  all  matters  relating  to  civil  as  well  as  religious 
affairs.  In  a  half-enlightened  age  and  under  an  arbitrary  ad- 
ministration of  government,  they  had  constructed  free  Christian 
commonwealths  ;  and  they  had  adapted  the  Congregational  idea, 
as  it  had  been  known  and  put  into  practice  on  a  limited  scale  in 
England  and  Holland,  to  the  necessities  of  large  and  prosperous 
communities,  without  taking  thought  or  making  provision  for 
the  establishment  of  any  other  form  of  church  organization. 
Echoes  of  princely  and  prelatical  displeasure  would  reach  them 
from  time  to  time  from  beyond  the  sea,  but,  fortunately  for 
them,  steam  and  electric  telegraphy  were  not  yet  available  for 
the  practical  annihilation  of  distance,  and  those  who  would  have 
crushed  out  their  freedom  had  other  and  more  pressing  con- 
cerns near  at  hand.  They  remained  secure,  therefore,  in  the 
enjoyment  of  their  exceptional  liberties  for  many  years.  At 
length,  in  1664,  Charles  II.  appointed  four  commissioners,  whose 
duty  it  was  to  visit  the  New  England  colonies,  to  hear  and  de- 
termine various  matters  of  complaint,  to  settle  conflicting  ques- 


ANGLICAN  INTERFERENCE.  259 

tions  which  had  arisen  concerning  the  charters,  to  adjust  all 
difficulties,  and  to  effect  the  peace  of  the  country.  These  broad 
powers  were  given  largely  with  reference  to  ecclesiastical  affairs, 
and  one  of  the  chief  objects  of  the  commission  undoubtedly  was 
to  obtain  a  foothold  and  an  opportunity  for  episcopacy  on  this 
new  soil.  It  must  have  been  galling  to  the  persecuting  bishops 
of  the  English  Church  to  hear  of  the  men  whom  they  had 
driven  from  their  pulpits  and  parsonages,  whom  they  had  har- 
assed with  imprisonment  and  other  penalties,  and  whom  they 
had  banished  from  the  land,  as  successful  ministers  of  prosper- 
ous parishes  on  the  other  side  of  the  sea,  and  as  together  con- 
stituting a  clergy  not  only  held  in  high  esteem  by  the  people, 
but  exercising  a  marked  influence  in  moulding  and  directing 
the  character  and  policy  of  the  state.  The  temptation  to  inter- 
fere with  these  non-conforming  clergymen  and  their  associates, 
and  to  make  them  feel  the  strong  arm  of  ecclesiastical  law  in 
their  far-off  retreat,  was  too  powerful  to  be  resisted. 

Two  years  before  the  appointment  of  the  commission,  June 
28,  1662,  the  king  sent  a  letter  to  the  Massachusetts  colony,  in 
which  he  said  :  — 

Since  the  principal  end  and  foundation  of  that  charter  was  and 
is  the  freedom  and  liberty  of  conscience,  we  do  hereby  charge  and 
require  that  that  freedom  and  liberty  be  duly  admitted  and  allowed,  so 
that  such  as  desire  to  use  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  and  perform 
their  devotions  in  that  manner  as  is  established  here,  be  not  debarred 
the  exercise  thereof,  or  undergo  any  prejudice  or  disadvantage  thereby, 
they  using  their  liberty  without  disturbance  to  others,  and  that  all 
persons  of  good  and  honest  lives  and  conversations  be  admitted  to 
the  Lord's  Supper,  according  to  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  and 
their  children  to  baptism. 

The  injunction  to  the  ministers  and  Christian  laymen  of  New 
England  to  allow  the  exercise  of  liberty  of  conscience  among 
them  did  not  come  with  a  very  good  grace  from  the  men  who 
that  very  summer  were  putting  into  operation  the  Act  of  Uni- 
formity, under  which  two  thousand  exemplary  clergymen  were 
obliged  to  abandon  their  livings  and  their  homes,  not  because 
they  did  not  accept  all  the  essential  doctrines  of  their  church, 
but  because  they  would  not  submit  to  re-ordination,  and  could 
not  conform  conscientiously  in  certain  matters  of  detail  relat- 
ing to  clerical  vestments  and  bodily  postures.1 

1  "  The   rectors   and   the    vicars  who     and  the  most  active  of  their  order.     The 
were  driven  out  were  the  most  learned     bulk  of  the  great  livings  throughout  the 


260 


HISTORY  OF   THE    OLD   SOUTH   CHURCH. 


The  plea  that  those  among  the  residents  of  New  England 
who  had  a  decided  preference  for  the  Anglican  ritual  should  be 
permitted  to  worship  according  to  its  forms  was  not  unreason- 
able, and  if  they  could  have  done  this  without  prejudice  to  the 
paramount  interests  of  the  churches  already  established  here, 
they  might  have  been  allowed  to  do  so.  Even  the  king  had  said, 
"  They  using  their  liberty  without  disturbance  to  others." 
They  had  come  voluntarily  and  for  their  own  purposes  to  a 
country  in  which  they  knew  beforehand  that  Congregationalism 
was  the  dominant  polity,  and  that  they  would  be  at  the  utmost 
disadvantage  in  any  endeavor  to  set  up  a  religious  system 
antagonistic  to  that  polity.  Sewall  records,  November  5,  16S6: 
"  One  Mr.  Clark  preaches  at  the  Town-House.  Speaks  much 
against  the  Presbyterians  in  England  and  here."  Thus,  when, 
at  length,  they  did  meet  together,  they  were  not  satisfied  with 
the  enjoyment  of  the  forms  of  prayer  for  which  they  had  a 
preference,  but  they  attacked  the  great  majority  about  them 
with  whom  they  were  out  of  harmony.  Further,  it  would  seem 
that  until  this  time,  and  later,  those  who  desired  for  themselves 
the  forms  of  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  were  not  able  to  pay 

country  were  in  their  hands.    They  stood     ligious  instincts  of  the  nation  at  large. 


at  the  head  of  the  London  clergy,  as  the 
London  clergy  stood  in  general  repute 
at  the  head  of  their  class  throughout 
England.  They  occupied  the  higher 
posts  at  the  two  universities.  No  Eng- 
lish divine,  save  Jeremy  Taylor,  rivalled 
Howe  as  a  preacher.  No  parson  was 
so  renowned  a  controversialist,  or  so 
indefatigable  a  parish  priest,  as  Baxter. 
And  behind  these  men  stood  a  fifth  of 
the  whole  body  of  the  clergy,  men  whose 
zeal  and  labor  had  diffused  throughout 
the  country  a  greater  appearance  of  piety 
and  religion  than  it  had  ever  displayed 
before.  But  the  expulsion  of  these  men 
was  far  more  to  the  Church  of  England 
than  the  loss  of  their  individual  services. 
It  was  the  definite  expulsion  of  a  great 
party  which  from  the  time  of  the  Refor- 
mation had  played  the  most  active  and 
popular  part  in  the  life  of  the  Church. 
It  was  the  close  of  an  effort  which  had 
been  going  on  ever  since  Elizabeth's 
accession  to  bring  the  English  commu- 
nion into  closer  relations  with  the  Re- 
formed communions  of  the  Continent, 
and   into  greater  harmony  with  the  re- 


The  Church  of  England  stood  from  that 
moment  isolated  and  alone  among  all 
the  churches  of  the  Christian  world. 
The  Reformation  had  severed  it  irre- 
trievably from  those  which  still  clung 
to  the  obedience  of  the  Papacy.  By  its 
rejection  of  all  but  episcopal  orders,  the 
Act  of  Uniformity  severed  it  as  irre- 
trievably from  the  general  body  of  the 
Protestant  churches,  whether  Lutheran 
or  Reformed.  And  while  thus  cut  off 
from  all  healthy  religious  communion 
with  the  world  without,  it  sank  into  im- 
mobility within.  With  the  expulsion  of 
the  Puritan  clergy,  all  change,  all  efforts 
after  reform,  all  national  development, 
suddenly  stopped.  From  that  time  to 
this,  the  Episcopal  Church  has  been 
unable  to  meet  the  varying  spiritual 
needs  of  its  adherents  by  any  modifica- 
tion of  its  government  or  its  worship.  It 
stands  alone,  among  all  the  religious 
bodies  of  Western  Christendom,  in  its 
failure  through  two  hundred  years  to 
devise  a  single  new  service  of  prayer  or 
of  praise."  —  Green's  Short  History  of  the 
English  People,  pp.  609,  610.     (1875.) 


THE   ENGLISH  ESTABLISHMENT. 


26l 


for  the  maintenance  of  these  forms.  One  of  the  propositions  of 
Edward  Randolph  was,  that  some  of  the  funds  collected  in 
England  for  the  conversion  of  the  Indians  in  North  America,  to 
which  the  non-conformist  party  had  largely  contributed,  should 
be  diverted  from  its  proper  and  legitimate  use  to  this  purpose ; 
and  another,  "that  the  three  meeting-houses  in  Boston  might  pay 
twenty  shillings  a  week  each,  out  of  their  contributions,  towards 
defraying  of  our  church-charges,  that  sum  being  less  per  annum 
than  each  of  their  ministers  receive."  l 

It  was  not  only,  perhaps  not  chiefly,  the  Episcopal  Church 
of  England  as  a  religious  body,  as  one  among  the  Christian 
denominations,  to  which  the  fathers  were  opposed,  and  whose 
progress  on  these  shores  they  feared.  It  was  the  Church  of 
England  established  by  law  ;  the  Church  of  the  Tudors  and  the 
Stuarts  ;  the  Church  of  Parker  and  Laud  ;  the  Church  which  had 
sought  to  coerce  its  refractory  children  with  prison  and  pillory, 
which  had  maimed  their  bodies  and  tried  to  crush  their  spirits, 

in  Boston,  which  severally  collect  7  or 
£%  on  a  Sunday,  do  pay  to  our  Church 
Warden  20s.  a  weeke  for  each  meeting- 
house, which  will  be  some  encouragement 
to  our  ministers,  and  then  they  can  but 
raile  against  the  Service  of  the  Church. 
They  have  great  Stocks,  and  were  they 
directed  to  contribute  to  build  us  a 
Church,  or  part  from  one  of  their  meet- 
ing-houses, such  as  wee  should  approve  ; 
they  would  purchase  that  exemption  at  a 
great  rate,  and  then  they  could  but  call  us 
papists  and  our  Ministers  Baals  Priests." 
—  Foote's  Annals  of  King's  Chapel,  vol. 
i.  pp.  51,  52. 

The  excellent  Robert  Boyle  was  presi- 
dent, and  Henry  Ashurst  was  treasurer,  of 
the  Company  for  the  Propagation  of  the 
Gospel  in  New  England,  —  the  oldest  of 
all  the  Propagation  Societies,  —  and  we 
may  be  sure  that  they  never  would  have 
consented  to  the  perversion  of  its  funds 
to  sectarian  uses.  Edward  Rawson  was 
"  steward  and  agent  "  of  the  society  in 
New  England,  and  among  the  commis- 
sioners were  William  Stoughton,  Thomas 
Hinckley,  John  Richards,  and  Increase 
Mather.  Randolph  would  not  have  been 
likely  to  obtain  very  satisfactory  infor- 
mation from  any  of  these  men  about  the 
employment  of  the  money  entrusted  to 
them. 


1  Edward  Randolph  wrote  to  the 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  August  2, 
1686:  — 

"  More  would  daily  be  of  our  commu- 
nion had  we  but  the  countenance  and 
company  of  the  President  and  Council, 
but  instead  thereof  wee  are  neglected 
and  can  obtain  no  maintainance  from 
them  to  support  our  minister.  Butt  had 
we  a  general  governour  we  should  soon 
have  a  large  congregation  and  also  one  of 
the  churches  in  Boston,  as  your  Grace 
was  pleased  to  propose  when  these  mat- 
ters were  debated  at  the  Councill  Table. 
I  humbly  remind  your  Grace  of  the 
money  granted  formerly  for  evangelizing 
the  Indians  in  our  neighborhood.  It 's 
a  great  pitty  that  there  should  be  a  con- 
siderable stock  in  this  country  (but  how 
imployed  I  know  not)  and  wee  want  7 
or  8oo£  to  build  us  a  church.  ...  It  is 
necessary  that  the  governour  licence  all 
their  ministers,  and  that  none  be  called 
to  be  a  pastor  of  a  congregation  without 
his  approbation.  By  this  method  alone 
the  whole  Country  will  easilv  be  regu- 
lated, and  then  they  will  build  us  a  church 
and  be  willing  to  allow  our  ministers  an 
honorable  maintenance.  .  .  .  It  would  be 
very  gratef  ull  to  our  church  affaires  if  his 
Majestie  would  please  to  grant  us  his 
Royall  letters,  that  the  3  meeting-houses 


262  HISTORY  OF   THE   OLD   SOUTH  CHURCH. 

which  had  brought  some  to  death  and  had  driven  multitudes 
into  exile  ;  the  Church  which  with  all  its  wealth  at  home  was 
proposing  now  to  levy  upon  their  scanty  treasury  for  its  support 
here,  — this  was  the  Church  which  witlrgood  reason  they  feared, 
and  whose  encroachments  they  were  determined  to  withstand. 

The  sententious  remark  of  James  I.  after  his  conversion 
from  Presbyterianism  to  Episcopacy,  No  bishop,  no  king,  was  a 
saw  that  cut  both  ways.  The  second  generation  of  New  Eng- 
land men  were  shrewd  enough  to  see  that  royal  and  prelatical 
prerogatives  were  closely  related  and  interdependent,  and  that 
every  degree  of  toleration  yielded  to  the  latter  was,  in  effect,  a 
new  concession  made  to  the  former.  The  fathers  had  come 
hither  to  escape  from  the  hierarchy,  not  from  the  monarchy, 
but  in  their  new  home  they  had  been  free,  practically,  from 
both.  The  sons  did  not  discriminate  very  closely,  certainly 
while  the  Stuarts  were  on  the  throne,  between  the  two.  Quincy 
says  that  the  policy  adopted  here  at  this  time  was  simply  one 
of  self-defence,  and  he  adds  :  "  It  is  unquestionable  that  it  was 
chiefly  instrumental  in  forming  the  homogeneous  and  exclu- 
sively republican  character  for  which  the  people  of  New  Eng- 
land have  in  all  times  been  distinguished,  and,  above  all,  that  it 
fixed  irrevocably  in  the  country  that  noble  security  for  religious 
liberty,  the  independent  system  of  church  government."  And 
again  :  "  Had  our  early  ancestors  adopted  the  course  we,  at  this 
day,  are  apt  to  deem  so  easy  and  obvious,  and  placed  their  gov- 
ernment on  the  basis  of  liberty  for  all  sorts  of  consciences,  it 
would  have  been,  in  that  age,  a  certain  introduction  of  anarchy. 
It  cannot  be  questioned  that  all  the  fond  hopes  they  had  cher- 
ished from  emigration  would  have  been  lost.  The  agents  of 
Charles  and  James  would  have  planted  here  the  standard  of 
transatlantic  monarchy  and  hierarchy.  Divided  and  broken, 
without  practical  energy,  subject  to  court  influences  and  court 
favorites,  New  England  at  this  day  would  have  been  a  colony 
of  the  parent  state."  ] 

The  royal  commissioners  were    unable    to    accomplish    any- 
thing during  their  stay  in  New  England.     The  magistrates,  the 

1  Boston  Centennial  Address,  1S30,  still  acknowledged  the  duty  of  a  limited 
pp.  28,29.  Bancroft  says:  "The  Puri-  allegiance  to  the  parent  state.  The  Epis- 
tans  established  a  government  in  Amer-  copalians  had  declared  themselves  the 
ica  such  as  the  laws  of  national  justice  enemies  of  the  party,  and  waged  against 
warranted,  and  such  as  the  statutes  and  it  a  war  of  extermination  ;  Puritanism  ex- 
common  law  of  England  did  not  war-  eluded  them  from  its  asylum." — History 
rant ;    and   that  was    done   by  men  who  of  the  United  States,  vol.  i.  p.  463. 


THE   COLONIAL   CHARTER    VACATED.  263 

ministers,  and  the  people  generally  were  against  them,  and  in 
1667  they  returned  to  England,  baffled  and  disappointed.  In 
July,  1685,  the  charter  of  Massachusetts  was  vacated.  On  the 
14th  of  May,  1686,  Edward  Randolph,  whose  zeal  for  king  and 
church  kept  him  busy  for  several  years,  now  on  one  side  of  the 
Atlantic  and  now  on  the  other,  arrived  in  Boston  harbor  in  the 
Rose  frigate,  bringing  an  exemplification  of  the  judgment 
against  the  charter,  and  a  commission  for  Joseph  Dudley,  who 
was  to  act  as  president  ad  interim  until  the  arrival  of  a  royal 
governor.  This  time  Randolph  was  accompanied  by  a  chaplain, 
the  Rev.  Robert  Ratcliffe,  with  his  surplice  and  service-book, 
duly  empowered  to  set  up  the  forms  and  ceremonies  of  the 
Anglican  communion  in  the  town.  On  the  following  Sunday 
Randolph  attended  at  the  South  meeting-house,  sitting  in  the 
pew  of  Mr.  Luscombe.1  "  Mr.  Willard  prayed  not  for  the  gov- 
ernor or  government,  as  formerly,  but  spake  so  as  implied  it  to 
be  changed  or  changing."  On  Wednesday,  the  26th  of  May, 
Mr.  Ratcliffe  waited  on  the  council,  and  in  his  behalf  Ran- 
dolph proposed  that  he  should  have  one  of  the  three  meeting- 
houses to  preach  in.  This  was  denied  ;  but  the  council  author- 
ized him  to  occupy  the  east  room  in  the  town-house,  in  which 
the  deputies  had  held  their  sessions,  until  a  fitter  place  could 
be  provided,  and  he  preached  there  on  the  following  Sunday. 
An  Episcopal  society  was  organized  a  few  days  later,  with  the 
expectation,  as  we  have  said,  that  the  Congregational  churches 
would  be  taxed  for  its  maintenance.  Randolph's  own  words 
were :  "  It  was  never  intended  that  the  charge  should  be  sup- 
ported by  myself  and  some  few  others  of  our  communion."  In 
England,  the  dissenters  were  taxed  for  the  benefit  of  the  Estab- 
lished Church ;  in  New  England,  the  churches  of  the  estab- 
lished polity  were  to  be  taxed  for  the  benefit  of  the  dissenters. 
On  the  2 1  st  of  August  Randolph  called  on  Samuel  Sewall,  in 
company  with  Mr.  Benjamin  Bullivant,  who  had  been  a  member 
of  Mr.  Willard's  congregation,  and  was  to  be  warden  of  the  new 
church,  and  broached    the  idea  of  a  contribution  by  the  South 

1  Perhaps  Major  Humphrey Luscomb.  "Dec.   25.     They  sit  in  Mr.  JoylifFs 

For  his  death,  see  Sewall's  Diary,  vol.  i.  Pue  ;  and  Mrs.  Randolph  is  observed  to 

p.  217.  make  a  curtesy  at  Mr.  Willard's  naming 

When  Randolph  arrived  in  Boston  in  Jestts,  even  in  Prayer  time.    Since  dwells 

1681,  we  read  of  his  being  at  the  South  in  Hez.  Usher's  House,  where  Ministers 

Church.     Sewall  says  :  —  used  to  meet." 

"  Dec.  17.    Foye  arrives,  in  whom  Mr.  Christmas-day  in  the  year  1681  fell  on 

Randolph  and  his  new  wife  and  family.  a  Sunday. 


264  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

Church  towards  the  building  they  desired  to  erect.  The  former, 
at  least,  "  seemed  to  goe  away  displeased,"  says  Sewall,  "  because 
I  spake  not  up  to  it ;  "  the  latter  could  hardly  have  expected  any 
other  result  from  the  interview.  Neither  he  nor  the  president, 
Joseph  Dudley,  would  have  been  so  unwise  as  to  act  upon  any 
such  suggestion  as  that  "  the  bank  of  money  in  the  hands  of  the 
corporation  for  evangelizing  the  Indians  "  should  be  "  applied  to 
build  a  church  and  free  school,  that  youth  might  no  longer  be 
poisoned  with  the  seditious  principles  of  the  country." 

Writing  of  the  abrogation  of  the  charter,  Palfrey  says  :  "  Mas- 
sachusetts, as  a  body  politic,  was  now  no  more.  The  elaborate 
fabric,  that  had  been  fifty-four  years  in  building,  was  levelled 
with  the  dust."  In  the  midst  of  the  depression  that  followed, 
the  venerable  John  Eliot  wrote  the  following  short  letter  to  the 
Hon.  Robert  Boyle:  — 

Roxbury  August  29  1686  ) 

in  the  third  month  of  our  overthrow  ( 
Right  honourable  unweariable  nursing  father 

I  have  nothing  new  to  write  but  lamentations,  and  I  am  loth  to 
grieve  your  loving  and  noble  soul. 

Our  Indian  work  yet  liveth,  praised  be  God  ;  the  bible  is  come 
forth,  many  hundreds  bound  up,  and  dispersed  to  the  Indians,  whose 
thankfulness  I  intimate  and  testify  to  your  honour.  The  Practice  of 
Piety  is  also  finished,  and  beginneth  to  be  bound  up.  And  my  hum- 
ble request  to  your  honour  is,  that  we  may  again  reimpose  the  primer 
and  catechism  ;  for  though  the  last  impression  be  not  quite  spent,  yet 
quickly  they  will ;  and  I  am  old,  ready  to  be  gone,  and  desire  to  leave 
as  many  books  as  I  can.  I  know  not  what  to  add  in  this  distressing 
day  of  our  overthrow  ;  so  I  commit  your  honour  to  the  Lord,  and  rest 
Your  honour's  to  serve  you 

In  Jesus  Christ 

John  Eliot.1 

1  [Mr.  Eliot  brought  out   the  second  was   translated   into   several  languages, 

edition  of  the  Indian  Bible  in  1685.     He  The  Prince   Library  contains  a  copy  in 

had  been  assisted  in  its  preparation  by  English,  as  well  as  a  copy  of   the  Indian 

the  Rev.  John  Cotton,  of  Plymouth.     It  translation. 

was  dedicated  to  Robert  Boyle,  in  an  ad-  Samuel   Sewall  wrote  to  an  uncle  in 

dress  signed  by  William  Stoughton,  Jo-  England,    February   15,    16S5-6  :    "The 

seph  Dudley,  Peter  Bulkley,  and  Thomas  best  News  that  I  can  think  to  speak  of 

Hinckley.     As   in   the  first  edition,  the  from  America,  is,  that   Mr.  John  Eliot, 

Psalms   in    Indian   metre,  translated  by  through  the  good  hand  of  God  upon  him, 

Eliot  from  the  Bay  Psalm   Book,  and  a  hath  procured  a  second  Edition  of  the  Bi- 

short  Indian  catechism  followed  the  New  ble  in  the  Indian  language  ;  so  that  many 

Testament.     Bishop  Bayley's  Practice  of  Hundreds  of  them  may  read  the  Scrip- 

Piety  had  a   remarkable   popularity   for  tures.    Lord  sanctify  them  by  thy  Truth, 

more    than   a   century   and  a  half,   and  thy  word  is  Truth.     As  to  the  Design  of 


SIR  EDMUND  ANDROS.  265 

The  arrival  of  the  new  governor,  Sir  Edmund  Andros,  was 
awaited  with  much  anxiety.  On  Sunday,  the  19th  of  Decem- 
ber, the  guns  of  the  frigate  Kingfisher,  with  Sir  Edmund  on 
board,  were  heard  below.  The  president,  Major  Dudley,  was 
at  the  South  Church  in  the  forenoon.  Mr.  Willard  preached 
from  Heb.  xi.  12:  "Therefore  sprang  there  even  of  one,  and 
him  as  good  as  dead,  so  many  as  the  stars  of  the  sky  in  multi- 
tude, and  as  the  sand  which  is  by  the  sea-shore  innumerable." 
Mr.  Willard  said  "  he  was  fully  persuaded  and  confident  God 
would  not  forget  the  faith  of  those  who  came  first  to  New  Eng- 
land, but  would  remember  their  posterity  with  kindness."  Sir 
Edmund  landed  on  Monday,  and  proceeded  to  the  town-house, 
at  the  head  of  King  Street.  Here  his  commission  was  read, 
and  he  took  the  oaths,  and  the  councillors  were  sworn.  Hardly 
were  these  ceremonies  concluded,  when,  prompted  no  doubt  by 
Randolph,  he  had  a  conversation  with  the  ministers  about  ac- 
commodations for  the  services  of  his  church,  and  proposed  that 
one  of  the  meeting-houses  should  be  made  to  subserve  the 
purposes  of  two  congregations,  —  its  own  and  the  new  Epis- 
copal society.  Palfrey  says,  "  If  the  demand  had  been  for  the 
use  of  the  building  for  a  mass,  or  for  a  carriage-house  for  Jug- 
gernaut, it  could  scarcely  have  been  to  the  generality  of  the 
people  more  offensive."  On  the  following  evening,  the  minis- 
ters met  at  the  house  of  Mr.  Allen,  of  the  First  Church,  with 
four  from  each  of  the  three  congregations,  "to  consider  what 
answer  to  give  the  Governour."  The  decision  was  that  they 
could  not  with  a  good  conscience  consent  that  their  meeting- 
houses should  be  made  use  of  for  "  Common-Prayer  worship." 
On  Wednesday  evening,  Mr.  Mather  and  Mr.  Willard  waited  upon 
the  governor  at  his  lodgings  at  Madam  Taylor's,1  and  "thor- 
owly  discoursed  his  Excellency  about  the  Meeting-Houses  in 
great  plainness,  showing  they  could  not  consent."  They  appear 
to  have  made  some  impression  upon  him,  for,  as  the  result  of 
the  interview,  it  was  reported,  "  He  seems  to  say  will  not  impose." 
The  next  Saturday  was  Christmas  Day,  and  although  he  had 
not  attended  the  time-honored  Thursday  lecture,  at  which  the 

Converting  them,  we  in  N.  E.  may  sor-  measure  as  it  were  to  stand   and  look 

rowfully  sing    the    127.    Psalm.     Except  on."] 

the  Loid  build  the  House,  they  Labour  in  1  Rebecca,  widow  of  William  Taylor, 

vain  that  build.     I  am  persuaded  twould  was  a  member  of  Mr.  Willard's  congre- 

be  a  most  acceptable  sacrifice  to  God,  gation.    See  a?ite,  p.  166.    Her  house  was 

importunately  to  beseech  Him  to  put  his  on  the  corner  of  what  are  now  Hanover 

Hand  to  that  work,  and  not  in  a  great  and  Elm  streets. 


266  HISTORY  OF    THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

magistrates  and  leading  men  of  the  colony  made  it  a  point  to 
be  present  regularly,  he  went  to  the  town-house  to  service 
morning  and  afternoon.  The  Conversion  of  St.  Paul  was  duly 
commemorated  on  the  25th  of  January,  and  on  Monday,  the 
31st,  service  was  held  "at  the  Townhouse  forenoon  and  after- 
noon, bell  rung  for  it,  respecting  the  beheading  Charles  the 
First."  J 

All  this  time,  while  occupying  the  deputies'  chamber  for  their 
worship,  the  governor  and  his  friends  were  looking  with  long- 
ing eyes  at  the  comfortable  Congregational  meeting-houses,  and, 
as  Easter  approached,  it  was  determined  by  them  to  take  for- 
cible possession  of  the  most  eligible  one  of  the  three.  On 
Wednesday,  the  23d  of  March,  Randolph  was  sent  for  the  keys 
of  the  South  meeting-house,  that  prayers  might  be  said  there 
on  Good  Friday.  A  committee  consisting  of  Deacons  Eliot  and 
Frary,  Nathaniel  Oliver,  Ephraim  Savage,  Benjamin  Davis,  and 
Samuel  Sewall  immediately  went  to  the  governor,  to  remon- 
strate with  him  in  person.  They  explained  to  him  that  the 
meeting-house  and  the  land  on  which  it  stood  belonged  to  them- 
selves and  those  whom  they  represented  ;  that  the  property  had 
been  paid  for  by  private  liberality,  that  it  had  been  set  apart  for 
their  own  religious  uses,  and  that  they  could  not  consent  to  its 
being  appropriated  as  now  proposed.  They  presented  an  ex- 
tract from  Mrs.  Norton's  deed  and  from  the  original  subscrip- 
tion list,  and  we  may  be  sure  they  pleaded  ably  and  earnestly 
in  defence  of  their  rights.  But  their  remonstrances  and  argu- 
ments were  all  in  vain.  The  outrage  had  been  decided  upon, 
and  there  was  no  power  in  the  colony  to  prevent  its  consumma- 
tion. William  Needham,  the  sexton,  though  he  had  resolved  to 
the  contrary,  "  was  prevailed  upon,"  on  Good  Friday,  at  the 
governor's  command,  to  ring  the  bell  and  open  the  doors ;  and 
the  walls  of  the  Puritan  meeting-house  for  the  first  time  echoed 
to  the  responses  and  anthems  of  the  Anglican  ritual.  Further 
resistance  was  in  vain  ;  and  from  now  until  the  deposition  of 
Governor  Andros,  the   South  Church  and  congregation  could 

1  The  30th  of  January  was  the  day  Bullivant  gives  a  Warrant  to  the  Con- 
observed  by  the  English  Church  to  com-  stables,  and  causeth  the  Shops  to  be 
memorate  "  King  Charles  the   Martyr,"  shut." 

"  our  own,  our  royal   Saint,"  as   Keble         On   the   6th  of   February,  the   shops 

calls  him  ;  but  as  this  fell  on  Sunday  in  were  again  closed  by  a  warrant  from  a 

16S7,  Sir  Edmund    and   his  party  post-  justice.     This  was  the  third  anniversary 

poned   the  observance  to   Monday.     In  of    the    accession   of  James    II.  to  the 

1688     Sewall   writes,    "Near   noon  Mr.  throne. 


THE  MEETING-HOUSE  SEIZED.  267 

assemble  in  their  own  meeting-house  when,  and  only  when,  the 
royal  governor  and  his  followers  had  no  use  for  it.  Increase 
Mather  tells  the  story  in  a  few  words  that  burn  with  righteous 
indignation  :  — 

So  sweet  and  kind  were  they,  that  to  Avoid  Offence,  they  (have  as 
they  say)  At  their  own  charge  built  and  Erected  a  Convenient  Church. 
A  great  piece  of  Supererogation.  But  when  was  this  done  ?  why,  'twas 
after  they  had  the  free  use  of  the  Town  House  which  would  more  than 
have  contained  them  all  :  but  this  would  not  serve  their  turn  :  they 
then  demanded  the  Keys  of  the  South  Meeting-house,  which  when  some 
Gentlemen  (who  had  a  Right  in  the  House)  did  not  surrender,  Gov- 
ernour  Andross  told  them  he  would  presently  seize  on  that  House  and  all 
the  Meeting  Houses  in  the  Country,  and  hinder  them  from  Contributing 
the  Value  of  Two  pence  towards  the  maintenance  of  any  Non-Conformist 
Ministers.  He  also  bade  them  Consider  what  Effects  the  Stifness  of 
the  Protestants  in  France  had,  who  would  not  Yield  in  what  they  might 
have  done  (note  that  well)  and  now  there  is  not  the  na??ie  of  a  Protestant 
in  France.  But  this  not  prevailing,  they  thrust  themselves  into  that 
Meeting-house,  and  there  continued  untill  by  Interrupting  the  people 
of  the  South  Congregation,  often  in  their  Times,  sometimes  in  the  very 
parts  of  their  Worship  the  whole  Town  cryed  shame  upon  them-  And 
then  'twas  {bonis  avibus)  they  thought  of  Building.1 

Samuel  Sewall's  diary  gives  us  a  graphic  account  of  these 
trying  days  :  — 

Sabbath  March  27.  Governour  and  his  retinue  met  in  our  Meeting 
house  at  Eleven  ;  broke  off  past  two  because  of  the  Sacrament  and 
Mr.  Clark's  long  Sermon ;  now  we  were  appointed  to  come  \  hour 
past  one,  so  twas  a  sad  Sight  to  see  how  full  the  Street  was  with 
people  gazing  and  moving  to  and  fro  because  had  not  entrance  into 
the  House. 

Monday  April  4.  In  the  Even  Mr.  Willard,  Eliot,  Frary  and  Self 
have  great  debate  about  our  meeting  for  the  Lords  Supper. 

Sabbath  April  10.  Mr.  Moodey  helps  Mr.  Willard  in  the  Forenoon. 
Text,  Job  23.  10.  [But  he  knoweth  the  way  that  I  take:  when  he 
hath  tried  me,  I  shall  come  forth  as  gold.]  Shewed  that  Afflictions 
were  for  Tryal,  and  where  the  Tryal  met  with  sincerity,  the  issue 
would  be  glorious. 

Tuesday  May  10.  Mr.  Bullivant  having  been  acquainted  that  May 
15th  was  our  Sacrament-day,  he  writt  to  Mr.  Willard,  that  he  had  ac- 
quainted those  principally  concern'd,  and  'twas  judg'd  very  improper 
and  inconvenient  for  the  Governour  and  his  to  be  at  any  other  House, 
it  being  Whit-Sunday  and  they  must  have  the  Communion,  and  that 

1  [A  Vindication  of  New  England,  Andros  Tracts,  vol.  ii.  p.  44.] 


268  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

'twas  expected  should  leave  off  by  twelve  and  not  return  again  till 
they  rung  the  Bell,  that  might  have  time  to  dispose  of  the  Elements. 
So  remembring  how  long  they  were  at  Easter,  we  were  afraid  'twould 
breed  much  confusion  in  the  Afternoon,  and  so,  on  Wednesday,  con- 
cluded not  to  have  our  Sacrament  for  saw  'twas  in  vain  to  urge  their 
promise.  And  on  the  8th  of  May  were  bid  [by  the  bell]  past  One  a 
pretty  deal. 

Sabbath  May  15.  Goes  out  just  \  hour  after  one;  so  have  our 
Afternoon  Exercise  in  due  season.  But  see  they  have  the  advantage 
to  lengthen  or  shorten  their  Exercises  so  as  may  make  for  their  pur- 
pose. 

Wednesday  June  1.  A  privat  Fast  of  the  South-Church  was  kept 
at  our  house,  Mr.  Willard  pray'd  and  preach'd  in  the  morn.  Mr. 
Cotton  Mather  pray'd  first  in  the  afternoon,  Mr.  Moodey  preach'd  and 
pray'd.  Mr.  Willard  dismiss'd  with  a  Blessing.  Mr.  Willard's  Text, 
Deut.  32.  36.  "For  the  Lord  shall  judge  his  people  and  repent  him- 
self for  his  servants,  when  he  seeth  that  their  power  is  gone,  and  there 
is  none  shut  up  or  left."  Mr.  Moodey's  Text.  Ps.  46.  10  "Be  still 
and  know  that  I  am  God :  I  will  be  exalted  among  the  heathen,  I  will 
be  exalted  in  the  earth."  Occasion  of  the  Fast  was  the  putting  by 
the  Sacrament,  the  last  Turn,  and  the  difficult  circumstances  our 
Church  in  above  others,  regarding  the  Church  of  England's  meeting 
in  it. 

Sabbath  June  12.  Lords  Supper  at  the  South-Church.  But  Church 
of  England  men  go  not  to  any  other  House  :  yet  little  hindrance  to  us 
save  as  to  ringing  the  first  Bell,  and  straitning  the  Deacons  in  removal 
of  the  Table. 

Sabbath  October  16.  Had  the  Sacrament  to-day  at  the  North 
Church  ;  Mr.  Ratcliff  also  had  the  Sacrament,  and  sent  to  Mr.  Willard 
yesterday  to  leave  off  sooner.  To  which  Mr.  Willard  not  consenting 
Governour  sent  for  him  in  the  night. 

Wednesday,  November  16.  In  the  Even  [the  Governour]  sends  for 
the  Ministers  and  so  Schools  them  that  the  Thanksgiving  is  put  by 
which  was  to  have  been  the  17th.1     (Sewall.) 

The  death  of  the  governor's  wife  at  the  beginning  of  the  new 
year,  only  three  months  after  her  arrival  in  New  England,  made 
a  deep  impression  upon  the  little  community,  and,  for  the  mo- 
ment, must  have  softened  the  asperities  on  both  sides.     Prayers 

1  ["  When    the    ministers   of   Boston  forbade  their  proceedings,  and  particu- 

agreed   with   their    congregations    upon  larly  threatened  that  he  would  set  guards 

keeping  a  day  of  thanksgiving  to  heaven  of  soldiers  on  their  church  doors,  if  they 

for  the  shelter  which  their  brethren  [in  attempted  what  they  pretended    to."  — 

England],  as  well  as  themselves,  found  Parentator,  p.  102. 

by  the  Declaration  [of  Indulgence],  Sir         The   governor   and   council    fixed   on 

Edmund   Andros,   with    many  menaces,  December  1  as  a  Thanksgiving  Day.] 


FUNERAL    OF  LADY  ANDROS.  269 

were  offered  for  her  recovery  at  the  morning  service,  January 
22,  but  at  or  near  the  beginning  of  the  afternoon  exercises  she 
died.  She  was  buried  on  Friday  evening,  February  10,  and  we 
may  be  sure  that  no  one  objected  to  the  use  of  the  South  meet- 
ing-house for  the  funeral  services  and  ceremonies,  although 
they  were  new  and  surprising  to  those  who  had  always  lived  in 
the  colony. 

Friday  February  10  1687-8  Between  4.  and  5.  I  went  to  the 
Funeral  of  the  Lady  Andros,  having  been  invited  by  the  Clark  of  the 
South  Company.  Between  7.  and  8.  (Lychns  [links  or  torches]  illumi- 
nating the  cloudy  air)  The  Corps  was  carried  into  the  Herse  drawn 
by  Six  Horses.  The  Souldiers  making  a  Guard  from  the  Governour's 
House  down  the  Prison  Lane  [Court  Street]  to  the  South-Meeting- 
house, there  taken  out  and  carried  in  at  the  western  dore,  and  set  in 
the  Alley  before  the  pulpit,  with  Six  Mourning  Women  by  it.  House 
made  light  with  Candles  and  Torches.  Was  a  great  noise  and  clamor 
to  keep  people  out  of  the  House,  that  might  not  rush  in  too  soon.  I 
went  home,  where  about  nine  aclock  I  heard  the  Bells  toll  again  for 
the  Funeral.  It  seems  Mr.  Ratcliffs  Text  was,  Cry,  all  flesh  is  Grass. 
The  Ministers  turn'd  in  to  Mr.  Willard's.  The  Meeting  House  full, 
among  whom  Mr.  Dudley,  Stoughton,  Gedney,  Bradstreet  &.c.  Twas 
warm  thawing  wether,  and  the  wayes  extream  dirty.  No  volley  at 
placeing  the  Body  in  the  Tomb.  On  Satterday  Feb.  11  The  mourning 
cloth  of  the  Pulpit  is  taken  off,  and  given  to  Mr.  Willard.     (Sewall.) 

This  solemn  night  service  in  the  plain  New  England  meeting- 
house, which  had  neither  aisle  nor  organ,  must  have  contrasted 
strangely  with  similar  services  in  the  more  stately  sanctuaries 
in  the  mother  country,  to  those  who  had  witnessed  them  there. 
Thirty  years  later,  Joseph  Addison  was  buried  in  Westminster 
Abbey,  Atterbury,  Bishop  of  Rochester,  officiating,  and  the 
scene  has  been  described  for  us  by  one  of  the  mourners,  in  lines 
of  rare  grace  and  beauty  :  — 

How  silent  did  his  old  companions  tread, 
By  midnight  lamps,  the  mansions  of  the  dead, 
Through  breathing  statues,  then  unheeded  things, 
Through  rows  of  warriors,  and  through  walks  of  kings ! 
What  awe  did  the  slow,  solemn  knell  inspire ; 
The  pealing  organ,  and  the  pausing  choir  ; 
The  duties  by  the  lawn-robed  prelate  paid, 
And  the  last  words  that  dust  to  dust  conveyed ! 

Sir  Edmund  Andros  and  his  friends  now  determined  to  build 
a  house  of  worship  for  their  own  use. 

March  25.  1688.    Mr.  Increase  Mather  preaches  at  the  South  Meet- 


270  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

ing  from  Ezek.  47.  11.  But  the  mirie  places  &.c  [Mr.  Mather  sailed 
for  England  a  few  days  later.] 

March  28,  1688.  Captain  Davis  spake  to  me  for  Land  to  set  a 
Church  on.  I  told  him  could  not,  would  not,  put  Mr.  [John]  Cotton's 
Land  to  such  an  use,  and  besides,  'twas  Entail'd.  After,  Mr.  Ran- 
dolph saw  me,  and  had  me  to  his  House  to  see  the  Landscips  of  Ox- 
ford Colledges  and  Halls.  Left  me  with  Mr.  Ratcliff,  who  spake  to 
me  for  Land  at  Cotton-Hill  for  a  Church  which  were  going  to  build  : 
I  told  him  I  could  not,  first  because  I  would  not  set  up  that  which  the 
People  of  New  England  came  over  to  avoid  :  2d  the  Land  was  En- 
tail'd. In  after  discourse  I  mentioned  chiefly  the  Cross  in  Baptism, 
and  Holy  Dayes. 

Saturday  April  14.  Mr.  [John]  1  West  comes  to  Mr.  Willard  from 
the  Governour  to  speak  to  him  to  begin  at  8  in  the  morn,  and  says 
this  shall  be  last  time  ;  they  will  build  a  house.  Soe  begin  about 
£  hour  past  8.  yet  the  people  come  pretty  roundly  together.  'T  was 
Easter-day,  and  the  Lord's  Supper  with  us  too. 

April  18.  This  day  an  Order  is  made  that  next  Sabbath-day  sen- 
night be  a  Thanksgiving  for  the  Queen's  being  with  Child. 

April  22.  Mr.  Willard  having  received  no  Order  mentions  not  the 
Thanksgiving  :  though  it  seems  one  was  sent  to  him  at  noon  to  men- 
tion it,  but  left  no  Order  with  him. 

April  29.  Mr.  Willard  received  an  Order  about  the  Thanksgiving 
on  Satterday  night ;  yet  read  it  not  this  day,  but  after  the  Notes  said 
such  an  Occasion  was  by  the  Governour  recommended  to  be  given 
Thanks  for.  Mr.  Allen  [at  the  First  Church]  sings  the  6  first  verses 
of  the  21  Ps.  and  the  first  part  of  the  72d,  which  gives  offence  to 
some  of  his  Church.  Mr.  Willard  prays  more  particularly  and  largely 
for  the  King,  but  else  alters  not  his  course  a  jot. 

Sabbath  May  20.  Mr.  Willard  preach'd  in  the  morn  from  Heb.  12. 
4.  Have  not  yet  resisted  unto  bloud  &c.  In  the  Afternoon- rain'd 
exceeding  hard,  so  that  I  doubt  many  staid  to  hear  the  Service  [the 
Episcopal  service  which  followed]  who  had  not  been  wont. 

Thursday,  May  24.  Bell  is  rung  for  a  Meeting  of  the  Church  of 
England  Men,  being  in  their  language  Ascencion  day. 

Sabbath,  June  10.  Sacrament  with  us,  finish  so  that  I  got  home  just 
about  a  quarter  past  12  by  the  Dial.  Governour  angry  that  had  done 
so  late,  and  caused  their  Bell  to  be  rung  about  a  quarter  past  one ; 
'twas  rather  more  before  the  Bell  had  done  :  So  'twas  about  a  quar- 
ter past  Three  before  our  Afternoon  Bell  Rung  about  ii-  hour  later 
than  usual. 

Friday  June  22.     This  day  Mrs.  Joyliff  and  Mrs.  Grecian  goe  to  his 

1  [John  West  was  brought  from  New  and  wills.  For  the  character  of  this 
York  by  Randolph,  from  whom  he  official,  see  Palfrey's  History,  vol.  iii. 
farmed   the  fees   on   deeds,  mortgages,     p.  523.] 


AN  EXCITING   CONFERENCE.  271 

Excellency,  and  expostulat  with  Him  about  his  Design  of  meeting 
first  on  Sabbath-days  in  our  Meetinghouse. 

Saturday  June  23.  Capt.  Frary  and  I  goe  to  his  Excellency  at  the 
Secretaries  Office,  and  there  desired  that  He  would  not  alter  his  time  of 
Meeting,  and  that  Mr.  Willard  consented  to  no  such  thing,  neither  did 
he  count  that  'twas  in  his  power  so  to  doe.  Mr.  West  said  he  went 
not  to  ask  Mr.  Willard  Leave.  His  Excellency  asked  who  the  House 
belong'd  to  ;  we  told  Him  the  Title  to  the  House  was  on  Record. 
His  Excellency  turned  to  Mr.  Graham  and  said,  Mr.  Attorney,  we  will 
have  that  look'd  into.  Governour  said  if  Mr.  Willard  not  the  Parson, 
so  great  an  Assembly  must  be  considered.  We  said  He  was  Master  of 
the  Assembly,  but  had  no  power  to  dispose  of  the  House,  neither  had 
others,  for  the  Deed  expressed  the  Use  'twas  to  be  put  to.  Govern- 
our complain'd  of  our  long  staying  Sabbath-day  sennight ;  said  't  was 
the  Lord's  Supper,  and  [he]  had  promised  to. go  to  some  other  House 
on  such  dayes ;  Mr.  Randolph  said  he  knew  of  no  such  promise,  and 
the  Governour  seemed  angry,  and  said  He  would  not  so  break  his  word 
for  all  the  Massachusetts  Colony,  and  therefore,  to  avoid  mistakes, 
must  give  in  writing  what  we  had  to  say  ;  we  answered,  Mr.  Randolph 
brought  not  any  writing  to  those  he  spake  to.  Governour  said  we 
rent  off  from  the  old  Church  against  the  Government,  and  the  Land 
the  House  stood  on  was  bought  clandestinely,  and  that  one  should 
say  he  would  defend  the  work  with  his  Company  of  Soldiers.  Men- 
tion'd  folks  backwardness  to  give,  and  the  unreasonableness  ;  because 
if  any  stinking  filthy  thing  were  in  the  House  we  would  give  some- 
thing to  have  it  carried  out,  but  would  not  give  to  build  them  an 
house  :  Said  came  from  England  to  avoid  such  and  such  things,  there- 
fore could  not  give  to  set  them  up  here  :  and  the  Bishops  would  have 
thought  strange  to  have  been  ask'd  to  contribute  towards  setting  up 
the  New-England  Churches.  Governour  said  God  willing  they  would 
begin  at  Eight  in  the  Morning,  and  have  done  by  Nine  :  we  said 
'twould  hardly  be  so  in  the  winter.  Mr.  Graham  said  if  they  had 
their  Service  by  Candle-Light  what  was  that  to  any  :  And  that  the 
Service  appointed  by  the  Church  for  morning  could  not  be  held  after 
Noon. 

Sabbath  June  24.  We  read  and  sing  in  course  the  57th  Psal.  Alta- 
schith.  They  [the  Church  of  England  congregation]  have  done  before 
nine  in  the  morn,  and  about  a  quarter  after  one  in  the  afternoon  ;  so 
we  have  very  convenient  time 

July  1.  Governour  takes  his  old  time  again  after  our  coming  out, 
and  Sir  William  Phips's  Chaplain  preaches.  We  were  a  little  hurried 
and  disappointed  in  the  morning,  the  Bell  ringing  about  quarter  be- 
fore nine. 

Thursday  July  12.  George  Keith  [a  Quaker]  doth  this  day  send  a 
Challenge  to  the  4  Ministers  of  Boston,  in  an  open  letter  by  Edward 


272  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

Shippen,  to  dispute  with  them  about  the  false  Doctrine  they  deliv- 
ered. 

Thursday  August  16.  [News  arrived  in  the  evening  of  the  birth  of 
a  prince.1]  So  from  n.  to  i.  or  2.  is  Drumming,  Bonfire,  Huzas, 
small  and  great  Guns,  Ringing  of  Bells,  at  which  many  startled  for 
fear  of  fire  or  an  Alarm  ;  because  the  thing  was  so  sudden,  People 
knew  not  the  occasion.  Brother  Needham  was  called  out  of 's  Bed 
to  deliver  the  keys  which  at  first  he  refus'd,  they  not  telling  him  the 
occasion. 

Tuesday,  October  16.  This  day  the  Ground-Sills  of  the  Church 
[the  first  King's  Chapel,  built  of  wood]  are  laid ;  the  stone  foundation 
being  finished.2     [It  was  "  raised  "  on  the  day  following.] 

Saturday  October  27.  His  Excellency  goes  off  to  Charlestown  and 
so  to  Dunstable. 

Sabbath  October  28.  Lord's  Supper  at  the  South  Church.  Mr. 
Willard  preached  from  Heb.  9.  24.  Mr.  [Seaborn]  Cotton  of  Hamp- 
ton preached  in  the  afternoon,  His  Text,  Quench  not  the  Spirit. 
Note.  It  seems  the  Governour  took  Mr.  Ratcliff  with  him,  so  met 
not  at  all  distinct  in  our  House  this  day.  Several  of  them  with  us  in 
the  afternoon.     (Sewall.)  3 

A  former  minister  of  King's  Chapel,  in  writing  of  these  pro- 
ceedings, has  said  :  — 

In  looking  back  on  this  event,  we  are  obliged  to  consider  it,  though 
not  itself  of  great  political  importance,  as  one  of  the  most  arbitrary 
acts  ever  perpetrated  in  this  country  while  it  remained  under  the  Eng- 
lish government.  No  excuse  is  to  be  rendered  for  it.  It  was  such  a 
deliberate  outrage  on  the  common  rights  of  property,  to  say  nothing 

1  ["There,  on  the  morning  of  Sunday,  22,  16S8,  partly  on  private  business,  and 
the  10th  of  June, a  daylong  kept  sacred  partly  to  be  with  Mr.  Mather  and  other 
by  the  too  faithful  adherents  of  a  bad  friends  who  sought  to  uphold  the  inter- 
cause,  was  born  the  most  unfortunate  of  ests  of  the  colony,  now  without  a  char- 
princes,  destined  to  seventy-seven  years  ter  or  a  settled  government,  and  to  se- 
of  exile  and  wandering,  of  vain  projects,  cure,  if  possible,  a  restoration  of  its 
of  honours  more  galling  than  insults,  and  privileges.  On  his  arrival  in  the  English 
of  hopes  such  as  make  the  heart  sick."  Channel,  he  heard  of  the  flight  of  James 
—  Macaulay.]  II.   and   the  landing   of   the    Prince   of 

2  [On  Wednesday,  October  17,  16S8,  Orange.  On  the  12th  of  February, 
Mr.  Nehemiah  Walter  was  ordained  at  1689,  he  saw  the  Princess  Mary,  who 
Roxbury  as  colleague  with  the  Rev.  John  had  just  landed  from  Holland,  pass  on 
Eliot.  Mr.  Willard  took  part  in  the  her  way  from  Greenwich  to  Whitehall, 
services,  and  Governor  Bradstreet  and  He  returned  to  New  England  in  the 
Samuel  Sewall  were  present,  probably  as  same  vessel,  the  America,  Mr.  Thomas 
messengers  from  the  South  Church.]  Brattle  being  one  of  his   fellow-passen- 

3  [Samuel  Sewall  sailed  for  England  in  gers,  and  landed  at  Newbury,  November 
the  America,  Captain  Clarke,  November  29,  1689.] 


A   DECLARATIVE  DEED.  273 

of  conscience  and  liberty,  that  we  may  only  wonder  that  Andros  and 
his  abettors  suffered  no  personal  violence  from  the  people.1 

To  this  judgment  we  may  add  the  words  of  the  late  much- 
lamented  minister:  — 

It  is  a  chapter  of  outrageous  wrongs  which  Andros  wrote  here,  and 
there  is  cause  for  lasting  regret  that  the  origin  of  so  good  a  thing  as 
religious  freedom  under  the  stern  old  Puritan  regime  should  have  been 
sullied  by  his  despotic  acts.  But  it  is  satisfactory  to  remember  that 
ninety  years  later  King's  Chapel  willingly  expiated  this  injustice  by 
opening  its  doors  wide  to  the  Old  South  congregation,  when  dispos- 
sessed of  their  own  church  by  the  later  revolution.2 

In  the  midst  of  the  uncertainties  of  this  trying  time,  the 
members  of  the  Third  Church  naturally  felt  anxious  about  their 
valuable  property.  All  the  trustees  to  whom  Mrs.  Norton 
made  her  conveyances  were  dead,  with  the  exception  of  Edward 
Rawson,  Joshua  Scottow,  and  Jacob  Eliot,  and  as  no  one  could 
foresee  what  demands  would  be  made  upon  the  church,  or  what 
might  be  the  fate  of  the  meeting-house,  under  Sir  Edmund 
Andros's  administration,  it  was  thought  best  for  the  surviving 
trustees  to  execute  a  "declarative  deed,"  continuing  the  trust  in 
the  hands  of  younger  men,  and  stating  with  explicitness  the 
purpose  of  Mrs.  Norton,  and,  by  implication,  that  of  the  other 
founders  of  the  church.  The  instrument  was  drawn  up  by  Mr. 
Rawson,  and,  incidentally,  gives  us  information  on  certain 
points  which  we  should  not  otherwise  possess  :  — 

To  all  Christian  People  to  whom  these  presents  shall  any  way  in 
time  comming  come  or  may  concerne  Greeting  ;  Whereas  the  late 
worthily  honoured  Mrs.  Mary  Norton  relict  and  sole  Executrix  to  the 
last  will  and  Testament  of  the  late  Reverend  Mr.  John  Norton  bear- 
ing date  the  fowerteenth  day  of  January  1661  as  in  the  originall  Re- 
corded in  the  booke  of  Records  for  wills  in  the  County  of  Suffolk  in 
New  England  refference  thereto  being  had  more  amply  doth  and  may 
appeare  Gave  his  late  dwelling  house  yard  Garden  orchard  thereon 
and  thereunto  adjoyning  being  in  the  whole  about  an  acre  of  land  be 
it  more  or  lesse  as  now  ffenced  in  being  scittuate  in  the  street  in  Bos- 
ton leading  to  Roxbury  And  whereas  the  said  Mary  Norton  relict 
and  Executrix  aforesaid  on  divers  weighty  and  preponderate  consider- 
ations besides  that  great  and  good  affection  which  the  said  Reverend 
John  Norton  her  husband  with  her  selfe  did  beare  unto  his  and  her 
loving  ffriends  Thomas  Savage  Edward  Rawson  William  Davis  Heze- 

1  [Greenwood's     History     of    King's         2  [Foote's    Annals   of  King's   Chapel, 
Chapel,  p.  39.]  vol.  i.  p.  79.] 


274  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

kiah  Usher  Senr  John  Hull  Peter  Olliver  Joshua  Scottow  Edward 
Rainsford  Richard  Treusdall  and  Jacob  Elliot  all  of  said  Boston  and 
more  especially  for  their  [loving  ?]  expences,  or  disbursements,  for  her 
in  repayring  her  dwelling  bouse :  and  afterwards  taking  downe  six 
chimneys  and  building  new  in  their  place  etc  ;  errecting  a  new  end 
and  Addition  to  the  said  dwelling  house  paying  and  discharging  sev- 
erall  debts  and  legacies  which  shee  had  resolved  by  her  last  will  and 
testament  should  be  paid  in  all  to  the  value  of  five  hundred  pounds  at 
least,  as  in  the  deacons  bookes  of  Accounts  do  Appeare  3  all  which 
payments  hath  been  made  and  donne  by  them  and  theire  order  as  to 
accounts  and  receipts  taken  for  the  same  And  whereas  the  above 
mentioned  persons  Trustees  long  since  built  and  errected  on  part  of 
the  above  granted  premisses  a  large  spacious  and  faire  meeting  house 
with  three  large  Porches  every  way  compleately  fitted  and  covered  with 
sheete  lead,  the  house  and  said  Porches,  which  stood  them  and  their 
Associates  neere  if  not  above  two  thousand  pounds  more  ;  and  whereas 
the  said  Mary  Norton  in  the  yeare  one  thousand  six  hundred  sixty  and 
nine  had  past  and  given  to  them  the  said  Thomas  Savage  Edward 
Rawson  William  Davis  Hezekiah  Usher  Senr  [John  Hull's  name 
omitted]  Peter  Olliver  Joshua  Scottow  Edward  Rainsford  Richard 
Truesdale  and  Jacob  Elliot,  and  to  their  heires  and  successors  for 
ever  the  above  named  Trustees  in  behalfe  of  the  third  Church  of 
Christ  in  Boston  the  first  above  mentioned  lands  etc  for  their  Con- 
stant Assembling  of  themselves  their  heires  successors  and  Posterri- 
ties  as  the  said  third  Church  of  Christ  in  Boston  for  the  holy  publicke 
and  solemne  Dispensations  and  Administrations  of  the  holy  word  of 
God  and  his  holy  sacrament  from  time  to  time  ;  and  at  all  times 
heerafter  comming  attending  to  the  word  of  God  in  such  manner  and 
no  otherwise  as  was  used  by  the  said  Thomas  Savage  Edward  Raw- 
son  William  Davis  and  the  first  above  mentioned  Trustees  in  the  life 
time  of  the  said  Mrs.  Mary  Norton  the  Reverend  Mr.  Thomas 
Thatcher  being  then  theire  Pastor  and  the  Reverend  Mr.  Samuel  Willard 
their  Teacher  and  is,  and  have  been  for  so  many  yeares  used  by  the 
said  Church  of  Christ  and  so  many  of  theire  surviving  Associates  and 
successors,  surviving,  and  added  to  them  [And  ?]  whereas  the  first 
above  mentioned  Trustees  God  hath  been  pleased  to  take  to  himselfe 
all  except  the  parties  to  this  declarative  deed  Now  Know  all  men  by 
these  presents  That  wee  Edward  Rawson  Joshua  Scottow  and  Jacob 
Elliot  of  said  Boston  and  onely  survivors  and  successors  in  the  above 
mentioned  deed  of  Grants  Gifts  and  betrustments  being  not  a  little 
sensible  of  the  Infirmities  of  age  dayly  growing  and  increasing  upon 
us,  out  of  our  bounden  duety  to  Almighty  God  —  That  that  trust,  and 
those  holy  ends  and  purposes  in  the  eye  and  hearte  of  the  first  Donor, 
may  not  be  frustrated,  but  preserved,  observed,  performed  and  in- 
tirely  kept  for  the  said  holy  ends  and  purposes  and  that  there  may 


A   DECLARATIVE  DEED.  275 

never  be  any  Incroachment,  Infringement  or  any  kinde  of  Disappoint- 
ment creepe  in,  come  to  or  befall  the  same  in  parte  or  in  whole,  wee 
the  said  Edward  Rawson  Joshua  Scottow  and  Jacob  Elliot  doe  for 
ourselves  heires  and  successors  next,  and  immediately  after  our  de- 
partures out  of  this  life,  hereby  declare  and  as  much  as  in  our  power 
Authority  and  trust  as  the  only  survivors  lie  and  be  :  Absolutely  Give 
Grant  assigne  sett  over  and  confirme  unto  our  knowne  and  well  be- 
loved friends,  Mr.  Samuel  Seawall,  Mr.  William  Rawson  Mr.  Benja- 
min Davis  Mr.  Nathaniel  Olliver  and  Mr.  Theophilus  ffrary  children 
and  ffriends  to  the  first  above  mentioned  Grantees  and  to  their 
heires  and  successors  forever  confiding  hoping  and  no  way  doubting 
but  that  through  the  Grace  of  Christ  when  wee  the  said  Edward  Raw- 
son  Joshua  Scottow  and  Jacob  Elliot  shall  be  alike  gathered  to  our 
Brethren  and  ffriends  gon  before  us  unto  their  rest ;  That  then  the 
said  Samuel  Seawall  William  Rawson  Benjamin  Davis  Nathaniel 
Olliver  and  Theophilus  ffrary  and  such  of  them  as  shall  be  then  liv- 
ing will  by  themselves  their  heires  and  successors  for  ever  manifest 
their  alike  care  and  faithfulness  and  arise  up  in  our  steads  and  places 
to  see  to  the  due  performing  of  that  first  above  mentioned  trust  using 
their  utmost  endeavour  and  care  with  the  help  and  Assistance  of  the 
said  third  Church  of  Christ  in  Boston  to  defend  keepe  and  save  ffree 
from  all  manner  of  Incroachments  Infringements  or  any  other  Impo- 
sitions or  Incumbrances  of  what  nature  and  kinde  soever  on  the  same 
or  any  parte  thereof  for  ever  according  to  the  lawes  of  God  and  man 
that  have  always  accounted  and  estimated  such  Gifts  and  Grants  to  be 
sacred  and  no  way  to  be  altered  or  disposed  of,  for  which  ends  wee  the 
said  Edward  Rawson  Joshua  Scottow  and  Jacob  Elliot  have  and  as 
survivors  and  trustees  as  aforesaid  have  and  hereby  doe  fully  freely 
and  absolutely  to  all  Intents  and  purposes  whatsoever  in  the  law  Invest 
them  the  said  Samuel  Seawall  William  Rawson  Benjamin  Davis  Na- 
thaniel Olliver  and  Theophilus  ffrary  their  heires  and  successors  for- 
ever with  all  our  full  power  Authority  title  Interest  claime  and 
demand  that  wee  ourselves  or  any  of  the  above  mentioned  [ffriends?] 
in  trust  were  invested  in,  or  betrusted  with  for  those  holy  ends  and 
uses  as  the  said  trust  by  the  providence  of  God  is  Involved  upon  us 
[have  ?]  had  might  or  ought  to  have  had  in  or  for  the  methodizing 
Regulating  well  best  and  most  advantagious  ordering  and  disposing 
of  the  same  for  the  time  to  come  no  way  nor  in  the  least  contrary  to 
the  expresse  mind  will  Intent  and  purpose  exprest  in  and  by  the  deed 
of  the  said  first  above  mentioned  donor  In  wittness  whereof  wee  the 
said  Edward  Rawson  Joshua  Scottow  and  Jacob  Elliot  as  trustees  and 
survivors  in  the  above  mentioned  first  [recited  ?]  deed  have  hereunto 
put  our  hands  and  seales  this  twenty  seventh  day  of  June  one  thou- 
sand six  hundred  eighty  and  seven  in  the  third  yeare  of  the  reigne  of 


276  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

our  Soveraigne  James  the  [now?]  seccond  King  of  England  Scotland 
ffrance  and  Ireland  Defendor  of  the  ffaith  etc  1687 

Edward  (Seal)  Rawson  Josh  :  (Seal)  Scottow 

Jacob  (Seal)  Eliot 
Signed  Sealed  and  Delivered  by  the  within 
mentioned  Edward  Rawson  Joshua  Scottow 
and  Jacob  Elliot  Trustees  and  survivors  many 
years  since  in  full  possession  of  the  within 
mentioned  premisses  the  twenty  seventh  day  of 
June  sixteen  hundred  Eighty  and  seven  in  the 
presence  of  us 

Edw  :  Wyllys 
Joseph  Webb 
Thomas  Banister 
Mr.  Edward  Rawson,  Capt.  Joshua  Scotto,  and  Capt.  Jacob  Eliott, 
Trustees  as  within  named  personally  appeared  this  twenty  seventh 
day  of  June,  1687,  and  jointly  and  each  for  himself e   acknowledged 
the  within  written  to  be  their  Act  and  Deed 

Before  me  Thos  Hinckley 

one   of    his    majtlcs    Council    for   this    his 
Territory  and  Dominion  of  New  England. 

Meanwhile  the  church  continued  to  prosper  under  the  minis- 
trations of  Mr.  Willard.  There  were  many  accessions  to  its 
membership  year  by  year,  and  its  influence  was  felt  far  and 
near.  Its  records,  however,  for  this  period  are  meagre.  The 
following  brief  notes,  as  they  stand,  were  transcribed  by  Mr. 
Willard  from  some  earlier  book  of  record  ;  they  follow  the  entry 
(October  n,  1687)  given  by  us  on  p.  258. 

At  a  church  meeting,  April  17.  81. 

Voted  a  Dismission  for  Mr.  Peter  Thacher  to  the  church  at  Milton.1 

April  24. 

Voted  a  Dismission  for  James  Bracket  to  the  church  at  Braintree. 

1  [Mr.     Thacher    joined     the     Third  (tho    most    unworthy)    Pastour    of    the 

Church,  May  2,  1673,  soon  after  leaving  Church  in  Milton  my  Text  2  Tim.  4.  5 

college.     We  take  the  following  entries  Mr.  Mather  called  the  votes,  Old  Mr. 

from  his  diary  : —  Eliot,  Mr.  Mather  Mr.  Torry  Mr.  Wil- 

"20  May  16S1    this  day  the  ordination  lard  laid  On  hands  Mr.  Torry  gave  the 

beer  was  brewed.  Charge,  Mr.  Willard  gave  the  right  hand 

"  28  May  1 68 1    this  day  the  Ordination  of  fellowshipe.  weesungthe24.ps.  then 

beafe  came  into  my  house.  I  gave  the  blessing,     they  dined  at  my 

"  30  May    I  studyed  in  preparation  for  house  in  the  Arbour,  then  returned  home 

the    Ordination.       this    day    the    gates  this  evening. 

were   hung   and   they  made  an  Arbour  "  2  June  1681    this  day  the  Church  and 

to   Entertaine   the    Messengers    of    the  most  of  the  Towne  dined  with  me,  the 

churches.  rest  were  alsoe  invited.      After  diner  we 

"  1  June  1681  this  day  I  was  Ordained  sang  122  ps."] 


EDWARD  LILLEY' S  FUNERAL.  2J? 

At  a  church  meeting,  May  19,  82. 

Voted  a  dismission  for  Hannah  the  wife  of  William  Sumner  to  the 
North  Church.1 

March  6.  83. 

Benjamin  Warren  admonished  for  divers  morall  evils,  unrepented 
of.2 

March  23.  83. 

Voted  a  dismission  for  goodwife  Search  to  the  North  Church.3 

Octobr  7.  83. 

Hannah  B. was  admonished  for  excessive  drinking  and  railing. 

Octobr  19.  84. 

Rebekah  Marshall  reconciled  to  the  church.4  [Her  son  Benjamin 
was  baptized  October  26.] 

Novr.  8.  1685. 

Mr.  Theop  Frary  was  ordained  Deacon.     [See  ante,  p.  254.] 

July  17.  88. 

Voted  a  dismission  for  Sara  Thomas  to  the  church  at  Marshfield.5 

Mr.  Isaac  Walker,  a  member  of  the  church,  an  active  business 
man,  and  one  of  the  proprietors  of  Lancaster,  died  on  the  19th 
of  October. 

Monday,  Oct.  22.  Mr.  Isaac  Walker  is  buried  :  Bearers,  Mr.  James 
Taylor,  Mr.  Francis  Burroughs,  Capt.  Tho.  Savage,  Mr.  Simeon  Stod- 
dard, Mr.  George  Elleston,  Mr.  Saml.  Checkly;  Deacon  Eliot  and  I 
led  the  young  widow,  and  had  Scarfs  and  Gloves.  The  Lord  fit  me, 
that  my  Grave  may  be  a  Sweetening  place  for  my  Sin-polluted  Body. 
Can't  see  that  anything  has  been  done  towards  raising  the  Church 
since  Wednesday :  Friday  and  Thorsday  so  much  rain.  Rained  as 
went  to  the  Grave.6     (Sewall.) 

There  was  a  painful  scene  at  the  grave  of*  Edward  Lilley, 
who  died  during  the  winter  of  1688-89,  which  shows  the  inten- 
sity of  the  feeling  in  the  Puritan  community  against  the  intro- 
duction of  the  rites  of  the  English  Church  here.     Lilley  had 

1  [Hannah  Sumner  was  received  into  daughter  of  William  and  Susanna  Dawes, 
the  Second  Church  July  15,  16S3.  Her  owned  the  covenant  in  1680,  and  became 
name  does  not  appear  on  the  Third  a  communicant  in  1688  or  1689,  more 
Church  registers.]  than  four  years  after  the  reconciliation 

2  [Benjamin  Warren's  name  does  not  recorded  above.  She  married  first  Ben- 
appear  on  the  list  of  members.]                     jamin  Marshall,  and  secondly Mor- 

3  [Anna  Search  was  disciplined  at  the  ton,  of  Plymouth,  and  she  took  dismis- 
First  Church,  April  4,  1675,  for  having  sion  to  the  church  in  that  town  in  1695.] 
put  herself  into  fellowship  with  the  5  [The  name  of  Sarah  Thomas  does 
Third  Church.  not  appear  on  the  list  of  members.] 

"  S.    Search "    was    admitted    to    the         6  [Mr.    Walker's   young    widow    was 

Second  Church  April  15,  16S3.]  Hannah,    daughter    of    Deacon     Frary. 

4  [Rebekah,  daughter  of  Ambrose  and  She  afterward  married  Andrew  Belcher, 
Mary    (Bumstead)    Dawes,   and    grand-  as  his  second  wife.] 


278  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

been  more  or  less  in  sympathy  with  the  Episcopal  party,  and 
his  name  appears  among  the  subscribers  for  building  the  new- 
house  of  worship,  but  he  had  left  the  ordering  of  his  funeral  to 
his  executors.  The  Rev.  Mr.  Ratcliffe  claimed  the  right  to 
read  the  service  over  him,  which  Mr.  Frary,  in  behalf  of  the 
family,  protested  against,  and  with  so  much  vehemency  that  he 
was  bound  over  to  keep  the  peace.1  Increase  Mather,  in  his 
Vindication  of  New  England,  says  of  this  occurrence :  — 

Moreover,  as  they  inform  His  Majesty  that  some  Boyes  have 
Assaulted  their  Church,  so  some  Men  they  say  have  hindred  and 
Obstructed  their  Parson  in  Discharging  of  his  Duty  and  Office.  For 
at  the  Funeral  of  one  Mr.  Lilly  (who  never  signified  to  any  of  his 
Friends  his  Desire  to  have  the  Service  Book  used  at  his  Burial)  their 
Officer  would  needs  (for  their  Edification)  impose  it  upon  them ;  the 
Relations  'tis  true,  beforehand  Unanimously  informed  him  that  it 
would  be  very  Offensive  to  them  to  be  so  Imposed  upon  therein  ;  yet 
such  was  his  Zeal,  that  he  came  with  Gown  and  Book,  to  settle  a 
Laudable  custom  in  that  Barbarous  Country.  One  Mr.  Frayray  (a 
Relation  of  the  Deceased  in  the  name  of  the  rest)  only  with  fitt  words 
desired  him  to  for-bare,  but  he  was  bound  over  to  the  Court,  where 
they  intended  to  have  Ruined  him,  had  not  the  Unlucky  Revolution 
subverted  their  designs.2 

Governor  Andros's  treatment  of  the  churches  was  only  one 
feature  of  an  administration  which,  if  it  had  been  perpetuated, 
would  have  deprived  the  colonists  of  all  their  dearest  rights, 
both  civil  and  religious.  His  declaration  that  the  people  had 
no  property  in  their  lands  without  patents  from   himself  was 

1  Mr.  Frary's  youngest  daughter,  Me-  parson  to  forbear  beforehand,  when  at 
hitabel,  married  Samuel  Lilley.  the  House.     But  he  went  on,  and  being 

2  [Andros  Tracts,  vol.  ii.  p.  65.  Of  hindered  complained  to  Justice  Lidget, 
course  Mr.  Mather  is  to  be  understood  Foxcroft  and  Bullivant,  who  so  treated 
as  speaking  ironically,  when  he  refers  Mr.  Fraery.  Now  when  the  deceased 
to  settling  "  a  laudable  custom  in  that  did  not  desire  it,  and  left  the  buriall  to 
barbarous  country,"  and  to  "  the  un-  the  Executors  and  they  forbade  it,  me- 
lucky  revolution,"  which  was  "unlucky"  thinks  it  should  not  bee  imposed;  and 
only  for  the  Anglican  party  against  which  what  a  case  are  wee  all  in !  King,  the 
he  spoke.  Attorney,  saith  it  will  cost  him  100  mark, 

Mr.  Moodey,  writing   to  Mr.  Mather  and  that  hee  is  bound  to  do  his  duty  (I 

(then   in   London),    January  8,    1688-9,  mean  Ratliff  is)  and  the  Kin§'s  Procla- 

said :  "  I  hinted  to  Capt.  Sewall  [also  in  mation   will   not   relieve   him.     Captain 

London   at   that   time]   the  story  about  Frary  is  bound  to  the  good  Behaviour, 

Deacon  Fraery  covented  and  bound  over  and  wilbe  so  for  a  12  month.    (A  fearful 

with   sureties  for  forbidding   Ratliff   to  reproach  and  snare).      What   does  the 

read  Common-prayer  at  the  grave  of  old  proclamation  for  liberty  of  Conscience 

Lilley.       The    relations    desired    Capt.  doe,  if  such  impositions  are  allowed!" 

Frary  to  speake,  and  had  requested  the  Mather  Papers,  pp.  370,  37 1 .] 


THE  REVOLUTION  OF  i68g. 


279 


regarded  as  a  virtual  confiscation  of  the  wealth  which  had  been 
accumulating  during  half  a  century.  He  took  the  ground  that 
as  the  charter  had  been  forfeited  all  the  titles  under  the  char- 
ter were  forfeited,  and  he  demanded  exorbitant  prices  for  new 
patents.  We  have  nothing  to  do,  however,  in  this  history,  with 
his  arbitrary  conduct  apart  from  the  South  Church,  nor  with 
the  retribution  which  speedily  overtook  him,  except  as  we  may 
trace  a  connection  between  this  and  his  usurpation  in  religious 
affairs. 

Popular  indignation  reached  its  height  on  the  18th  and  19th 
of  April,  1689,  when  Sir  Edmund  Andros  and  several  of  the 
officers  of  the  Crown  were  arrested  and  lodged  in  jail,  the  fort 
and  the  frigate  in  the  harbor  were  forced  to  surrender,  and  a 
provisional  government  was  formed. 

Prominent  members  of  the  South  Church  were  among  those 
who  had  planned  this  revo- 
lution and  who  carried  it 
through,  and  were  on  the 
Committee  of  Public  Safety  ; 
of  the  latter  we  may  name 
Simon  Bradstreet,  Peter  Ser- 
geant, John  Joyliffe,  Wait 
Winthrop,  Nathaniel  Oliver, 
John  Eyre,  and  Andrew  Bel- 
cher.1 Randolph,  writing  to 
the  Lords  of  the  Committee 
"  from  the  common  gaol," 
May  29,  1689,  says :  "  Five 
ministers  of  Boston,  namely 
Moody,  Allen,  young  Mather, 
Willard  and  Milburn,  an  Ana- 
baptist minister,  were  in  the 
Council-Chamber  on  the  18th 
of  April,  when  the  governor 
and  myself  were  brought  out 

of  the  fort  before  them,  writing  orders,  and  were  authors  of  some 
of  their  printed  papers."  The  elder  Mather  was  in  England, 
whither  he  had  gone  to  seek  redress  for  the  wrongs  under  which 
the  colony  was  suffering ;  his  son  is  believed  to  have  been  the 
author  of  "  the  declaration  of  the  gentlemen,  merchants  and  in- 

1  [The  Committee  was  called  the  "  Council  for  the  Safety  of  the  People,  and  Con- 
servation of  the  Peace."] 


J£/W^J^& 


280  HISTORY  OF   THE  OLD   SOUTH   CHURCH. 

habitants  of  Boston  and  the  country  adjacent,"  which  concisely 
stated  the  oppressions  of  the  Andros  administration,  and  ap- 
pealed to  the  people  to  sustain  those  who  had  taken  the  respon- 
sibility of  striking  in  defence  of  the  liberties  of  the  land.  The 
flight  of  James,  and  the  accession  of  William  and  Mary  to  the 
throne  in  England,  the  news  of  which  reached  Boston  on  the 
26th  of  May,  made  the  success  of  the  revolution  sure  ;  ministers 
and  people  united  in  giving  thanks  to  Him  "who  putteth  down 
one  and  setteth  up  another,"  and  "again  Englishmen  were  free 
and  self-governed  in  the  settlements  of  New  England."  "  It  is 
very  obvious,"  says  Quincy,  "  that  the  fate  of  New  England  was 
suspended  on  the  fate  of  the  Prince  of  Orange.  Had  he  failed, 
our  ancestors  would  have  had  to  expiate  the  guilt  of  treason  in 
exile,  or  confiscation,  or  on  the  scaffold."  1 

The  venerable  Simon  Bradstreet,  the  only  survivor  of  the  first 
generation  of  Puritan  leaders,  who  had  been  governor  of  the 
colony  from  1679  to  l686>  was  called  to  succeed  Sir  Edmund 
Andros,  and  he  held  office  until  the  14th  of  May,  1692,  when 
Sir  William  Phips  arrived  in  Boston,  with  his  commission  as 
first  royal  governor  under  the  second  charter. 

Increase  Mather,  in  his  Vindication  of  New  England,  re- 
lates "  that  there  was  a  crew  of  Pirats  under  the  command  of 
one  Pounds,  which  lay  robbing  Vessels  on  the  Coast  ;  these 
were  pursued  by  a  small  Vessel  of  Brisk  Bostoneers,  who  in 
Their  Majesties  Name  and  under  Their  Colours,  maintained  a 
Bloody  Fight  with  the  Rogues  and  took  them  :  One  of  them 
was  Executed."  The  vessel  that  performed  this  feat  was  the 
armed  sloop  Mary,  under  Captain  Samuel  Pease  and  Lieutenant 
Benjamin  Gallop.2  The  skirmish  took  place  in  Vineyard  Sound 
on  the  4th  of  October,  when  the  captain  was  mortally  wounded, 
although  he  lived  until  the  12th.  He  and  his  lieutenant  were 
members  of  Mr.  Willard's  congregation,  and  Mrs.  Pease  was  a 
communicant.3  A  general  contribution  for  the  bereaved  family 
and  the  wounded  men  was  taken  on  the  first  Sunday  in  the  fol- 
lowing January,  and  we  have  before  us  the  receipt  for  the 
amount  collected  at  Mr.  Willard's  :  — 

Reed  this  6th  January  1689-90  of  Mr.  Jacob  Eliott  and  Capt  Frary 

1  Josiah    Quincy,   Mayor   of   Boston,  3  Four  daughters  of  Samuel  and  Mary 

Oration,  July  4,  1826.  Pease  were  baptized  at  the  South  Church 

-  For  Benjamin  Gallop's  affidavit,  see  between  December,  1682,  and  January, 

N.  E.  Hist,  and  Gen.  Register,  vol.  ii.  p.  1686.     The   mother   became   a  member 

393.  November  26,  16S2. 


"THE  WOEFUL   DECADE."  28 1 

twenty  one  pounds  four  shillings  and  six  money  gatherd  by  a  publique 
Collection  made  att  Mr.  Willards  Congregation  for  wid  Pease  and  her 
Children  and  the  care  of  Two  wounded  men. 

Reed  p  Adam  Winthrop. 

The  period  between  1690  and  1700  has  been  well  called,  for 
New  England,  "  the  woeful  decade."  Its  first  year  witnessed 
the  massacres  of  Schenectady  and  Salmon  Falls,  and  these  were 
followed  a  few  months  later  by  the  disastrous  expedition  of  the 
united  colonies,  under  Sir  William  Phips,  against  Quebec.  Mas- 
sachusetts had  sent  an  expedition  to  Acadia  which  captured 
Port  Royal  (Annapolis)  ;  and  at  a  congress  held  in  New  York, 
in  May,  1690,  it  was  determined  to  prevent,  if  possible,  further 
raids  by  the  French  and  Indians,  by  carrying  the  war  vigorously 
into  Canada.  At  this  congress  New  York  was  represented  by 
Jacob  Leisler  and  Peter  De  Lanoy ;  Massachusetts  by  William 
Stoughton,  Samuel  Sewall,  and  John  Walley ;  and  Connecticut 
by  Nathan  Gold  and  William  Pitkin.  The  plan  agreed  upon 
was  that  the  forces  of  New  York  and  Connecticut,  with  the  aid 
of  the  Iroquois  Indians,  should  make  an  attack  on  Montreal, 
while  a  fleet  from  Massachusetts  should  make  at  the  same  time 
an  assault  upon  Quebec.  The  Massachusetts  troops  were 
placed  under  the  command  of  John  Walley  as  lieutenant-gen- 
eral. Ephraim  Savage,  son  of  the  commander  in  Philip's  War, 
was  second  in  command  of  the  militia.  But  the  land  forces 
never  reached  their  destination,  and  the  fleet  was  repulsed 
before  Quebec  with  great  loss.1 

On  the  night  of  Tuesday,  the  16th  of  September,  there  was  a 
serious  fire  in  what  is  now  Milk  Street,  and  the  South  meeting- 
house was  in  much  danger.  Sewall  says  :  "  About  eleven  at 
night  a  Fire  breaks  out  at  the  House  of  Jno  Allen,  Worsted 
Comber,  in  which  his  Apprentice  Sam.  Worster  was  burned,  with 
the  House  of  Lieut.  Reynolds,  Mr.  Bligh,  Langden  and  a  great 
part  of  Savil  Simson's.  The  wind  being  Sou-west,  the  South- 
Meeting-House  was  preserv'd  with  very  much  difficulty,  being 

1  November  7,  1690.  "  Between  9.  and  with  the  discourse,  and  some  cast  blame 
10.  at  night,  Governour  sends  to  me  on  Major  Walley;  were  nine  weeks  get- 
and  enforms  of  the  defeat  at  Canada ;  ting  thither  and  landed  not  before  the 
and  that  Urrumbee,  Hawkins  and  other  7th  or  8th  of  October."  (Sewall.) 
chief  Indians  sued  for  peace.  News  of  The  expedition  was  most  rash  and  ill- 
Canada  came  from  Salem.  Shute  comes  advised.  There  is  no  evidence  that 
into  Boston  that  night  or  next  morning,  Major  Walley  failed  to  do  anything  that 
hath  thrown  over  aboard  more  than  Sixty  a  man  could  have  done  under  the  cir- 
persons  since  his  going  hence,  most  In-  cumstances,  and  it  was  only  for  the  mo- 
dians    of    Plimouth.     Town    much  fill'd  ment  that  he  suffered  in  his  popularity. 


282 


HISTORY  OF   THE   OLD   SOUTH   CHURCH. 


in  a  flame  in  diverse  places  of  it.  Capt.  Cyprian  Southack.1  and 
Lieut.  David  Mason  did  very  worthily,  hazarding  themselves 
with  many  others  on  the  Lead  for  a  great  while." 

Mr.  Peter  Sergeant,  a  prominent  merchant  and  citizen,  and 
an  active  member  of  the  South  Church,  built  a  handsome  house 
for  himself,  which  was  afterward  the  residence  of  a  long  succes- 
sion of  royal  governors,  and  is  known  in  history  as  the  Province 
House.2     It  was  of  brick,  three  stories  high,  and  it  stood  in 

described  a  visit  to  the  old  house  in  its 
later  and  more  humble  days  :  — 

"  Entering  the  arched  passage,  which 
penetrated  through  the  middle  of  a  brick 
row  of  shops,  a  few  steps  transported  me 
from  the  busy  heart  of  modern  Boston 
into  a  small  and  secluded  court-yard. 
One  side  of  this  space  was  occupied  by 
the  square  front  of  the  Province  House, 
three  stories  high,  and  surmounted  by  a 
cupola,  on  the  top  of  which  a  gilded 
Indian  was  discernible,  with  his  bow 
bent  and  his  arrow  on  the  string,  as  if 
aiming  at  the  weathercock  on  the  spire 
of  the  Old  South.  The  figure  has  kept 
this  attitude  for  seventy  years  or  more, 
ever  since  good  Deacon  Drown,  a  cun- 
ning carver  of  wood,  first  stationed  him 
on  his  long  sentinel's  watch  over  the 
city. 

"  The  Province  House  is  constructed  of 
brick,  which  seems  recently  to  have  been 
overlaid  with  a  coat  of  light-colored 
paint.  A  flight  of  red  freestone  steps, 
fenced  in  by  a  balustrade  of  curiously 
wrought  iron,  ascends  from  the  court- 
yard to  the  spacious  porch,  over  which 
is  a  balcony,  with  an  iron  balustrade  of 
similar  pattern  and  workmanship  to  that 
beneath.  These  letters  and  figures  —  16 
P.  S.  79  —  are  wrought  into  the  ironwork 
of  the  balcony,  and  probably  express  the 
date  of  the  edifice,  with  the  initials  of 
its  founder's  name.  A  wide  door  with 
double  leaves  admitted  me  into  the  hall 
or  entry,  on  the  right  of  which  is  the 
entrance  to  the  bar-room. 

"  It  was  in  this  apartment,  I  presume, 
that  the  ancient  governors  held  their 
levees,  with  vice-regal  pomp,  surrounded 
by  the  military  men,  the  councillors,  the 
judges,  and  other  officers  of  the  crown, 
while  all  the  loyalty  of  the  province 
thronged  to  do  them   honor.     But   the 


1  Captain  Southack  was  a  Boston 
pilot,  and  commanded  a  vessel  in  the 
expedition  against  Quebec.  A  year  or 
two  later,  the  meeting-house  was  threat- 
ened again :  "  Sabbath,  Jan.  29,  1692-3. 
A  very  sunshiny,  hot,  thawing  day. 
Note.  Just  as  we  came  out  of  the  meet- 
inghouse at  Noon,  Savil  Simson's  Chim- 
ney fell  on  fire,  and  blaz'd  out  much, 
which  made  many  people  stand  gazing 
at  it  a  pretty  while,  being  so  near  the 
Meetinghouse."     (Sewall.) 

2  July  25  1699  "  My  Lord  Bellomont 
deliver'd  me  my  Commission  for  Judge 
of  the  Superiour  Court.  And  the  Chief 
Justice,  Mr.  Stoughton,  Mr.  Cooke  and 
myself  were  sworn  in  Mr.  Sergeants  best 
chamber  before  the  Governour  and 
Council." 

November  4  "  This  day  the  Governour 
Treats  the  Council  and  sundry  other 
Gentlemen  in  Mr.  Sergeants  best  cham- 
ber. Guns  fired  upon  account  of  the 
King's  Birth-day.     (Sewall.) 

A  few  days  later,  Judge  Sewall  enter- 
tained Lord  and  Lady  Bellomont  in  the 
new  hall  which  he  had  recently  added  to 
his  house.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Willard  could 
not  be  present  because  it  was  "  cate- 
chizing day,"  but  the  South  Church  was 
represented  by  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Sergeant, 
Major  Walley,  Mr.  Bromfield,  Mr.  Stod- 
dard, and  Mr.  John  Campbell,  afterward 
postmaster  and  first  editor  of  the  Boston 
News-Letter. 

Mr.  Sergeant  received  at  the  rate  of 
.£100  per  annum  for  the  use  of  his  house 
fourteen  and  a  half  months,  and  Judge 
Sewall  ^15  for  the  use  of  a  coach-house 
and  stable  in  the  vicinity.  See  a  paper 
on  the  Province  House,  by  Mellen  Cham- 
berlain, in  the  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Proceed- 
ings, Second  Series,  vol.  ii.  pp.  122-131. 

Hawthorne,  in  Twice -Told  Tales,  has 


THE   PROVINCE  HOUSE.  283 

spacious  grounds,  surrounded  by  magnificent  trees.  When  the 
Earl  of  Bellomont  came  to  Boston  in  1699,  Mr.  Sergeant  enter- 
tained him  at  his  handsome  residence,  and  was  "prevailed  with" 
to  vacate  it  for  the  use  of  the  governor  during  his  stay  in  the 
town  of  a  little  more  than  a  year.  When  Mr.  Sergeant  mar- 
ried Lady  Phips,  widow  of  Sir  William,  in  the  autumn  of  1701, 
he  took  up  his  abode  at  her  mansion  house  at  the  north  end  of 
the  town,  and  let  his  own  house  to  Major  Hobby,  afterward  Sir 
Charles  Hobby.  He  died  in  1713,  and  in  1716  the  house  was 
sold  to  the  Province,  and  was  occupied  by  Samuel  Shute,  the 
first  governor  from  beyond  the  sea  after  Lord  Bellomont.  We 
learn  from  Judge  Sewall  that  the  valuable  papers  belonging  to 
the  church  had  hitherto  been  in  the  keeping  of  Mr.  Secretary 
Rawson,  but  it  was  proposed  in  1690  to  place  them  in  Mr.  Ser- 
geant's house,  "  being  of  brick  and  conveniently  situated." 

Friday  November  21.  1690.  Mr.  Saml.  Willard,  Mr.  Edw.  Rawson, 
Capt.  Joshua  Scottow,  Deacon  Jacob  Eliot,  Deacon  Theophilus  Frary 
and  Samuel  Sewall  met  together,  at  said  Sewall's  house  in  Boston. 
Mr.  Edward  Rawson  in  regard  of  his  Age,  and  dwelling  out  of  Town 
desired  that  Mrs.  Judith  Winthrop's  Deed  of  the  Meeting-house  Land 
in  Boston,  her  Receipt,  Mr.  Leveret's  Release,  Mrs.  Norton's  Deed  of 
Gift  1669,  Mrs.  Norton's  Deed  of  Gift  1677,  An  Instrument  of  Mr. 
Edw.  Rawson,  Capt.  Joshua  Scottow  and  Capt.  Jacob  Eliot  to  Saml. 
Sewall  and  others,  being  Six  Writings  in  all,  should  be  put  in  a  Chest 
to  be  provided  for  that  purpose,  on  which  a  Copper  plate  to  be  fastened 
with  this  Engraving,  South  Church,  and  Mr.  Peter  Sergeant  to  be  en- 
treated to  keep  the  said  Chest  in  his  house,  being  of  Brick  and  con- 
veniently situated  ;  and  that,  if  can  conveniently  do,  also  put  the 
Church  plate  in  said  Chest ;  and  said  Edward  Rawson  committed  the 
above-mentioned  writings  to  said  Eliot  to  be  disposed  of  as  above 
with  as  great  Speed  as  conveniently  may  be,  according  to  this  Agree- 
ment. Signed  by :  —  Edward  Rawson 

Sam  Sewall 
J.  Scottow 
Jacob  Eliot 
Theo.  Frary. 

room,  in  its  present  condition,  cannot  landing-place,  whence  the  ascent  is  con- 
boast  even  of  faded  magnificence.  .  .  .  tinued  towards  the  cupola.  A  carved 
The  most  venerable  and  ornamental  balustrade,  freshly  painted  in  the  lower 
object  is  a  chimney-piece  set  round  with  stories,  but  growing  dingier  as  we  ascend, 
Dutch  tiles  of  blue-figured  china,  repre-  borders  the  staircase  with  its  quaintly 
senting  scenes  from  Scripture.  .  .  .  twisted  and  intertwined  pillars,  from  top 
"  The  great  staircase  ...  winds  through  to  bottom.  .  .  .  The  cupola  is  an  octa- 
the  midst  of  the  house  by  flights  of  broad  gon,  with  several  windows,  and  a  door 
steps,  each  flight  terminating  in  a  square  opening  upon  the  roof." 


284  HISTORY  OF   THE    OLD   SOUTH  CHURCH. 

Sabbath,  Nov.  8.  1691  Is  a  Contribution  for  the  Frontier  Towns ; 
Capt.  Eliot,  though  abroad  on  the  Day  of  the  Thanksgiving,  is  now  ill 
again;  ...  I  set  the  Tune;  York,  Windsor,  119th  Ps.,  on  the  two 
last  Staves  of  the  34th  Psalm. 

Nov.  10.  1691  Council  of  Churches  meet  at  Lin.  From  Boston, 
Mr.  Willard,  Sewall,  Frary  ;  [James]  Allen,  Hutchinson,  Bridgham  ; 
[Cotton]  Mather,  Foster,  Keech ;  Maiden  [Michael]  Wigglesworth, 
Sprague,  Green  ;  Salem,  [Nicholas]  Noyes,  Hathorn,  Corwin,  Gar- 
dener, Lindon.  Had  much  adoe  to  prevail  with  the  Church  to  own 
us  as  a  Council,  but  did  do  it  at  last ;  heard  what  was  to  be  said,  drew 
up  our  Advice  by  Mr.  Cotton  Mather;  wherein  all  parties  blamed; 
They  accepted  of  it  and  thank'd  us  heartily  for  our  visiting  them.  Bell 
was  rung  both  times  before  going  into  Meeting-house.  Mr.  Wiggles- 
worth  Moderator.1     (Sewall.) 

The  year  1692  is  memorable  for  the  sudden  and  violent  out- 
burst in  Massachusetts  of  what  we  now  call  "  the  witchcraft  de- 
lusion." It  is  not  for  us  to  attempt  to  account  for  that  strange 
combination  of  superstition  and  panic  which  ruled  the  hour,  and 
which  has  engaged  the  attention  of  so  many  writers,  nor  need 
we  dwell  at  length  upon  the  painful  occurrences  to  which  it  led. 
The  history  of  the  delusion  has  to  do  no  more  with  New  England 
than  with  the  mother  country  or  the  continent  of  Europe ;  no 
more  with  the  Puritan  churches  than  with  the  Anglican  or  any 
other  communion.  A  distinguished  scholar,2  speaking  of  the 
fathers  in  this  connection,  says  :  "  About  their  treatment  of 
witches  there  has  been  a  great  deal  of  ignorant  babble.  Puri- 
tanism had  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  it.  They  acted  under 
a  delusion  which,  with  an  exception  here  and  there,  darkened 
the  understanding  of  all  Christendom.  ...  It  is  more  philo- 
sophical to  say  that  the  age  believes  this  and  that,  than  that  the 
particular  men  who  live  in  it  do  so.  .  .  .  The  proceedings  at 
the  Salem  trials  are  sometimes  spoken  of  as  if  they  were  excep- 
tionally cruel.  But  in  fact,  if  compared  with  others  of  the  same 
kind,  they  were  exceptionally  humane."     Another  writer3  says  : 

1  [An  entry  by  Mr.  Higginson  in  the  of  Boston  and  Maiden,  to  help  to  make 

records  of  the   Salem  church  refers  to  peace:    which,  through  the  blessing  of 

this  council  at  Lynn,  although  there  is  a  God  on  their  endeavours,  was  attained 

discrepancy  in  the  date  : —  to  the  general  satisfaction  of  all."    Judge 

"  In  December  there  was  a  council  at  White's    /View   Eng.    Congregationalism, 

Lyn,    in   relation    to    some    differences  p.  95.] 

between  some  brethren  and  Mr.  Shepard,  2  James    Russell  Lowell,   Among  My 

their  Pastor.     Mr.  Noys  and  three  other  Books.     Articles  on  Witchcraft,  and  on 

brethren  were,  by  a  vote  of   the  church,  New  England  Two  Centuries  Ago. 

desired  to  go  thither  and  join  with  other  3  William  F.  Poole,  Mem.  Hist,  of  Bos- 

Elders  and  messengers  of  the  Churches  ton,  vol.  ii.  p.  131. 


WITCHCRAFT  IN  NEW  ENGLAND.  285 

"  The  storm  of  terror  and  death,  called  the  witchcraft  delusion, 
which  swept  over  Europe  in  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  cen- 
turies, left  its  traces  on  the  early  life  of  the  New  England 
colonies.  While  it  raged  in  Europe,  thirty  thousand  victims 
perished  in  the  British  Islands,  seventy-five  thousand  in  France, 
one  hundred  thousand  in  Germany,  and  corresponding  numbers 
in  Italy,  Spain,  Switzerland,  and  Sweden.  Witchcraft  in  New 
England  was  of  a  sporadic  and  spasmodic  type  compared  with 
its  epidemic  and  protracted  virulence  in  the  Old  World  ;  and 
yet  the  thirty-two  executions  in  the  New  England  colonies,  for 
supposed  confederation  with  devils,  have  filled  a  larger  space  in 
history  and  in  public  attention  than  the  thirty  thousand  similar 
executions  which  'occurred  in  the  mother  country.  English 
writers  at  this  day,  when  they  need  striking  proofs  of  the  super- 
stitions of  former  times,  take  their  illustrations  from  the  records 
of  New  England  witchcraft.  A  full  and  impartial  account  of 
English  and  Scottish  diabolism  has  never  commended  itself,  as  a 
subject  of  historical  investigation,  to  a  modern  English  writer." 
The  Salem  tragedy  touched  the  Third  or  South  Church  at 
several  points.  Three  of  its  members,  Wait  Winthrop,  Samuel 
Sewall,  and  Peter  Sergeant,  were  judges  of  the  Special  Court  ap- 
pointed to  try  the  witchcraft  cases  in  Eastern  Massachusetts.1 
One  of  its  founders  and  most  respected  members,  John  Alden,  was 
accused,  imprisoned,  and  tried,  and  had  a  narrow  escape  of  his 
life.  Its  minister,  Mr.  Willard,2  was  one  of  the  most  determined 
and  influential  in  opposition  to  the  judicial  proceedings  ;  a  mem- 
ber of  the  congregation,  Thomas  Brattle,  wrote  a  very  careful 
and  able  review  of  these  proceedings  ;  and  Robert  Calef,3  who 

1  Another  of  the  judges,  Jonathan  2  During  Mr.  Willard's  pastorate  at 
Corwin,  married  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  Groton,  in  1671,  one  of  his  parishioners 
Jacob  Sheaffe,  and  widow  of  Robert  was  strangely  affected,  "  railed  at  the 
Gibbs.  Mr.  Brattle,  in  his  Account,  says  godly  minister  of  the  town,  and  at  the 
that  Mrs.  Thacher  was  suspected  of  same  time  uttered  many  blasphemous 
witchcraft,  and  he  calls  Mr.  Corwin  to  expressions,  and  then-  charged  all  her 
account  for  favoritism,  in  shielding  his  afflictions  upon  a  good  woman  in  the 
mother-in-law,  and  in  conniving  at  the  neighborhood."  There  was  no  panic  at 
escape  from  the  province  of  Hezekiah  that  time,  and  Mr.  Willard  carefully  ex- 
Usher  (second  of  the  name)  who  had  amined  the  case  with  a  view  to  ascertain 
been  ordered  to  prison  by  a  mittimus  whether  the  possession  were  real  or 
under  Mr.  Lynde,  and  had  been  allowed  counterfeit.  He  was  led  by  his  investi- 
to  live  for  more  than  a  fortnight  in  a  gation  to  the  opinion  that  there  was 
private  house.  Mr.  Brattle  says  that  of  something  preternatural  in  the  experi- 
the  judges,  Mr.  Hathorne  and  Mr.  Cor-  ences  of  the  woman.  See  The  Mather 
win  were  the  most  active,  and  that  the  Papers,  pp.  555—571. 
chief  justice,  Mr.  Stoughton,  was  very  3  Robert  Calef,  or  Calf,  owned  the 
zealous.  covenant  at  the  South  Church  in  1703, 


286  HISTORY  OF   THE    OLD   SOUTH   CHURCH. 

became  a  member  a  few  years  later,  is  thought  by  some  to  have 
been  the  author  of  More  Wonders  of  the  Invisible  World,  a  book 
which  severely  criticised  all  who  had  been  prominent  in  abetting 
or  encouraging  the  popular  excitement. 

In  June,  1692,  Sir  William  Phips,  the  newly-arrived  royal 
governor,  appointed  special  Commissioners  of  Oyer  and  Ter- 
miner to  try  the  witchcraft  cases  which  had  been  for  some 
time  accumulating,  with  jurisdiction  in  the  counties  of  Suffolk, 
Essex,  and  Middlesex ;  they  were  William  Stoughton,  deputy- 
governor,  John  Richards,  Nathaniel  Saltonstall,  Wait  Still 
Winthrop,  Bartholomew  Gedney,  Samuel  Sewall,  John  Ha- 
thorne,  Jonathan  Corwin,  and  Peter  Sergeant,  or  any  five  of 
them.  Previously  to  this,  there  had  been  legal  proceedings 
against  reputed  witches  before  the  local  magistrates  in  Salem. 
Sewall  records  his  going  thither  on  the  nth  of  April :  — 

Went  to  Salem,  where,  in  the  Meeting-house,  the  persons  accused 
of  Witchcraft  were  examined ;  was  a  very  great  Assembly ;  'twas  awfull 
to  see  how  the  afflicted  persons  were  agitated.  Mr.  Noyes  pray'd  at 
the  beginning,  and  Mr.  Higginson  concluded. 

On  the  28th  of  May,  Captain  John  Alden,  who  had  recently 
returned  from  a  voyage  to  Quebec,1  whither  he  had  sailed  for 
the  redemption  of  some  prisoners  of  war  held  by  the  French 
since  the  preceding  October,  was  summoned  by  the  magistrates 
of  Salem,  "upon  the  accusation  of  a  company  of  poor  distracted 
or  possessed  creatures  or  witches."  The  names  of  his  accusers 
were :  Mary  Lewis,  Abigail  Williams,  Elizabeth  Booth,  Mary 
Walcott,  Elizabeth  Hubbard,  Ann  Putnam,  Mary  Warren.  He 
was  sent  by  Mr.  Stoughton,  and  on  the  31st  of  May  he  appeared 
at  Salem  Village  before  Mr.  Gedney,  Mr.  Hathorne,  and  Mr. 
Corwin.  Fortunately  we  have  an  account  of  the  examination 
in  his  own  emphatic  language,  as  communicated  to  Mr.  Calef  :  — 

Those  wenches  being  present,  who  played  their  juggling  tricks,  fall- 
ing down,  crying  out,  and  staring  in  people's  faces ;  the  magistrates 
demanded  of  them  several  times,  who  it  was  of  all  the  people  in  the 
room  that  hurt  them  ?  one  of  these  accusers  pointed  several  times 
at  one  Captain  [John]  Hill,  there  present,  but  spake  nothing;  the 
same  accuser  had  a  man  standing  at  her  back  to  hold  her  up  ;  he 

and  had  children  baptized  there,  the  last,         x  Captain  Alden  had  commanded  ves- 

"  Robert,  of  Robert  and  Margaret  Calf,"  sels  several  years  before  this  for  John 

March  3,  17 16-17.     John  Alden,  son  of  Hull,    and    lately   had    been    employed 

Captain  John  Alden,  was  one  of  the  wit-  in   the  public  service  ;    he   commanded 

nesses  to  his  will,  which  was  probated  a  vessel  in  the  expedition  against   Port 

before  Judge  Sewall,  February  iS,  1722-3.  Royal  in  1690. 


TRIAL    OF  JOHN  ALDEN.  287 

stooped  down  to  her  ear,  then  she  cried  out  Aldin,  Aldin  afflicted  her ; 
one  of  the  magistrates  asked  her  if  she  had  ever  seen  Aldin,  She 
answered  no,  he  asked  how  she  knew  it  was  Aldin  ?  She  said,  the 
man  told  her  so. 

Then  all  were  ordered  to  go  down  into  the  street,  where  a  ring  was 
made  ;  and  the  same  accuser  cried  out,  there  stands  Aldin,  a  bold 
fellow  with  his  hat  on  before  the  judges,  he  sells  powder  and  shot 
to  the  Indians  and  French.  .  .  .  Then  was  Aldin  committed  to  the 
marshal's  custody,  and  his  sword  taken  from  him ;  for  they  said  he 
afflicted  them  with  his  sword.  After  some  hours  Aldin  was  sent  for 
to  the  meeting  house  in  the  village  before  the  magistrates;  who  re- 
quired Aldin  to  stand  upon  a  chair  to  the  open  view  of  all  the  people. 

The  accusers  cried  out  that  Aldin  did  pinch  them,  then,  when  he 
stood  upon  the  chair,  in  the  sight  of  all  the  people,  a  good  way  distant 
from  them,  one  of  the  magistrates  bid  the  marshal  to  hold  open  Aldin's 
hands,  that  he  might  not  pinch  those  creatures.  Aldin  asked  them 
why  they  should  think  that  he  should  come  to  that  village  to  afflict 
those  persons  that  he  never  knew  or  saw  before  ?  Mr.  Gidney  bid 
Aldin  confess,  and  give  glory  to  God :  Aldin  said  he  hoped  he  should 
give  glory  to  God,  and  hoped  he  should  never  gratify  the  devil  ■  but 
appealed  to  all  that  ever  knew  him,  if  they  ever  suspected  him  to  be 
such  a  person,  and  challenged  any  one,  that  could  bring  in  any  thing 
upon  their  knowledge,  that  might  give  suspicion  of  his  being  such  an 
one.  Mr.  Gidney  said  he  had  known  Aldin  many  years,  and  had  been 
at  sea  with  him,  and  always  looked  upon  him  to  be  an  honest  man, 
but  now  he  did  see  cause  to  alter  his  judgment ;  Aldin  answered,  he 
was  sorry  for  that,  but  he  hoped  God  would  clear  up  his  innocency, 
that  he  would  recall  that  judgment  again,  and  added  that  he  hoped 
that  he  should  with  Job  maintain  his  innocency  till  he  died.  They 
bid  Aldin  look  upon  the  accusers,  which  he  did,  and  then  they  fell 
down.  Aldin  asked  Mr.  Gidney,  what  reason  there  could  be  given, 
why  Aldin's  looking  upon  him  did  not  strike  him  down  as  well?  but 
no  reason  was  given  that  I  heard.  But  the  accusers  were  brought  to 
Aldin  to  touch  them,  and  this  touch  they  said  made  them  well.  Aldin 
began  to  speak  of  the  Providence  of  God,  in  suffering  these  creatures 
to  accuse  innocent  persons ;  Mr.  Noyes  asked  Aldin  why  he  would 
offer  to  speak  of  the  Providence  of  God,  God  by  his  Providence,  (said 
Mr.  Noyes)  governs  the  world,  and  keeps  it  in  peace  ;  and  so  went 
on  with  discourse,  and  stopped  Aldin's  mouth,  as  to  that.  Aldin  told 
Mr.  Gidney,  that  he  could  assure  him  that  there  was  a  lying  spirit  in 
them,  for  I  can  assure  you  that  there  is  not  a  word  of  truth  in  all 
these  say  of  me.     But  Aldin  was  again  committed  to  the  marshal. 

Captain  Alden  was  taken  to  Boston  by  a  constable,  and  lodged 
in  jail  there  :  it  was  in  vain  that  he  and  his  friends  offered  bail, 


288  HISTORY  OF   THE    OLD   SOUTH   CHURCH. 

and  he  remained  in  confinement  for  fifteen  weeks.  When  the 
terror  was  at  its  height,  he  was  prevailed  upon  to  make  his 
escape,  and  with  the  aid  of  his  good  minister  and  others  he 
accomplished  this.  He  went  to  Duxbury,  where,  however,  he 
did  not  long  remain,  but  returned  to  Boston,  and  gave  himself 
up  to  the  authorities.  Bonds  were  now  accepted  for  him,  and  a 
few  months  later,  when  the  delusion  had  passed  away,  he  and 
others  who  had  been  similarly  accused  were  legally  discharged. 
While  he  lay  in  Boston  jail,  a  fast  was  held  at  his  house,  at 
which  Judge  Sewall  was  present,  and  of  which  he  gives  us  the 
following  particulars  :  — 

July  20.  Fast  at  the  house  of  Capt.  Alden,  upon  his  account.  Mr. 
Willard  pray'd.  I  read  a  Sermon  out  of  Dr.  Preston,  1st  and  2d 
Uses  of  God's  Alsufficiency.  Capt.  Scottow  prayd,  Mr.  Allen  came 
in  and  pray'd,  Mr.  Cotton  Mather,  then  Capt.  Hill.  Sung  the  first 
part  103,  Ps.,  concluded  about  5.  aclock.1 

All  this,  however  it  may  appear  to  us  now,  was  a  terrible 
reality  then  to  the  magistrates  and  ministers  of  the  province  as 
well  as  to  the  people.  There  were  few  who  doubted  that  the 
visitation  came  directly  from  the  kingdom  of  darkness,  and 
that  some,  at  least,  of  the  accused  persons  were  in  league  with 
Satan,  or  under  his  immediate  and  personal  control.  But  there 
were  many  who  thoroughly  disapproved  of  the  wholesale  and 
promiscuous  manner  in  which  accusations  were  made,  and  of 
the  way  in  which  the  judicial  proceedings  were  conducted.  Two 
theories  prevailed  among  those  who  held  to  the  reality  of  dia- 
bolical agency.  One  was  that  Satan  could  operate  by  means 
of  spectres,  fits,  and  spasms,  only  through  those  who  were  in 
willing  league  with  him,  that  is,  actual  witches.  This  was  the 
generally  received  opinion  in  England,  in  the  courts  and 
among  the  lawyers.  Testimony  as  to  spectral  and  other  preter- 
natural appearances  was  admitted  there  against  persons  accused 
of  witchcraft,  and  the  colonial  judges  naturally  adopted  the 
same  course.  Hutchinson  says  :  "  The  evidence  here  was  of 
the  same  sort  which  had  been  judged  sufficient  to  hang  people 
there  ;  ...  we  had  their  best  authority  to  justify  us."  The 
other  of  the  two  theories,  which  was  held  for  the  most  part  by 

1  [On   the   22d   of   December,   Judge  What,  if  anything,  the  judge  had  done 

Sewall  called  at  the  parsonage,  and  he  to   prevent   his    attendance,  we   do   not 

says :  "  Mrs.  Willard  talks   to  me  very  know.    He  may  have  thought  that  a  man 

sharply  about  Capt.  Alden's  not  being  under   accusation  before  a  court   ought 

at  the  Lord's  Supper  last  Sabbath-day."  not  to  approach  the  Lord's  table.] 


MR.  WILLARD'S  POSITION.  289 

the  clergy  of  New  England,  was  that  Satan  could  and  did  cause 
the  spectres  of  innocent  people  to  appear  as  readily  as  those, of 
persons  in  league  with  him,  and  that  what  was  known  as  spectral 
testimony  should  be  rejected  by  the  courts. 

It  should  be  remembered  to  the  credit  of  the  Boston  min- 
isters, at  this  trying  time,  that  as  a  body  they  exercised  a  de- 
cidedly restraining  influence  upon  the  excited  multitude  and  on 
the  officers  of  the  law.  Whatever  they  may  have  thought  about 
the  possibility  of  demoniacal  possession,  they  did  not  part  com- 
pany for  the  occasion  with  their  reason  and  common  sense.  At 
the  request  of  the  governor,  Cotton  Mather  drew  up  a  Return, 
June  15,  1692,  in  behalf  of  several  ministers,  in  which  it  was 
said  :  "  The  afflicted  state  of  our  poor  neighbours  that  are  now 
suffering  by  molestations  from  the  invisible  world,  we  apprehend 
so  deplorable  that  we  think  their  condition  calls  for  the  utmost 
help  of  all  persons  in  their  several  capacities.  .  .  .  We  judge 
that  in  the  prosecution  of  these  and  all  such  witchcrafts,  there 
is  need  of  a  very  critical  and  exquisite  caution,  lest  by  too  much 
credulity  for  things  received  only  upon  the  Devil's  authority, 
there  be  a  door  opened  for  a  long  train  of  miserable  conse- 
quences, and  Satan  get  an  advantage  over  us."  It  was  urged, 
"  that  all  proceedings  thereabout  be  managed  with  an  exceeding 
tenderness  towards  those  that  may  be  complained  of,  especially 
■if  they  have  been  persons  formerly  of  an  unblemished  repu- 
tation." 

How  nobly  Mr.  Willard  carried  himself  in  these  dark  hours 
we  learn  from  his  funeral  sermon,  preached  by  his  colleague  and 
successor,  the  Rev.  Ebenezer  Pemberton  :  — 

It  ought  never  to  be  forgotten  with  what  prudence,  courage  and 
zeal,  he  appeared  for  the  good  of  this  people,  in  that  dark  and  mys- 
terious season,  when  we  were  assaulted  from  the  invisible  world. 
And  how  singularly  instrumental  he  was  in  discovering  the  cheats  and 
delusions  of  Satan,  which  did  threaten  to  stain  our  land  with  blood, 
and  to  deluge  it  with  all  manner  of  woes. 

The  testimony  of  a  member  of  his  congregation  is  even  more 
emphatic.  Thomas  Brattle,  in  his  review  of  the  proceedings  in 
Essex  County,  addressed  to  a  clergyman  who  had  asked  him  for 
an  account  of  them,  said  :  — 

Although  the  chief  judge,  and  some  of  the  other  judges,  be  very 
zealous  for  these  proceedings,  yet  this  you  may  take  for  a  truth,  that 
there  are  several  about  the  Bay,  men  for  understanding,  judgment  and 


290  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

piety,  inferior  to  few,  if  any,  in  New  England,  that  do  utterly  condemn 
the  said  proceedings,  and  do  freely  deliver  their  judgment  in  the  case 
to  be  this,  viz.  that  these  methods  will  utterly  ruin  and  undo  poor 
New  England.  I  shall  nominate  some  of  them  to  you,  viz.  the  Hon. 
Simon  Bradstreet  Esqr  our  late  governor,  the  Hon.  Thomas  Danforth 
Esqr  our  late  deputy  governor,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Increase  Mather,  and  the 
Rev.  Mr.  Samuel  Willard.  ...  I  cannot  but  highly  applaud,  and  think 
it  our  duty  to  be  very  thankful  for,  the  endeavours  of  several  elders, 
whose  lips,  I  think,  should  preserve  knowledge,  and  whose  counsel 
should,  I  think,  have  been  more  regarded,  in  a  case  of  this  nature, 
than  as  yet  it  has  been  :  in  particular,  I  cannot  but  think  very  hon- 
ourably of  the  endeavours  of  a  Reverend  person  in  Boston,  whose 
good  affection  to  his  country  in  general,  and  spiritual  relation  to  three 
of  the  judges  in  particular,  has  made  him  very  solicitous  and  indus- 
trious in  this  matter ;  and  I  am  fully  persuaded  that,  had  his  motions 
and  proposals  been  hearkened  to,  and  followed,  when  these  troubles 
were  in  their  birth,  in  an  ordinary  way,  they  would  never  have  grown 
unto  that  height  which  now  they  have.  He  has,  as  yet,  met  with  little 
but  unkindness,  abuse,  and  reproach  from  many  men  ;  but,  I  trust  that 
in  after  times,  his  wisdom  and  service  will  find  a  more  universal  ac- 
knowledgment ;  and  if  not,  his  reward  is  with  the  Lord.1 

It  has  been  well  said,  that  when  we  take  all  the  circumstances 
into  the  account,  "we  shall  be  less  astonished  that  the  delusion 
in  Salem  Village  rose  so  high,  than  that  it  subsided  so  soon." 
As  the  reaction  began  to  set  in,  juries  refused  to  convict.  The 
spirit  in  which  many  of  the  accused  and  condemned  met  their 
fate  made  a  deep  impression  on  the  community.  The  Rev. 
George  Burroughs,  who  in  happier  days  had  been  a  guest  at 
Sewall's  table,  "  by  his  speech,  prayer,  protestation  of  his  inno- 
cence, did  much  move  unthinking  [we  should  say  thinking] 
persons,  which  occasions  their  speaking  hardly  concerning  his 
being  executed." 

Hutchinson  says  of  the  judges  that  they  did  not  change 
as  soon  as  the  juries.  The  opinion  which  they  had  "of  their 
own  superior  understanding  and  judgment  probably  made  them 
more  backward  in  owning  or  discovering  their  errors."  One  of 
them,  however,  when  he  came  to  be  convinced  of  the  terrible 
mistake  he  had  made,  did  everything  in  his  power  to  manifest 
his  sorrow  and  contrition.  Tradition  says  that  Judge  Sewall 
observed  a  day  of  private  prayer  annually,  as  long  as  he  lived, 
in  humble  and  penitential  remembrance  of  his  part  in  the  witch- 
craft trials.     This  may  not  be  literally  true,  but  as  to  the  fact  of 

1  [Mass.  Hist.  Collections,  vol.  v.  pp.  74-77.] 


JUDGE  SEW  ALUS  PENITENCE.  291 

the  judge's  penitence  there  can  be  no  question  ;  and  the  tradi- 
tion, as  put  into  verse  by  the  poet  Whittier,  is  destined  to  live  as 
long  as  the  trials  are  remembered  :  — 

Touching  and  sad,  a  tale  is  told, 
Like  a  penitent  hymn  of  the  Psalmist  old, 
Of  the  fast  which  the  good  man  lifelong  kept 
With  a  haunting  sorrow  that  never  slept, 
As  the  circling  year  brought  round  the  time 
Of  an  error  that  left  the  sting  of  crime, 
When  he  sat  on  the  bench  of  the  witchcraft  courts, 
With  the  laws  of  Moses  and  Hale's  Reports, 
And  spake,  in  the  name  of  both,  the  word 
That  gave  the  witch's  neck  to  the  cord, 
And  piled  the  oaken  planks  that  pressed 
The  feeble  life  from  the  warlock's  breast ! 
All  the  day  long,  from  dawn  to  dawn, 
His  door  was  bolted,  his  curtain  drawn  ; 
No  foot  on  his  silent  threshold  trod, 
No  eye  looked  on  him  save  that  of  God, 
As  he  baffled  the  ghosts  of  the  dead  with  charms 
Of  penitent  tears,  and  prayers,  and  psalms, 
And,  with  precious  proofs  from  the  sacred  word 
Of  the  boundless  pity  and  love  of  the  Lord, 
His  faith  confirmed  and  his  trust  renewed 
That  the  sin  of  his  ignorance,  sorely  rued, 
Might  be  washed  away  in  the  mingled  flood 
Of  his  human  sorrow  and  Christ's  dear  blood  ! 

Judge  Sewall  was  not  content  with  making  a  private  confes- 
sion in  his  closet  before  Him  who  seeth  in  secret.  He  openly- 
acknowledged  his  sin,  and  asked  the  pardon  of  his  fellowmen, 
in  the  great  congregation.  A  public  fast  had  been  appointed 
by  the  Governor  and  Council  for  the  14th  of  January,  1696-7. 
The  proclamation,  drawn  up  by  the  ministers  of  Boston,  men- 
tioned various  calamities  and  judgments  under  which  the  prov- 
ince was  suffering,  and  then  said  :  "  Doubtless  there  are  som 
particular  Sins,  which  God  is  angry  with  our  Israel  for,  that 
have  not  been  duely  seen  and  resented  by  us,  about  which  God 
expects  to  be  sought ;  if  ever  He  turn  again  our  Captivity." 
The  earnest  supplications  of  God's  people  were  desired  :  "That 
all  Iniquity  may  be  put  away  which  hath  proved  God's  holy 
Jealousie  against  this  Land ;  that  He  would  shew  us  what  we 
know  not,  and  help  us,  wherein  we  have  done  amiss,  to  doe  so 
no  more  :  And,  especially,  that  whatever  Mistakes,  on  either 
hand,  have  been  fallen  into,  either  by  the  body  of  this  People, 
or  any  Orders  of  them,  referring  to  the  late  Tragedie  raised 
amongst  us  by  Satan  and  his  Instruments,  through  the  awfull 
judgment  of  God ;  He  would  humble  us  therefore,  and  pardon 


292  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD   SOUTH  CHURCH. 


all  the  Errors  of  his  Servants  and  People  that  desire  to  Love  his 

Name,  and  be  attoned  to  His  Land." 

Judge  Sewall  at  this  time  was  mourning  the  loss  of  two  of  his 

children  who  had  died  within  a  few  months,  and  his  conscience 

was  in  a  very  tender  state.     Between  the  proclamation  of  the 

fast  and  its  observance,  his 
son  Samuel  was  reciting  to 
him  in  Latin  a  part  of  the 
twelfth  chapter  of  Mat- 
thew's Gospel,  and  he  re- 
cords :  "  The  7th  verse  did 
awfully  bring  to  mind  the 
Salem  Tragedie."  The 
English  version  of  this  pas- 
sage is  :  "  If  ye  had  known 
what  this  meaneth,  I  will 
have  mercy  and  not  sacri- 
fice, ye  would  not  have  con- 
demned the  guiltless."  On 
the  afternoon  of  the  Fast 
Day  the  judge  handed  to 
Mr.  Willard  as,  in  gown 
and  bands,   he  was  passing 

up  one  of  the  "alleys"  to  the  pulpit,  the  following  "bill"  to 

be  read  by  him  :  — 

Samuel  Sewall,  sensible  of  the  reiterated  strokes  of  God  upon  him- 
self and  family ;  and  being  sensible,  that  as  to  the  Guilt  contracted 
upon  the  opening  of  the  late  Commission  of  Oyer  and  Terminer  at 
Salem  (to  which  the  order  for  this  Day  relates)  he  is,  upon  many  ac- 
counts, more  concerned  than  any  that  he  knows  of,  Desires  to  take 
the  Blame  and  shame  of  it,  Asking  pardon  of  men,  And  especially 
desiring  prayers  that  God,  who  has  an  Unlimited  Authority,  would 
pardon  that  sin  and  all  other  his  sins  ;  personal  and  Relative  :  And 
according  to  his  infinite  Benignity,  and  Sovereignty,  Not  Visit  the  sin 
of  him,  or  of  any  other,  upon  himself  or  any  of  his,  nor  upon  the 
Land  :  But  that  He  would  powerfully  defend  him  against  all  Tempta- 
tions to  Sin,  for  the  future  ;  and  vouchsafe  him  the  efficacious,  saving 
Conduct  of  his  Word  and  Spirit. 

The  good  judge  stood,  as  this  solemn  confession  was  read  by 
his  minister  in  his  behalf,  and  bowed  at  its  close.  In  all  his  dis- 
tinguished career  he  was  never  so  great  as  at  that  moment.  All 
present,  we  think,  must  have  been  moved  as  they  saw  this  man, 


<fiz*m£iC  j&ufrilL^ 


DEATH   OF  JACOB   ELIOT.  293 

prominent  in  their  membership,  this  honorable  councillor  and 
judge,  publicly  acknowledging  his  sin  and  humbly  imploring 
pardon,  human  and  divine. 

The  moral  heroism  of  Judge  Sewall's  penitential  act  becomes 
the  more  conspicuous  as  we  remember  that  he  had  eight  asso- 
ciates on  the  Special  Commission,  all  religious  men,  no  one  of 
whom  thought  it  his  duty  to  follow  his  example,  or  to  announce 
publicly  in  any  way  that  he  regretted  his  part  in  the  fatal  assize. 
It  is  said  that  the  chief  justice,  Stoughton,  on  being  told  what 
one  of  his  brethren  had  done,  remarked  that  for  himself,  when 
he  sat  in  judgment,  he  had  the  fear  of  God  before  his  eyes,  and 
gave  his  opinion  according  to  the  best  of  his  understanding  ;  and 
although  afterward  it  might  appear  that  he  had  been  in  error, 
he  saw  no  necessity  for  a  public  acknowledgment.  It  should 
be  added  that  Stoughton's  conduct  in  relation  to  the  witchcraft 
trials  detracted  nothing  from  the  popularity  which  he  always 
enjoyed. 

The  only  entries  upon  the  church  records  between  July,  1688, 
and  the  autumn  of  1693,  are  the  following  :  — 

Feb.  5  '92.     Elisabeth  Monk  restored  from  church  censure.1 
June  4  '93      Jacob  Eliot,  Margaret  Pond  and    Margaret   Cox  rec- 
onciled to  the  church. 

We  have  no  means  of  learning  what  had  taken  place  which 
made  it  necessary  for  Deacon  Jacob  Eliot  to  become  reconciled 
to  the  church,  but  are  glad  that  the  occasion  of  strife,  whatever 
it  was,  was  now  taken  out  of  the  way,  for  he  lived  less  than 
three  months  from  this  time.  He  came  home  sick  from  Muddy 
River  (Brookline)  on  Saturday,  the  12th  of  August,  died  early 
in  the  morning  of  the  following  Wednesday,  and  was  buried 
in  the  Granary  Burying-ground  on  Thursday.  Judge  Sewall 
refers  to  his  death  in  a  very  beautiful  and  touching  manner  :  — 

Tis  a  sudden  and  very  sore  Blow  to  the  South  Church,  a  Loss  hardly 
repaired.     On  the  Sabbath,  Mr.  Willard  being  in  before  me,  I  did  not 

1  [Elizabeth,  widow   of    John    Wood-  been  a  private   marriage    on  the  2d  of 

mansey,     married,     secondly,      George  June  of  the  year  before.     Sewall  further 

Monk ;  he  kept  a  tavern,  and  occupied  says  (February  5,  1692-3)   that  she  was 

at  one  time  the  mansion  house  of  Major  restored,   "  having   made  a    satisfactory 

Walley,    in  what    is    now    Milk    Street,  confession."       Her   name   nowhere    ap- 

Sewall  says:  May  8,  1688:   "Discourse  pears   on   the  church  register,  and  but 

with  Mrs.   Woodmancy  as    to   her  pre-  for  her  having  been  under  discipline  the 

tended   Marriage,   which    Mr.    Willard,  fact  of  her  membership  would  not  now 

Eliot,  Frary  and  Self  find  to  be  nothing  be  known.    The  same  is  true  of  three  or 

at   all."      She   claimed  that   there    had  four  others.] 


294  HISTORY  OF  THE    OLD   SOUTH  CHURCH. 

mind  D[eacon]  Eliot's  absence,  and  wondered  I  heard  not  his  voice 
beginning  the  Psalm,  and  Capt.  Frary  waited  when  I  should  begin  it. 
We  shall  hardly  get  another  such  a  sweet  Singer  as  we  have  lost.  He 
was  one  of  the  most  Serviceable  Men  in  Boston,  condescending  to  his 
friends.  One  of  the  best  and  most  respectfull  Friends  I  had  in  the 
world.  Lord  awaken  us.  Scarce  a  Man  was  so  universally  known  as 
He.  Dyed  in  the  61.  year  of  's  Age.  Was  one  of  the  first  that  was 
born  in  Boston. 

Sabbath  August  20.  Mr.  Willard  propounds  a  Church  Meeting  on 
Friday  next  3  p.  m.  that  may  elect  a  Deacon  or  two,  Capt.  Frary  not 
being  able  to  officiat  at  the  Lord's  Table,  which  we  are  invited  to  this 
day  sennight.     (Sewall.) 

Judge  Sewall  spent  the  week  following  in  the  Narragansett 
country,  so  that  we  do  not  know  what  took  place  at  the  meet- 
ing on  the  25th  of  August,  further  than  that  no  choice  was 
then  made.  The  church  records  give  us  the  action  reached 
two  or  three  months  later  :  — 

October  15.  93.  Mr.  Samuel  Checkly  and  Mr.  Nath.  Williams  were 
elected  for  Deacons. 

November  24.  93.  Upon  the  refusal  of  Mr.  Samuel  Checkly,  Mr. 
James  Hill  was  elected  for  a  Deacon.1 

December  7.  93.  The  church  voted  to  give  200^"  out  of  their  treas- 
ury to  the  children  of  Samuel  Willard.2 

The  last  entry  stands  without  explanation,  but  we  have  before 
us  a  subscription-paper,  bearing  the  same  date,  from  which  it 
appears  that  in  addition  to  the  appropriation  of  ^200  from  the 
treasury  of  the  church,  personal  contributions  were  made  by 
the  members,  amounting  to  .£336,  the  whole  being  in  recogni- 
tion of  Mr.  Willard's  faithful  labors  in  the  pastorate. 

1  [Mr.  Checkley  was  chosen  again  and  raised,  his  eldest  daughter,  Abigail,  was 
accepted  the  office,  probably  after  the  to  be  married  soon,  and  his  son  Josiah 
death  of  Deacon  Frary,  as  the  church  was  to  enter  college  the  following  year, 
records  refer  to  him  as  one  of  the  dea-  He  graduated  in  1698.  Another  son, 
cons  October  17,1703.  Judge  Sewall,  in  Richard,  was  admitted  to  Harvard  Col- 
his  Diary,  mentions  him  as  a  deacon  un-  lege  June  29,  1697,  and  on  the  same  day 
der  the  following  dates:  August  21,  went  to  the  river  to  bathe,  and  was 
1710,  July  5,  1714,  and  December  6,  1724.  drowned.  A  few  days  later,  Mr.  Willard 
The  News-Letter,  in  announcing  his  preached  a  sermon  at  a  meeting  at  the 
death,  which  took  place  December  27,  house  of  Mr.  Francis  Burroughs,  from 
1738,  speaks  of  him  as  a  deacon  in  the  the  text,  "But  the  wise  took  oil  in  their 
South  Church,  and  gives  the  date  of  his  vessels  with  their  lamps  ;  "  and  the  les- 
election  as  in  the  text,  October  15,  1693.]  son  he  drew  from  it  was,  that  they  who 

2  [Mr.  Willard  had  a  large  number  of  would  always  be  in  readiness  for  Christ's 
children,  —  six  by  his  first  wife,  and  four-  uncertain  coming  must  see  that  they  have 
teen  during  his  ministry  in  the  South  grace  in  their  hearts,  and  that  they  always 
Church.      When    this    testimonial   was  keep  it  in  exercise.] 


A    SUBSCRIPTION  FOR  MR.    WIILARD.  295 

Boston,  Dec1"  7th  1693 
Wee  the  Subscribers  haveing  had  Large  Experience  of  the  Faithfull 
and  Painfull  Labours  of  the  Reverend  Mr.  Samuel  Willard  in  the  work 
of  the  Ministry  among  Us,  and  being  sensible  of  the  Obligation  we  lye 
under  both  to  God  and  him,  for  so  great  a  blessing,  and  being  desireous 
to  express  our  Acknowledgment  thereof  in  makeing  some  further  pro- 
vision for  the  Support  of  his  Familie  and  numerous  Issue,  Doe  here- 
fore  freely  contribute  and  give  the  several  summes  of  Money  here- 
under mentioned  against  our  Respective  Names  to  be  paid  to  and 
intrusted  in  the  hands  of  One  or  more  of  the  Contributors,  as  shall 
be  agreed  by  the  Major  part  of  the  Subscribers,  to  be  accounted  ac- 
cording to  the  several  summs  given  by  them  to  be  Improved,  Em- 
ploy'd  and  distributed  to  and  for  the  uses  herein  mentioned  and  no 
other,  That  is  to  say :  the  Value  of  [  ]  in  money  or  plate, 

to  be  forthwith  presented  to  Mrs.  Eunice  Willard  Wife  of  the  said 
Mr.  Samuel  Willard,  in  testimony  of  Our  respects  to  her,  to  be  her 
own  forever.  And  all  the  remainder  of  the  said  Money  to  be  be- 
stowed shared  and  divided  to  and  among  All  the  Children  of  the  said 
Mr.  Willard,  part  and  part  alike,  at  such  time  and  times  respectively, 
as  any  of  them  shall  be  marryed,  or  otherwise  disposed  of,  for  settle- 
ment to  be  at  their  own  finding ;  with  a  proportionable  part  of  the 
Improvement  and  Increase  made  of  said  money  unto  that  time.  But 
all  the  proffits  and  Increase  of  so  much  as  is  the  proportion  of  the 
Children  by  Mrs.  Eunice  Willard  from  and  after  the  death  of  the  said 
Mr.  Willard  to  be  Imployed  and  disposed  of  from  time  to  time  for  and 
towards  the  maintainance  and  education  of  such  his  children  as  shall 
be  then  under  age  and  a  charge  to  his  Estate.  Except  after  the  Death 
of  said  Mr.  Samuel  Willard,  by  the  soveraign  disposing  of  God  Mrs. 
Willard  and  her  Children  should  be  brought  to  such  straits  as  to  need 
part,  or  all  of  the  principal  belonging  to  them  for  their  maintenance  and 
education,  then  it  shall  be  free  for  the  persons  now  chosen  by  the 
Church,  to  relieve  them  out  of  the  principal  also  as  to  them  shall  be 
Judged  most  convenient.1 

1  [The  signatures  are  as  follows: —  seph  Belknap,  2.10/.     Benj.  Pemberton 

Samuel  Sewall,  ,£20.    Peter  Sergeant,  3.     Saml.  Wentworth,  3.     Benj.  Gallop 

20.     Edward  Bromfield,  12.     John  Eyre,  3.  Duncan  Campbell,  3.   Elizur  Holyoke, 

12.      Simeon     Stoddard,     20.      Francis  2.     John   Wing,    (not  paid,  3.)     Joseph 

Burroughs,  15.     Nath.  Oliver,  12.     An-  Briscoe,  3.     Jno.    Bennet,  3.     Mary  Ar- 

drew   Belcher,   10.      John    Borland,    10.  dell,  6.    Eliezer  Moody,  6.    James  Smith, 

Wm.     Clarke,     7.      Thos.     Cooper,     6.  4.     David  Jeffries,  7.     John  Maxwell,  5 

Saml.    Checkley,  10.     John  Campbell,  6.  Thomas  Savage,  6.    Thos.  Prince,  2.10/, 

Theop.  Frary,  5.     Danl.  Allen,  6.   Thos.  Geo.    Ellistone,    2.      Simon    Daniel,   3 

Clarke,  6.    JohnBoult,8.    John  Joyliffe,  James  Barton,  3.     Robt.    Gutterage,  3 

5.     Danl.  Miner,  5.     Nathl.  Williams,  6.  Jos.  Downeing,   2.     Jos.  Rogers,   1.10/ 

Jno.  Pool,  6.     Benj.    Alford,    5.      Thos.  Jos.     Elliott,     2.     Geo.     Kallender,    3 

B ,  6.  Benj. Walker,  9.  Jno.  Conney,  5.  Gustavus  Hamilton,  6.     By  an  unknown 

Saml.  Phillips,  3.  Jacob  Maleyn  3.   Robt.  hand  8.     In  all,  .£336.     Church  Stock, 

Gibbs,  3.     Jas.  Pemberton,  2.10/.     Jo-  ,£200.     Total,  ,£536.] 


296  HISTORY  OF   THE    OLD   SOUTH   CHURCH. 

Sabbath,  March  17.  Is  a  very  sore  Storm  of  Snow.  When  After- 
noon Exercise  is  over,  Mr.  Willard  stays  the  Church  and  Major  Wal- 
ley,  Capt.  Williams  and  Checkly  are  chose  to  accompany  our  Pastor 
to  Salem-Village  on  the  3d  of  April  next ;  that  Church  calling  a  Coun- 
cill,  to  see  if  can  put  an  end  to  their  contentions.     (Sewall.) 

The  council  at  Salem  Village  deserves  more  than  a  passing 
reference.  The  prosecution  and  execution  of  the  unhappy  per- 
sons in  that  place  charged  with  witchcraft  had  been  relent- 
lessly pressed  by  the  minister,  the  Rev.  Samuel  Parris,  and 
when  the  reaction  came  the  relatives  and  friends  of  those  who 
had  suffered  through  him  were  determined  that  he  should  leave 
the  church.  The  men  of  influence  were  generally  on  his  side, 
so  that  he  was  able  for  a  time  to  withstand  the  opposition 
against  him  ;  but  as  the  light  came  to  be  thrown  upon  his  course 
of  action,  and  as  a  result  of  the  high-handed  and  overbearing 
way  in  which  he  undertook  to  deal  with  those  who  were  calling 
him  to  account,  the  tide  began  to  turn  and  to  set  strongly 
against  him.  He  resisted  the  demand  for  a  mutual  council  as 
long  as  he  could,  and  when  obliged  to  yield  this  point  he  in- 
sisted that  certain  churches  of  whose  influence  he  was  afraid, 
particularly  the  First  and  Third  of  Boston,  and  the  church  in 
Ipswich,  should  not  be  embraced  in  the  call.  As  he  and  the 
dissatisfied  brethren  could  not  agree  upon  the  churches  to  be 
invited,  he  and  his  church  decided  to  call  an  ex  parte  council, 
and  it  is  this  to  which  reference  is  made  in  Judge  Sevvall's 
diary  as  above  quoted.  But  his  plan  of  finding  refuge  in  an  ex 
parte  council  was,  as  Mr.  Upham  says,  utterly  frustrated.  He 
himself  records  that  the  "  reverend  elders  in  the  Bay  accounted 
it  advisable "  that  the  First  and  Third  Churches  in  Boston 
should  be  added  to  the  council.  "  They  wrote  to  him  to  that 
effect,  and  he  had  to  comply.  This  brought  James  Allen  and 
Samuel  Willard  into  the  council,  and  determined  the  character 
of  the  Result,  which,  coming  from  a  tribunal  called  by  him  to 
adjudicate  the  case,  and  hearing  only  such  evidence  as  he  laid 
before  it,  so  far  as  it  bore  against  him,  was  decisive  and  fatal." 

The  council  met  at  Salem  Village  on  the  3d  of  April ;  the  min- 
isters present,  besides  Mr.  Allen  and  Mr.  Willard,  were  the  Rev. 
Increase  Mather  and  the  Rev.  Cotton  Mather,  of  the  North 
Church,  Boston,  the  Rev.  Samuel  Phillips,  and  the  Rev.  Edward 
Payson,  of  Rowley,  and  the  Rev.  Samuel  Torrey,  of  Weymouth. 
Dr.  Increase  Mather  was  moderator.  In  the  Result  Mr.  Parris 
was  effusively  praised,  as  is  sometimes  the  case  even  in  these 


COUNCIL   AT  SALEM    VILLAGE.  297 

days  when  an  unsuccessful  or  unpopular  minister  is  to  be  bowed 
out  of  his  parish.  The  first  and  last  paragraphs  of  the  paper, 
however,  in  which  the  council  gave  its  opinion,  with  all  their 
circumlocution,  and  with  all  the  qualifications  of  the  interven- 
ing sentences,  left  no  doubt  in  the  minds  of  the  parties  inter- 
ested as  to  what  the  judgment  of  the  representatives  of  the 
churches  really  was.     They  were  in  these  words  :  — 

I,  We  judge  that,  albeit  in  the  late  and  the  dark  time  of  the  confu- 
sions, wherein  Satan  had  obtained  a  more  than  ordinary  liberty  to  be 
sifting  of  this  plantation,  there  were  sundry  unwarrantable  and  uncom- 
fortable steps  taken  by  Mr.  Samuel  Parris,  the  pastor  of  the  church  in 
Salem  Village,  then  under  the  hurrying  distractions  of  amazing  afflic- 
tions ;  yet  the  said  Mr.  Parris,  by  the  good  hand  of  God  brought  unto 
a  better  sense  of  things,  hath  so  fully  expressed  it,  that  a  Christian 
charity  may  and  should  receive  satisfaction  therewith. 

VI.  If  the  distempers  in  Salem  Village  should  be  (which  God  for- 
bid !)  so  incurable,  that  Mr.  Parris,  after  all,  find  that  he  cannot,  with 
any  comfort  and  service,  continue  in  his  present  station,  his  removal 
from  thence  will  not  expose  him  unto  any  hard  character  with  us,  nor, 
we  hope,  with  the  rest  of  the  people  of  God  among  whom  we  live.1 

Mr.  Parris  did  not  vacate  his  pulpit  without  a  further  strug- 
gle, but  there  were  some  resolute  men  in  his  parish  to  whom 
at  length  he  had  to  yield.  Of  one  of  them  Mr.  Upham  says : 
"  His  dauntless  son  did  not  follow  the  wolf  through  the  deep 
and  dark  recesses  of  his  den  with  a  more  determined  resolution 
than  that  with  which  Joseph  Putnam  pursued  Samuel  Parris 
through  the  windings  of  the  law,  until  he  ferreted  him  out,  and 
rid  the  village  of  him  forever."  In  the  summer  of  1697,  the 
inferior  Court  of  Common  Pleas,  before  which  Mr.  Parris  cnr- 
ried  the  case,  ordered  that  the  matter  in  controversy  between 
him  and  the  inhabitants  of  Salem  Village  should  be  referred  to 
arbitrators  for  decision.  The  arbitrators  were  Wait  Winthrop, 
Elisha  Cooke,  and  Samuel  Sewall,  and  they  decided  that  a  cer- 
tain sum  for  arrearages  of  salary  and  for  his  right  and  interest 
in  the  ministerial  house  and  land  should  be  paid  to  Mr.  Parris, 
and  that  he  should  be  forthwith  dismissed.  The  parish  raised 
the  required  sum  with  great  alacrity,  we  are  told,  and  he  soon 
after  left  the  place.2 

1  [This  Result  is  printed  in  full,  with  Church,  in  Upham's  Salem    Witchcraft, 

the  signatures  of  the  council,  including  vol.  ii.  pp.  55 1— 553-] 

those  of  Mr.  Willard  and  Messrs.  Check-  2  The  Rev.  Deodat  Lawson  preached 

ley,  Walley,  and  Williams,  of  the  Third  for  a  time  at  Salem  Village,  and  a  ser- 


298  HISTORY  OF   THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

We  have  the  following  entries  upon  the  church  records,  and 
then  they  are  silent  for  nearly  four  years  :  — 

At  a  church  meeting  March  20.  1693-4, 

Voted  that  Captain  Sewal  and  Mr.  Theophilus  Frary,  be  empowered 
to  agree  with  the  relations,  or  executors  of  Mr.  Jno.  Sanforth,1  about  a 
certain  house  and  land,  bequeathed  by  said  Sanforth  to  the  South 
church ;  and  to  give  or  make  to  him  or  them  a  sufficient  conveyance 
of  any  title  which  this  Church  hath  of  claim  to  said  house  and  land 
by  vertue  of  such  will. 

Saml  Willard. 

At  a  church  meeting  June  10.  1694, 

Voted  that  the  one  half  of  the  long  seats  in  the  meeting  house  at 
the  west  end,  before  the  pews  of  Mr.  Bromfield  and  Mr.  Savage,  be 
altered  for  the  making  of  two  pews,  and  accordingly  disposed  of  by 
the  overseers  of  the  seats. 

Saml  Willard. 

Reports  of  incursions  by  the  hostile  Indians  reached  the  town 
from  time  to  time.  On  the  27th  of  July,  1694,  Groton  was 
again  attacked,  twenty-one  persons  were  killed,  and  thirteen 
were  carried  into  captivity.  On  the  23d  of  August  the  Third 
Church  kept  "  a  solemn  day  of  humiliation,"  and  Mr.  Willard 
preached  a  sermon,  which  was  printed  ;  his  subject  was  "  Refor- 
mation the  great  Duty  of  an  afflicted  People,  setting  forth  the 
Sin  and  Danger  there  is  in  Neglecting  of  it,  under  the  contin- 
ued and  repeated  Judgments  of  God."  Judge  Sewall  and  Major 
Penn  Townsend  had  gone  to  Albany  on  public  business. 

mon  of  his  (March  24.  1692  )  entitled  February  15,  1677.  "In  the  thors- 
Christ's  Fidelity  the  only  Shield  against  day  even  Mr.  Smith  of  Hingham  speaks 
Satan's  Malignity,  was  printed.  He  to  me  to  solicit  that  his  son,  and 
afterward  settled  at  Scituate,  as  the  third  my  former  Bedfellow,  Henry  Smith, 
minister  of  the  Second  Church  there.  He  might  obtain  Mr.  Sanfords  House  and 
became  a  member  of  the  Third  Church,  authority  therein  to  teach  School." 
Boston,  in  16S0,  and  continued  in  the  "  Friday  mom  Feb.  16.  I  go  to  Mrs. 
membership  until  he  moved  to  Scitu-  Sanford  and  (by  her  hint)  to  Mr.  Frary, 
ate.  Savage  says  that  if  he  had  joined  one  of  the  overseers,  who  gave  me  some 
the  Second  instead  of  the  Third  Church  encouragement,  and  said  that  within  a 
when  he  came  to  Boston,  there  would  day  or  two,  I  should  have  an  Answer, 
be  more  about  him  in  the  Magnolia.  Wrote  a  letter  to  Mr.  Smith  that  Frary 
1  [John  Sanford,  schoolmaster,  was  un-  had  given  an  encouraging  answer,  and 
doubtedly  a  member  of  the  church,  al-  that  I  thought  no  Delay  was  to  be  made 
though  his  name  does  not  appear  on  the  least  the  Scholars  should  be  lodged  else- 
register.  He  died  February  10,  1676-7,  where.  Feb.  18.  The  seats  full  of  Schol- 
and  provided  in  his  will  that  at  the  death  ars  brought  in  by  a  Stranger  who  took 
of  his  wife  his  house,  with  the  land  on  Mr.  Sanfords  place :  this  I  knew  not  of 
which  it  stood,  should  go  to  the  South  before."  (Sewall.)  Mrs.  Sanford  and 
Church.  Timothy  Wheeler  were  the  executors.] 


THE  REV.  BENJAMIN  WADS  WORTH.  299 

On  the  8th  of  September,  1696,  Mr.  Benjamin  Wadsworth 
was  ordained  and  installed  as  colleague  pastor  of  the  First 
Church.  He  was  the  third  with  whom  Mr.  Allen  was  associated 
in  his  long  pastorate,  and  there  was  to  be  a  fourth,  the  Rev. 
Thomas  Bridge.  Mr.  Allen  had  two  assistants  also,  Mr.  Moo- 
dey  and  Mr.  Bailey.  Mr.  Wadsworth  "was  inducted  by  the 
neighbouring  ministers,  with  a  formality  hitherto  unpractised  in 
the  land."  The  churches  invited  were  the  North  and  South  of 
Boston,  and  those  in  Charlestown,  Dorchester,  and  Roxbury. 

Septr  8.  Mr.  Benjn  Wadsworth  is  ordain'd  pastor  of  the  First 
Church.  Mr.  Allin  gave  the  charge,  Mr.  I.  Mather  gave  the  Right 
Hand  of  Fellowship  :  Spake  notably  of  some  young  men  who  had 
apostatized  from  New  England  principles,  contrary  to  the  Light  of 
their  education  :  was  glad  that  he  [Mr.  Wadsworth]  was  of  another 
spirit.  Mr.  Willard  was  one  who  joined  in  laying  on  of  hands. 
(Sewall.) 

A  few  days  later,  religious  services  were  held  by  the  authori- 
ties in  the  town-house,  with  special  reference  to  an  expedition 
which  had  just  been  sent  to  the  New  Hampshire  coast  against 
the  French.  Mr.  Willard  preached  the  sermon,  and  what  he 
said  in  reference  to  the  witchcraft  trials  doubtless  led  to  the  order 
for  the  public  fast  in  the  following  January,  to  which  we  have 
already  referred. 

September  16.  Keep  a  day  of  Prayer  in  the  East  end  of  the  Town- 
House,  Governor,  Council  and  Assembly.  Mr.  Morton  begun  with 
Prayer,  Mr.  Allin  pray'd,  Mr.  Willard  preached  —  If  God  be  with  us 
who  can  be  against  us? — Spake  smartly  at  last  about  the  Salem 
Witchcrafts,  and  that  no  order  had  been  suffer'd  to  come  forth  by 
Authority  to  ask  Gods  pardon.  Mr.  Torrey  pray'd,  Mr.  Moodey ; 
both  excellently :  All  pray'd  hard  for  the  persons  gon  forth  in  the 
expedition. 

October  3.  Mr.  Joseph  Baxter  lodges  here,  being  to  preach  for 
Mr.  Willard  on  the  Sabbath  :  Deacon  Frary  came  to  me  on  Friday  ; 
told  me  Mr.  Willard  put  him  upon  getting  help  on  the  fifth  day  at 
even,  because  disappointed  of  Mr.  [John]  Sparhawk.  He  sent  that 
even  to  Braintrey  ;  but  for  fear  of  failing  rode  thether  himself  on  Sixth- 
day  morn  and  secured  Him  :  After  the  meeting  at  Brother  Wheelers, 
came  and  told  me  of  it,  and  earnestly  proposed  to  me  that  He  might 
lodge  at  my  house  ;  which  I  thought  I  could  not  avoid  except  I  would 
shut  my  doors  against  one  of  Christ's  servants  \  which  I  also  inclin'd 
to,  only  was  afraid  lest  som  should  take  offence.  And  my  Library 
was  convenient  for  Him.1     (Sewall.) 

1  [Joseph  Baxter,  Harvard  College,  was  ordained  there  as  soon  as  he  came 
1693,  was  called  to  Medfield  in  1695,  and     or-  aSe»  m  '697 •] 


3oo 


HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD   SOUTH  CHURCH. 


The  South  Church  was  invited  at  this  time  to  the  formation 
of  a  church  at  Lexington,  then  called  Cambridge  North-Farms. 
The  pastor-designate,  the  Rev.  Benjamin  Estabrook,  was  Mr. 
Willard's  son-in-law. 

October  21.  A  church  is  gathered  at  Cambridge  North-farms  :  No 
Relations  made,  but  a  Covenant  sign'd  and  voted  by  ten  brethren 
dismiss'd  from  the  churches  of  Cambridge,  Watertovvn,  Woburn,  Con- 
cord for  this  work.  Being  declar'd  to  be  a  church,  they  chose  Mr. 
Benj.  Estabrooks  their  Pastor,  who  had  made  a  good  Sermon  from  Jer. 
3.  15.  Mr.  Estabrooks,  the  father,  managed  this,  having  pray'd  ex- 
cellently :  Mr.  Willard  gave  the  charge ;  Mr.  Fox  the  Right  Hand  of 
Fellowship.  Sung  part  of  the  4  Ps.  From  the  9th  verse  to  the  end, 
O  God,  our  Thoughts.  Mr.  Stone  and  Fisk  thanked  me  for  my  Assist- 
ance. Cambridge  was  sent  to  though  had  no  Teaching  officer ;  they 
sent  Elder  Clark,  Hasting  Remmington. 

Nov.  25.  Mr.  Wm.  Brattle  was  Ordained  at  Cambridge.  He  and 
Mr.  Mather,  the  President,  preached.  Twas  first  order'd  that  Mr. 
Brattle  should  not  preach,  but  many  being  troubled  at  it,  twas  after- 
ward altered.  Mr.  Brattle  also  procured  the  Church  to  order  that 
Elder  Clark  [the  ruling  elder]  should  not  lay  his  hand  on's  head  when 
he  was  ordain'd ;  and  he  refrain'd  accordingly.  So  that  Deacon  Gill 
coming  home,  said  he  liked  all  very  well  except  the  Bill  of  Exclusion.1 
(Sewall.) 


1  [Mr.  Brattle  owned  the  covenant  at 
the  Third  Church  in  1680,  the  year  of  his 
graduation,  became  a  communicant  in 
1684,  and  took  dismission  to  Cambridge. 


A  new  meeting-house  was  built  in  1706, 
and  Mr.  Brattle's  first  sermon  in  it  (Oc- 
tober 13)  was  from  the  text:  "Holiness 
becometh  thy  house,  O  Lord,  forever."] 


CHAPTER   VI. 

i 696-1 707. 

A     PROGRESSIVE     MOVEMENT. THE     PRESIDENCY    OF     HARVARD 

COLLEGE. 

MR.  WILLARD  had  been  minister  of  the  church  twenty 
years  ;  the  duties  of  the  pastorate  were  various  and 
exacting,  and  the  time  seemed  to  have  come  for  the  settlement 
of  a  colleague.  The  matter  had  been  under  consideration 
several  months,  and  Mr.  Willard  had  proposed  the  name  of  a 
young  man,  a  recent  graduate  of  Harvard  College  and  a  son  of 
James  Pemberton,  one  of  the  founders  of  the  church.  Some 
of  the  congregation  would  have  liked  to  give  a  call  to  the 
Rev.  John  Bailey,  who,  having  resigned  his  charge  at  Water- 
town,  was  preaching  with  Mr.  Allen  and  Mr.  Wadsworth  at  the 
First  Church.  He  had  preached  as  an  assistant  to  Mr.  Willard 
a  few  years  before,  and  was  much  beloved  by  the  people.  It 
was  well,  however,  that  the  choice  of  the  South  Church  did  not 
fall  upon  him  at  this  time,  for  he  died  on  the  12th  of  December, 
1697.  He  breathed  his  last  on  a  Sunday  afternoon  on  which  he 
was  to  have  occupied  Mr.  Willard's  pulpit.  He  had  begun  a 
sermon  from  the  text,  Ps.  xxxi.  5  :  "  Into  thy  hand  I  commit  my 
spirit,"  but  did  not  live  to  complete  it.  Cotton  Mather  took  the 
words  for  the  subject  of  his  funeral  discourse,  preached  a  few 
days  later  to  a  "great  assembly,  though  a  very  cold  day." 

The  Rev.  Simon  Bradstreet  had  also  been  thought  of  as  a 
colleague  for  Mr.  Willard.  He  was  a  grandson  of  the  governor 
of  the  same  name,  and  a  graduate  of  Harvard  College  in  the 
class  of  1693.  He  was  called  to  Charlestown,  as  the  successor 
of  Mr.  Morton,  and  was  ordained  there  October  26,  1698.1 

1  "  He  was  a  man  of  great  learning,  extempore,  and  pervaded  with  the  melan- 

strong  mind,  and  lively  imagination  ;  but  choly  which  attached  so  morbidly  to  his 

in  the  latter  part  of  his  life  became  so  own  mind.     His  style  of  preaching  was 

hypochondriacal  that  he   was   afraid  to  rather  practical  than  doctrinal — for  the 

preach  in  the  pulpit,  from  an  impression  most  part  upon  the  state  of  man  and  the 

that   he   should   die   there.      In    conse-  vanity  of  the  world ;  and  this,  together 

quence  of  this  he  delivered  his  sermons  with  his  fondness  for  Tillotson's  sermons, 

in  the  deacons' seat ;  they  were  generally  exposed  him  to  the  charge  of  Arminian- 


302  HISTORY  OF    THE   OLD   SOUTH  CHURCH. 

Mr.  Willard's  mind  seems  to  have  been  set  upon  Mr.  Pem- 
berton,  and  he  was  unable,  perhaps,  to  do  justice  to  the  quali- 
fications of  any  one  else.  As  it  was  a  colleague  and  not  a  suc- 
cessor who  was  to  be  settled,  he  was  entitled  to  consideration 
in  the  matter,  and  some  earnestness  on  his  part  may  well  be 
excused.  Judge  Sewall's  diary  gives  us  the  private  history  of 
what  was  said  and  done  at  this  juncture  : 1 

February  5.  1696-7  This  evening  Mr.  Willard,  [Edward]  Brom- 
field,  [John]  Eyre,  [Peter]  Sergeant,  [Theophilus]  Frary,  [James]  Hill, 
[Nathaniel]  Williams,  [Nathaniel]  Oliver,  [Samuel]  Checkly,  [Benja- 
min] Davis,  [John]  Wally,  [Simeon]  Stoddard,  met  at  my  house.  Mr. 
Willard  pray'd.  Then  discoursed  what  was  best  to  be  done  relating 
to  the  desires  of  some  for  a  meeting ;  whether  twere  best  to  call  one, 
or  no.  Mr.  Willard  shewed  his  resentments  of  the  disorderly  carriage 
in  striving  to  bring  in  Mr.  Bradstreet,  after  only  thrice  preaching,  and 
that  in  that  way,  he  should  not  be  settled  with  us  till  he  Mr.  W.  was 
in  his  Grave.  That  he  had  a  Negative,  and  was  not  only  a  Moderator. 
Shew'd  his  dislike  of  the  Person  and  his  Preaching,  inferiour  to  the 
ministerial  Gifts  of  others.  Before  the  Meeting  broke  up,  I  said  his 
Preaching  was  very  agreeable  to  me,  I  thought  not  of  him,  had  no 
hand  in  bringing  him  to  preach,  had  prejudices  against  him,  was  ready 
to  start  at  first  when  any  spake  of  fixing  on  him ;  yet  as  often  as  he 
preached,  he  came  nearer  and  nearer  to  me.  Spake  this  chiefly 
because  all  that  Mr.  Willard  had  said  of  Mr.  Bradstreet,  had  been 
exceedingly  undervaluing  :  and  because  Mr.  Willard  said  no  body  had 
been  with  him  to  speak  to  him  about  Mr.  Bradstreet  but  Mr.  Stoddard. 
Mr.  Oliver  said  if  Mr.  Willard  were  so  averse,  had  rather  let  it  rest. 
Sometimes  said  were  now  ready  for  a  new  Meeting-house.  Some,  Let 
us  call  Mr.  Bailey.  At  last  agreed  to  mention  the  matter  to  the 
church  after  the  Afternoon  Exercise. 

Sunday  February  7.  Mr.  Willard  recapitulats  how  long  he  had 
been  our  Pastor;  near  20.  years;  and  near  18.  years  alone,  had  to  his 

ism.     He  seldom,  if  ever,  appeared  with         Mr.    Bradstreet    died    December    31, 

a  coat,  but  always  wore  a  plaid  gown,  1741,  aged  72. 

and  was  commonly  seen  with  a  pipe  in         *  Writing  to  Governor    Partridge,  at 

his  mouth.     But   it  was  principally  for  Portsmouth,  January  7,  1696-7,  Sewall 

his  classical  attainments  that  Mr.  Brad-  said  :  — 

street  was  distinguished ;  and  in  illustra-         "  Tis  God  who    has  sent   you  to  the 

tion  of  this,  an  anecdote  is  told  of  him,  Province   of   Newhampshire,  and  there 

that  when  introduced  to  Governor  Bur-  He  has  given  you  a  Day :  how  long  or 

net,  who  was  himself  a  fine  scholar,  it  how  short,  He  only  knows  :  Our  concern 

was  said  of  him  by  Lieutenant-Governor  is  to  work  the  works  of  Him  that  sent 

Tailer,  who  introduced  him,  '  Here  is  a  us  while  the  day  lasts.     Mr.  Willard  has 

man  who  can  whistle  Greek.' "  —  Buding-  on  many  Lords  Days  been  exorting  his 

ton's  History  of  the  First  Church,  Charles-  Congregation  from  those  words  Jno  9. 4., 

town,  pp.  113,  114.  which  brought  them  now  to  my  mind." 


THE  REV.   SIMON  BRADSTREET.  303 

measure  served  God  faithfully,  was  desirous  of  Help,  lay  not  in  him, 
yet  had  none ;  if  what  he  propounded  more  than  a  year  ago  had  been 
attended,  might  have  made  for  the  glory  of  God.  Ask'd  if  now  were 
ready  to  pitch  on  any ;  if  were,  then  must  have  a  Fast.  None  speaks  ; 
at  last  Capt.  Ephr.  Savage  desired  might  meet  in  som  dwelling  house, 
many  were  there  present  which  were  not  of  us.  Mr.  Willard  assented, 
and  on  Mr.  Sergeant's  motion,  appointed  to  meet  at  his  house  15. 
Inst,  at  2.  p  m.  When  at  our  house,  some  said  Charlestown  being 
before  us,  to  call  a  Fast  after  they  had  call'd  Mr.  Bradstreet  would  be 
evil  spoken  of  :  the  person  of  their  desires  being  gon.  Some  said  that 
Fasting  now  at  Charlestown  and  here  was  but  a  Trick  ;  not  just  so  : 
but  tending  that  way.  Mr.  Willard  said  Charlestown  would  be  before 
us,  do  what  we  could ;  and  if  they  call'd  him  'twas  not  fit  for  us  to 
meddle  till  he  had  given  his  Answer :  som  look'd  at  this  as  Artifice 
in  the  Ministers  to  prevent  the  South  Church.  For  when  Mr.  Willard 
propounded  Mr.  Pemberton  by  name,  1695,  No  Fast  preceded.  If 
Mr.  Willard  had  not  so  propounded,  believe  the  thing  had  been  issued 
at  that  time :  but  many  look'd  on  it  as  an  Imposition  and  tending  to 
infringe  their  Liberty  of  choice.  I  had  been  with  Mr.  Willard  the  day 
before,  and  told  him  some  scruples  that  I  was  not  just  ready  to  act 
till  had  enquired  further. 

February  9.  I  visit  Mr.  Willard  :  spake  with  him  after  he  began, 
about  our  conference  last  sixth  day,  told  him  the  reason  of  my  speak- 
ing as  I  did ;  because  had  heard  he  should  say,  I  forc'd  the  Church 
Meeting :  whereas  I  intended  not  so ;  but  as  we  had  engaged  silence, 
I  told  him  my  heart ;  as  I  said  I  always  did  when  he  confer'd  with  me 
and  enquired  of  me  in  such  cases.  He  said  was  sorry  he  propounded 
Mr.  Pemberton  as  he  did.  Seem'd  to  resent  my  saying ;  That  the 
Negative  was  a  high  point,  and  better  not  to  talk  of  it  then  (which  at 
the  conference)  term'd  it  a  check,  I  think  parted  good  friends.  Much 
vilified  Mr.  Bradstreet ;  hardly  allowed  him  any  thing  but  a  Memory, 
and  the  Greek  Tongue,  with  a  Little  poesy.  I  said  what  shall  Charles- 
town doe  ?     Answer  was,  Let  them  do  as  they  please.     (Sewall.) 

Here  the  journal  fails  us  for  a  time,  and  we  know  of  no 
further  action  until  a  year  and  a  half  later.1 

Sixth-day,  October  14.  1698.  Church  Meeting  at  the  South  church. 
Put  in  votes  for  election  of  a  minister  Mr.  Ebenezer  Pemberton 
had  Thirty  seven  votes,  and  Mr.  Jabez  Fitch,  Twenty  three.     I  think 

1  Not  to  break  the  course  of  the  nar-  very  convenient;    A   living    Brook  run- 

rative,    we    quote    here    from    Sewall's  ning  by  it ;    and  throw  Mr.  Baxters." 

Diary  as   follows  :  —  This  was  in  Medfield,  and  had  been  the 

Sept.  17.  1697.     "  I  view  Mr.  Baxters  homestead  of  Capt.  Frary's  father.     Mr. 

House    and  the     Orchard    Capt    Frary  Baxter  had  been  ordained  five  months 

hath  given   to  the  Ministry,  which  lies  before.  —  Hist,  of  Medfield,  pp.  105-108. 


304  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

Mr.  Oliver  and  Davis  did  not  vote.  In  the  Nomination  September, 
30,  Mr.  Fitch  had  Thirty  six,  and  Mr.  Pemberton  Twenty  one. 
(Sewall.) 

During  the  fortnight  which  succeeded  the  nomination,  a  good 
deal  of  work  had  been  done  among  the  brethren,  as  we  judge, 
in  the  interest  of  Mr.  Pemberton.  Mr.  Fitch,  who  had  won  the 
hearts  of  so  many,  was  son  of  the  Rev.  James  Fitch,  of  Norwich, 
Connecticut,  a  graduate  at  Cambridge  in  the  class  of  1694,  and 
on  the  resignation  of  Mr.  Hubbard,  at  Ipswich,  he  accepted  an 
invitation  to  settle  there.1  Mr.  Pemberton  received  at  length  a 
hearty  call  from  the  Third  Church,  but  not  until  another  year 
and  more  had  passed.2  There  was  no  imperative  need  for  im- 
mediate action,  and  it  was  better  to  wait  than  to  force  an  issue 
while  the  church  was  so  divided  in  its  preferences. 

A  party  of  progress  was  at  this  time  coming  into  prominence 
in  the  churches  of  Eastern  Massachusetts,  of  which  we  shall 
speak  presently.  It  is  worthy  of  notice  that  the  three  young 
men  who  had  been  especially  thought  of  in  connection  with  the 
colleagueship  at  the  Third  Church,  Mr.  Pemberton,  Mr.  Brad- 
street,  and  Mr.  Fitch,  were  all  identified  with  it. 

We  have  already  had  evidence  that  the  church  maintained 
the  purity  of  its  membership  and  the  orderly  administration  of 
its  affairs  by  the  exercise  of  a  vigorous  discipline,  and  by  the 
enforcement  of  the  ecclesiastical  penalties  authorized  by  the 
Cambridge  Platform.  The  first  record  which  details  the  vari- 
ous steps  taken  in  dealing  with  a  refractory  member  relates  to 
Roger  Judd,3  who  had  withdrawn  in  an  irregular  way  from  the 

1  He  was  ordained  at  Ipswich,  as  col-  at  Cambridge.  In  a  record  left  by  Mr. 
league  with  the  Rev.  John  Rogers,  Oc-  Morton,  it  is  said :  "  On  this  day,  Feb. 
tober  24,  1703,  but  as  he  did  not  receive  II.  1697,  we  had  a  public  fast ;  Mr.  Wil- 
a  sufficient  support,  he  moved  to  Ports-  lard  and  myself  preaching  and  other 
mouth,  N.  H.,  and  was  installed  there  ministers  assisting  in  prayer."  At  this 
in  1724.  He  died  November  22,  1746,  service,  a  committee  representing  both 
in  his  seventy-fifth  year.  Felt  says  of  the  church  and  the  inhabitants  was 
him  :  "  His  mind  was  strong  and  richly  chosen,  and  Mr.  Pemberton  would  prob- 
stored  with  learning.  His  heart  was  ably  have  received  a  second  call,  if  it  had 
swayed  by  benevolent  affections,  and  not  been  understood  that  he  would  de- 
eminently  sanctified  by  the  Spirit  of  cline  it,  if  given.  "  Major  part  of  the 
grace.  His  life  was  long,  not  only  as  to  Boston  ministers  advised  to  the  choice  of 
years,  but  also  as  to  usefulness."  Mr.  Pemberton  ;  "  but  Mr.  Willard,  no 

2  The  church  in  Charlestown  had  been  doubt,  was  still  hoping  to  bring  him  to 
very  desirous  to  settle  Mr.  Pemberton  as  the  South  Church.  Mr.  Bradstreet  was 
colleague  pastor  with  Mr.  Morton.  It  ordained  as  the  eighth  minister  of  the 
gave  him  a  call  in  November,  1694,  but  Charlestown  church,  October  26,  1698. 
he  was  then  very  young,  only  twenty-two,  3  Roger  Judd  seems  to  have  been  em- 
and  he  preferred  to  remain  in  residence  ployed  in  some  dependent  position  by 


ROGER  JUDD'S  CASE.  305 

communion  of  the  church,  had  treated  it  and  its  minister  with 
marked  disrespect,  and  had  connected  himself  with  the  congre- 
gation worshipping  in  King's  Chapel.  Judge  Sewall  says  in  his 
journal,  June  8,  1688  :  "in  the  Even,  Capt.  Hill  and  I  discourse 
with  Roger  Judd  and  Mrs.  Willey."  King's  Chapel  was  com- 
pleted at  or  near  that  time,  and  if  the  conversation,  as  we  sup- 
pose, had  reference  to  the  irregularity  for  which  Judd  came 
under  discipline  more  than  ten  years  afterward,  the  church  was 
certainly  very  patient  in  dealing  with  him.  Of  Mrs.  Willey  we 
know  nothing  ;  her  name  does  not  appear  on  the  register  of  the 
church,  and  there  is  no  other  reference  to  her  in  the  journal. 
Mr.  Willard's  statement  of  Roger  Judd's  case  is  as  follows  :  — 

At  a  meeting  of  the  Church  Jan.  22  i6g8[-9J 

Roger  Jud  was  called  for,  and  not  appearing,  his  case  was  repre- 
sented, as  followeth. 

On  Octobr  15  1698.  Having  bin  informed  that  our  Brother  Roger 
Jud  was  resolved  to  desert  this  Church,  on  some  disgust  taken,  I  re- 
quested Deacon  Frary  and  Deacon  Williams,  to  signify  to  him,  how 
disorderly  it  would  be  for  him  so  to  do  :  and,  the  sacrament  being  to 
be  administred  the  next  day,  and  some  brethren  having  bin  dissatis- 
fied at  somthing  of  his  carriage  at  a  meeting  of  the  Church,  somtime 
before,  I  desired  them  to  tell  him  from  me,  that  there  was  no  scandall 
alledged  against  him,  so  as  that  the  Church  would  renounce  commu- 
nion with  him  ;  to  which,  they  report  that  he  answered,  that  if  the 
Church  did  not  renounce  Communion  with  him,  he  renounced  it  with 
them,  and  would  come  at  them  no  more ;  or  words  to  that  purpose. 
He  accordingly  withdrew  from  the  Communion,  and  ceased  from  as- 
sembling with  us  in  the  publick  worship  of  God  for  a  considerable 
time  :  and  I  had  reports  that  hee  pretended  Reasons  that  carried  mat- 
ter of  Scandall  in  them.  I  thereupon  thought  it  a  duty  to  enquire  into 
it,  and  accordingly  desired  that  he  might  be  warned  to  meet  me  at 
Capt.  Sewals  on  Deer  13.  Capt.  Sewal  was  desired  to  notify  it  to 
him,  and  reports  that  he  refused  it,  but  said  that  he  would  tarry  at 
home  till  the  time  appointed,  that  if  I  had  anything  to  say  to  him,  I 
might  come  to  his  house  and  have  opportunity  :  but  as  to  my  author- 
ity to  enquire  as  an  officer,  he  acknowledged  it  not  nor  would  comply 
with  it.  I  went  at  the  time  appointed,  and  Deacon  Frary  met  us 
there,  whom  I  desired  to  call  him,  and  to  acquaint  that  if  I  had  any 
personall  offense  against  him,  it  was  my  duty  to  come  to  him,  but  I 
had  none,  but  it  was  a  publick  scandall,  in  which  the  Church  was  con- 
cerned, and  it  belonged  to  mine  office,  that  I  should  enquire  into  it, 
for  which  reason   I  called  for  him.     The  Answer  returned  by  Mr. 

Judge  Sewall,  who  frequently  mentions  1690,  and  became  the  sexton  of  King's 
his  name.     He  was  made  a  freeman  in     Chapel  in  1701. 


306  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

Frary's  report  was,  that  his  house  was  his  castle ;  if  I  had  anything 
to  say,  I  might  come ;  but  it  must  be  alone  ;  and  if  I  brought  any 
with  me,  he  would  not  speak  to  me,  but  as  for  coming  to  me,  as  an 
officer,  he  should  not,  for  he  neither  acknowledged  me  to  be  so  to 
him,  nor  the  Church  of  which  I  was,  to  have  anything  to  do  with  him. 
On  this  I  sent  for  Brother  J.  Wheeler,  and  desired  him  to  go  with 
Deacon  Frary,  and  deliver  the  same  message  to  him  ;  who  went  and 
returned  with  the  same  answer.  Whereupon  I  thought  it  necessary 
to  refer  it  to  the  cognizance  of  the  Church,  and  accordingly  desired 
Capt.  Savage  and  Capt.  Checkly,  on  Jan.  17.  to  warn  him  to  appear 
before  you  this  clay,  except  he  would  the  next  day,  Jan.  18.  come  to 
Captain  Sewals,  on  a  private  enquiry :  who  were  no  better  treated, 
as  they  say,  but  all  was  refused  by  him. 

Roger  Jud,  not  appearing  to  make  any  reply  to  these  allegations, 
and  the  brethren  mentioned  giving  their  Testimony  to  the  severall  Al- 
legations forementioned ;  I  gave  my  sense  of  the  case  in  the  follow- 
ing words. 

The  matter  of  Offense,  is  not  his  going  off  from  this  Church  ;  for 
wee  acknowledge  there  is  a  lawfulness  to  do  so,  provided  it  bee  or- 
derly ;  but  the  manner  of  it.  I  know  none  of  any  persuasion,  but 
who  reckon  that  there  is  a  Discipline  appointed  by  Christ  in  his 
Churches  :  and  a  person  who  is  orderly  become  a  member  of  one 
Church,  is  lyable  to  be  proceeded  with  in  way  of  Discipline  in  that 
Church  till  he  orderly  removes  his  immediate  relation  to  another.  I 
know  no  Church  that  will  admit  a  member  of  another  Church  which 
they  hold  Communion  withall,  who  renounceth  Communion  with  the 
Church  he  was  of,  and  asks  it  of  those,  till  they  have  enquired  into 
the  matter.  I  never  did  determine  the  nature  of  the  offense  which 
this  Brother  was  called  to  Answer  for,  but  only  intended  to  enquire 
into  it,  that  the  Scandall  might  be  removed,  according  to  the  order 
of  the  Gospel.  I  determine  that  whether  the  Scandall  foregoing 
were  just,  or  only  taken,  yet  the  man  that  by  Contumacy  utterly 
refuseth  to  comply  with  the  Gospel  orders,  and  instead  of  that  re- 
nounceth all  the  authority  to  which  he  before  submitted  himself  sol- 
emnly, of  his  own  accord  and  desire,  is  under  the  qualification  Matt 
18.  that  hee  will  not  hear  the  Church,  and  accordingly  to  bee  looked  on 
as  an  Heathen  and  publican,  and  when  patience  and  lenity  hath  bin 
used  with  him  ;  if  he  persists  and  grows  more  resolute  in  it,  he  deserves 
to  be  put  from  the  Communion  of  such  a  Church  :  and  if  no  act  pass 
of  this  nature,  hee  may  at  pleasure  come  and  communicate  at  the  Lords 
Table  with  us,  which  cannot  but  be  an  offense  to  all  that  rightly  un- 
derstand the  case. 

The  summe  of  the  offense  is,  that  having  declared  his  renouncing 
Communion  with  this  Church  and  accordingly  deserted  it,  he  refused 
to  give  an  account  of  it,  when  orderly  Called  to  it,  and  declared  that 


CASES  OF  CHURCH  DISCIPLINE.  307 

he  neither  owned  himself  subject  to  the  minister  nor  the   Church, 
which  amounts  to  contumacy. 

It  was  hereupon  voted  and  consented  to,  that  for  this  offense,  our 
Brother  Roger  Jud  be  put  from  the  Communion  of  this  Church,  and 
made  incapable  of  fellowship  in  all  the  Ordinances  of  the  Gospel 
with  them,  till  God  shall  give  him  repentance 

Which  sentence  was  accordingly  declared,  by  me, 

Saml  Willard  Teacher. 

This  admirable  statement  might  well  be  commended  to  those 
in  our  own  day,  who,  having  changed  their  principles  or  their 
preferences,  turn  their  back  upon  covenant  obligations  solemnly 
undertaken  in  past  years,  and  join  themselves  to  a  new  denomi- 
nation before  they  have  received  regular  dismission  from  the  old 
one.  Judd's  excuse  to  Judge  Sewall  was  that  he  had  come  into 
the  church  (in  1684)  by  the  importunity  of  Deacon  Eliot  and 
others,  and  that  now  "twas  his  conscience  to  go  to  the  Church 
of  England."  If  his  conscience  had  been  as  quick  in  the  recog- 
nition of  the  rights  of  his  Christian  brethren  as  in  the  appre- 
hension and  assertion  of  his  own,  he  would  have  conformed  to 
the  rules  to  which  he  had  subjected  himself,  and  the  transfer  of 
his  membership  to  another  denomination  could  have  been  ac- 
complished without  friction  and  without  reproach. 

Sabbath-day  Jany  22,  Brother  Roger  Judd  is  cast  out  of  the  Church 
for  his  contumacy  in  refusing  to  hear  the  Church,  and  his  contemp- 
tuous behaviour  against  the  same,  and  Mr.  Willard  the  Pastor.  Re- 
fus'd  to  be  there.     (Sewall.) 

Three  other  instances  of  discipline  are  recorded  immediately 
after  the  statement  of  Roger  Judd's  case  :  — 

At  a  church  meeting  June  12  1698,  Rebekah  B.  was  admonished  and 
suspended  for  an  habitual  excess  in  drinking. 
At  a  church  meeting  Jan.  21.  1699 
Deliverance  Pollard,  now  Wright,  was  restored. 
At  a  church  meeting  Febr.  16.  1700 
Sara  W.  was  admonished  and  suspended  for  fornication. 

A  blank  page  intervenes  in  the  record  book,  and  then  the 
following  entries  appear  :  — 

At  a  Church  meeting,  Jan  24  1699. 

Then  was  the  Honoured  John  Walley  esquire,  and  Capt.  Saml 
Checkly,  chosen  to  joyn  in  the  Oversight  of  the  Seats  in  the  meeting 
house,  with  the  Honoured  Wait  Still  Winthrop,  Samuel  Sewall  and 
Peter  Sergeant  esq'rs. 


308  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

At  a  Church  meeting,  Febr.  13  1699. 

Then  it  was  proposed  : 

That  there  be  liberty  to  make  three  pews  in  the  room  of  the  two 
long  seats,  and  to  take  in  part  of  the  Alley. 

That  there  be  liberty  to  make  pews  at  the  end  mens  and  womens 
seats,  taking  away  only  one  of  the  seats,  with  some  small  addition 
from  the  Alleys.  The  womens  seats  not  to  be  medled  with,  unless 
those  that  are  now  seated  be  satisfactorily  provided  for. 

Voted,  that  it  be  left  to  the  discretion  of  the  Overseers  of  the  Seats 
to  act  as  they  judge  convenient  in  regard  of  the  forecited  proposalls. 

On  the  first  Monday  in  June,  1699,  Mr.  Willard  preached  the 
sermon  before  the  Ancient  and  Honorable  Artillery  Company, 
and  John  Walley  was  for  the  second  time  chosen  captain.1  Lord 
Bellomont  dined  with  the  company  at  George  Monk's,  and 
afterward  delivered  the  commissions.  He  had  recently  arrived 
in  Boston,  having  spent  a  year  in  New  York,  which,  with  Mas- 
sachusetts and  New  Hampshire,  constituted  his  government. 

We  have  said  that  a  party  of  progress  was  coming  into  prom- 
inence at  this  time  in  eastern  Massachusetts.  It  consisted  for 
the  most  part  of  the  younger  men,  both  ministers  and  laymen  ; 
and  its  purpose  was  to  secure  certain  changes,  not  in  doctrinal 
statement,  but  in  the  administration  of  church  affairs.  The 
proposed  changes,  as  we  look  back  upon  them,  seem  slight  and 
unimportant ;  they  related  chiefly  to  the  method  of  admitting 
members  to  the  church,  and  to  the  reading  of  the  Scriptures, 
without  comment,  in  the  public  services  of  the  Lord's  Day. 
The  real  significance  of  the  movement,  however,  was  an  earnest 
desire  for  more  liberty  in  the  study  and  interpretation  of  the 
Word  of  God,  and  for  a  broader  and  richer  religious  life.  The 
men  who  resisted  it  were  led  by  the  Mathers,  father  and  son, 
and  the  personality  and  leadership  of  those  able  and  energetic 
and  ambitious  men  were,  perhaps,  quite  as  much  the  issue  in 
the  controversies  that  followed  as  the  changes  which  were  aimed 
at  in  the  government  and  worship  of  the  churches.  The  move-, 
ment  began  in  Harvard  College,  of  which  Dr.  Increase  Mather 
was  then  the  president.  John  Leverett  and  Ebenezer  Pember- 
ton  were  tutors  ;  Thomas  Brattle  was  treasurer,  and  his  brother, 
the  Rev.  William  Brattle,  was  minister  of  the  Cambridge 
church.  President  Mather  furnished  an  Epistle  Dedicatory 
addressed  "  to  the  church  in  Cambridge,  and  to  the  students  in 

1  John   Walley  had  been    captain    in     time  in  1707.     He  was  also  a  councillor 
1679,  ar,d  he  was  chosen  for  the  third     and  judge. 


DR.    MATHER'S  ATTACK  ON  THE    TUTORS. 


309 


the  college  there,"  for  a  Life  of  Jonathan  Mitchell  written  by 
his  son,  and  he  availed  himself  of  the  opportunity  to  extol 
particularly  and  pointedly  Mr.  Mitchell's  opinions  with  regard 
to  the  forms  to  be  used  in  the  admission  of  members  to  the 
church.  He  said  :  "  To  admit  persons  to  partake  of  the  Lord's 
Supper  without  any  examination  of  the  work  of  grace  in  the 
heart,  would  be  a  real  apostasy  and  degeneracy  from  the 
churches  of  New  England."  The  "examination"  insisted  upon 
was  a  public  one,  —  some  "  practical  confession,  or  some  rela- 
tion of  the  work  of  conversion."  x  He  reminded  his  readers 
of  the  many  countries  and  places,  which,  after  possessing  a 
faithful  ministry,  had  become,  through  "  young  profane  mockers, 
and  scornful  neuters,  overgrown  with  thorns  and  nettles,  so  that 
the  glory  of  the  Lord  had  gradually  departed."  "  Mercy  forbid," 
said  he,  "that  such  things  should  be  verified  in  Cambridge." 
As  Mr.  Mitchell  had  once  been  a  tutor  in  the  college,  the  pres- 
ident went  out  of  his  way  to  commend  his  example  to  "  the 
tutors,"  and  praying  that  they  might  have  wisdom  to  follow  it, 
he  solemnly  warned  them  not  to  "  become  degenerate  plants,  or 
prove  themselves  apostate." 


1  As  an  example  of  a  written  "  rela- 
tion," we  print  the  following,  which  was 
presented  by  a  granddaughter  of  Major 
\V alley,  when  she  was  admitted  to  the 
Third  Church  in  1744.  She  was  then 
twenty  years  of  age,  and  she  died  four 
years  later. 

"  I  desire  to  be  humbly  thankfull,  that 
God  has  favoured  me  beyond  such  Mul- 
titudes of  my  Fellow  Creatures,  by  or- 
dering my  Birth  in  a  Land,  where  the 
joyfull  Sound  of  the  Gospel  is  heard, 
where  I  have  been  early  baptized  and 
religiously  educated;  but  I  would  be 
deeply  humbled,  that  I  have  forgotten 
my  Covenant-Obligations,  that  I  have 
been  so  often  deaf  to  the  Calls  of  God 
in  his  Word  and  Providence,  and  that  I 
have  so  often  resisted  the  Strivings  of 
his  Holy  Spirit.  I  hope  God  has  dis- 
cover'd  to  me  my  Sinfull  Miserable  Con- 
dition by  Nature  and  by  Practice,  and 
Convinced  me  that  Eternal  Punishment 
is  my  just  Desert;  But  blessed  be  his 
holy  Name,  that  he  has  found  out  a  Way 
for  the  Recovery  of  Lost  Sinners,  even 
by  sending  his  Son  Jesus  Christ  to  save 
them.  I  hope  God  has  enabled  me  by 
Faith  to  fly  to  this  only  Saviour  and  to 


trust  in  his  perfect  Righteousness  alone 
for  Justification  and  Salvation,  and  I 
hope  I  am  willing  that  Christ  should 
teach  and  Rule  me,  as  well  as  save  me 
[And  I  hope  that  Looking  to  Jesus,  I 
mourn  for  my  Sins,  and  am  willing  to 
turn  from  them  to  God  by  Jesus  Christ.] 

"  I  have  had  Desires  for  some  Time 
to  come  to  the  Lord's  Table,  but  have 
been  kept  back  by  Fears  of  Coming  un- 
worthily ;  but  the  ill  State  of  health  in 
which  I  have  lately  been,  I  hope  has 
been  a  Means  of  quickening  me  in  this 
Matter ;  and  Many  places  of  Scripture 
have  encouraged  me,  particularly  that 
Passage  in  14.  Luk.  21.  Bring  in  hither 
the  poor  and  the  Maimed  and  the  halt 
and  the  blind.  I  hope  it  is  from  some 
Degree  of  Love  to  Christ,  that  I  now 
desire  to  obey  his  dying  Command,  Do 
this  in  Remembrance  of  me ;  and  in  so 
doing  I  desire  to  depend  on  him  alone 
both  for  Strength  and  Righteousness. 

"  I  humbly  offer  myself  to  your  Com- 
munion, asking  your  prayrs  for  me,  that 
I  may  bring  forth  much  of  that  Fruit, 
whereby  God  may  be  glorified,  and  so 
adorn  this  my  Profession. 

"  Bethiah  W ALLEY." 


310  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

"  The  time,  manner,  and  language  of  this  publication  could 
not  but  have  been  deeply  offensive  to  the  Brattles,  Leverett,  and 
Pemberton.  Under  the  mask  of  advice,  it  was  a  reproof  given 
to  them  before  the  students  of  the  college  and  the  world,  with 
an  evident  design,  in  connection  with  their  known  opinions,  to 
load  them  with  the  reproach  of  degeneracy  and  apostasy."  An 
address  "  thus  personal  and  magisterial  "  naturally  strengthened 
the  purpose  of  the  tutors  to  identify  themselves  with  those  "  who 
were  preparing  to  vindicate  their  right  to  construe  the  Scrip- 
tures for  themselves,  and  no  longer  to  subscribe  to  the  infallibility 
of  the  authors  of  the  Cambridge  Platform."  x  Thomas  Brattle,  a 
man  of  large  wealth,  took  the  lead  in  organizing  a  new  church 
in  Boston,  land  was  purchased  in  what  was  afterward  called  Brat- 
tle Square,  and  the  building  of  a  meeting-house  was  begun.  Of 
this  meeting-house  it  has  been  said :  "  It  was  a  simple  house, 
but  its  erection  marked  an  advance  in  freedom  of  opinion,  and 
especially  in  the  practical  expression  of  opinion."  A  call  was 
extended  to  Benjamin  Colman,  a  graduate  of  the  college  in  the 
class  of  1692,  and  a  member  of  the  Second  Church  in  Boston, 
—  the  church  of  the  Mathers, — who  had  been  preaching  for 
some  time  in  England,  under  the  authority  of  the  London  Pres- 
bytery. He  accepted  the  call,  and  before  embarking  for  home, 
at  the  suggestion  of  his  friends  here,  he  obtained  ordination 
from  that  presbytery.  "This  invitation,"  he  wrote,  "was  ac- 
cepted by  me,  and  the  more  acceptable  it  was,  by  reason  of  the 
kind  and  encouraging  letters  which  accompanied  it  from  my 
excellent  friends,  the  Hon.  John  Leverett,  the  Rev.  William 
Brattle,  Ebenezer  Pemberton,  Simon  Bradstreet,  and  others."2 

Mr.  Colman  arrived  in  Boston  on  the  1st  of  November,  1699, 
and  immediately  began  to  preach  in  the  new  house  of  worship. 
On  the  17th,  a  declaration  of  principles,  or  "manifesto,"  was 
published  by  those  who  were  about  to  organize  the  new  church, 
in  reply  to  some  severe  attacks  which  had  been  made  upon  them. 

1  Quincy's  Hist,  of  Harv.  Univ.,  vol.  i.  The  gentlemen  who  solicit  your  return 
pp.  129,  130.  are  mostly  known  to  you,  —  men  of  re- 

2  Mr.  Pemberton  wrote  to  Mr.  Col-  pure  and  figure,  from  whom  you  may 
man,  his  contemporary  for  three  years  in  expect  generous  treatment ;  and  among 
college :  —  them  I  doubt  not  but   you  may  be  pe- 

"  With  this  you  will  receive  a  kind  in-  culiarly   serviceable   to  the    Lord   Jesus 

vitation  to  return  to  your  own  country,  Christ,  which  is  the  height  of  your  am- 

which  you  cannot  but  have  a  great  ten-  bition.      I   believe  your   return   will   be 

derness  for,  and  your  affection  I  trust  pleasing  to  all  friends  of  religion.     I  am 

will  constrain  you  to  comply,  and  hope  sure  it  will  be  inexpressibly  so  to  your 

it   will   not   be    to    your    disadvantage,  unfeigned  friend  and  servant." 


BRATTLE  STREET   CHURCH.  31 1 

They  proposed  no  deviation  in  the  form  of  worship  from  the 
existing  practice,  except  in  respect  to  the  reading  of  the  Scrip- 
tures from  the  pulpit  without  comment,  which  hitherto  had 
not  been  allowed  in  the  churches  of  the  established  order  in 
New  England.  They  declared  that  they  approved  of  and  sub- 
scribed to  "  the  Confession  of  Faith  put  forth  by  the  Assembly 
of  Divines  at  Westminster,"  and  that  they  designed  only  "the 
true  and  pure  worship  of  God,  according  to  the  rules  plainly 
appearing  to  them  in  his  word."  They  said,  further,  that  it  was 
their  "  sincere  desire  and  intention  to  hold  communion  with  the 
churches  here  as  true  churches."  They  protested  against  "all 
suspicion  and  jealousy  to  the  contrary,  as  most  injurious  "  to 
themselves;  and  they  added:  "Although  in  some  circum- 
stances, we  may  vary  from  many  of  them,  yet  jointly  profess  to 
maintain  such  order  and  rules  of  discipline  as  may  preserve,  so 
far  as  in  us  lies,  evangelical  purity,  and  holiness  in  our  commu- 
nion." The  two  propositions  which  were  most  at  variance  with 
the  practice  of  the  time  were :  — 

We  judge  it  fitting  and  expedient  that  whoever  would  be  admitted 
to  partake  with  us  in  the  Holy  Sacrament  be  accountable  to  the  pas- 
tor, to  whom  it  belongs  to  inquire  into  their  knowledge  and  spiritual 
state,  and  to  require  the  renewal  of  their  baptismal  covenant.  But  we 
assume  not  to  ourselves,  to  impose  upon  any  a  public  relation  of  their 
experiences. 

Finally,  we  cannot  confine  the  right  of  choosing  a  minister  to  the 
communicants  alone ;  but  we  think  that  every  baptized  adult  person, 
who  contributes  to  the  maintenance,  should  have  a  vote  in  electing. 

Judge  Sewall's  diary  throws  much  light  upon  what  now  took 
place  :  — 

Dec  9.  Mr.  Colman  visits  me  :  I  expostulat  with  him  about  the  3d 
Article  in  the  Manifesto,  that  had  shew'd  no  more  respect  to  N.  E. 
Churches.  I  told  him  Christ  was  a  Bride-Groom,  and  He  lov'd  to 
have  his  Bride  commended.  Philomela  would  have  found  out  some 
words  :  at  which  he  smil'd.1  He  satisfied  me  as  to  Baptisme  and  said 
the  word  [Adopted]  was  left  out.  I  told  him  he  was  the  more  in 
danger,  and  had  need  to  be  more  upon  his  Guard  ;  lest  any  hard  sharp 
words  he  had  met  with  should  tempt  him  to  do  what  he  intended  not. 
Warn'd  him  of  the  Cross  in  Baptisme  &c  Said  he  was  of  our  mind. 
Because  I  told  him  meerly  saying  Cojiform,  did  not  express  such  an 
Approbation  of  the  N.  E.  way  as  I  desired  :  Many  in  England  con- 
form'd  to  things  they  professedly  disliked. 

1  [Philomela  was  the  pseudonyme  of  a  popular  poet  of  her  day,  and  a  near 
Elizabeth  Singer,  afterward  Mrs.  Rowe,     personal  friend  of  Mr.  Colman.] 


312  HISTORY  OF   THE   OLD   SOUTH  CHURCH. 

Then  follow  these  admirable  words,  which  breathe  the  very- 
spirit  of  John  Robinson,  in  his  memorable  farewell  address  at 
Leyden :  — 

At  his  going  away,  I  told  him,  If  God  should  please  by  them  to 
hold  forth  any  Light  that  had  not  been  seen  or  entertain'd  before ;  I 
should  be  so  far  from  envying  it,  that  I  should  rejoice  in  it :  which  he 
was  much  affected  with. 

While  the  First  and  Second  Churches  were  hostile  to  the 
new  church,  the  attitude  of  the  Third  was  decidedly  friendly  to 
it.  Mr.  Willard's  long-cherished  desire  that  Mr.  Pemberton 
should  become  his  colleague  shows,  at  the  least,  that  he  saw 
nothing  dangerous  in  the  new  movement,  and  both  he  and  his 
prominent  members  did  all  in  their  power  to  allay  the  excite- 
ment. Thomas  Brattle,  the  father,  had  been  one  of  the  founders 
of  the  Third  Church,  and  nearly  all  his  children  had  become  mem- 
bers of  it.  Thomas  Brattle,  the  son,  owned  the  covenant  in  the 
spring  of  1680,  when  so  many  of  the  young  people  of  the  con- 
gregation made  a  similar  profession  of  their  religious  faith,  but 
neither  his  name,  nor  that  of  his  brother  Edward,  appears  on 
the  roll  of  full  membership.  We  have  seen  that  when  Benjamin 
Davis  and  Nathaniel  Oliver  were  admitted  in  1685,  they  ob- 
jected to  the  relation  of  experience  which  was  required  of  them, 
and  the  rules  were  so  modified  that  they  were  received  in  the 
presence  of  the  church  only.  They  went  to  the  new  church, 
and  Richard  Draper,  who  joined  a  year  later,  went  also.  Mr. 
Davis  and  Mr.  Draper  were  its  first  deacons.  In  later  years, 
Judge  Sewall  was  drawn  closely  to  it  by  family  ties,  the  Rev. 
William  Cooper,  its  second  minister,  and  Grove  Hirst,  one  of 
its  most  influential  members,  being  his  sons-in-law. 

The  church  was  organized  on  the  12th  of  December,  1699, 
fourteen  persons  declaring  "  their  consent  and  agreement  to 
walk  together  in  all  the  ordinances  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ." 
No  council  was  called  to  sanction  its  organization,  or  to  assist 
in  the  installation  of  its  minister,  but  at  the  meeting  at  which 
the  church  was  formed,  a  vote  was  passed,  "  that  Mr.  Colman 
present  the  desires  of  the  society  to  the  ministers  of  the  town, 
to  keep  a  day  with  us  ; "  that  is  to  say,  they  desired  friendly 
recognition  and  the  fellowship  of  the  churches.  By  wise  pre- 
vision, the  question  of  ordination  had  already  been  settled 
according  to  Presbyterian  usage,  and  to  this  the  Mathers  do  not 
appear  to  have  taken  very  positive  exception.     Increase  Mather 


THE  REV.  BENJAMIN  COLMAN.  313 

and  James  Allen  sent  a  reply,  December  28,  addressed  to 
"Mr.  Colman,"  saying  that  the  desire  of  the  church  would  be 
gratified,  if  it  would  give  proper  satisfaction  for  its  disorderly 
proceedings. 

Jan.  24  1 699-1 700.  The  Lt  Govr  [William  Stoughton]  calls  me 
with  him  to  Mr.  Willards,  where  out  of  two  papers  Mr.  Wm  Brattle 
drew  up  a  third  for  an  Accommodation  to  bring  on  an  Agreement 
between  the  New-Church  and  our  Ministers ;  Mr.  Colman  got  his 
Brethren  to  subscribe  it. 

Jan  25.  Mr.  I.  Mather,  Mr.  C.  Mather,  Mr.  Willard,  Mr.  Wads- 
worth  and  S.  S.  wait  on  the  Lt.  Govr  at  Mr.  Coopers  :  to  confer  about 
the  writing  drawn  up  the  evening  before.  Was  some  heat ;  but  grew 
calmer,  and  after  Lecture  agreed  to  be  present  at  the  Fast  which  is  to 
be  observed  January  31. 

Jan  31.  Fast  at  the  New  Church.  Mr.  Colman  reads  the  Writing 
agreed  on.  Mr.  Allin  Prays,  Mr.  Colman  preaches,  prays,  blesses, 
p.m.  Mr.  Willard  prays,  Mr.  I  Mather  preaches,  Mr.  Cotton  Mather 
prays.  Sing  the  67  psalm  without  reading.  Mr.  Brattle  sets  Oxford 
Tune.  Mr.  Mather  gives  the  Blessing.  His  Text  was,  Follow  peace 
with  all  men  and  Holiness;  Doct.  must  follow  peace  so  far  as  it  con- 
sists with  Holiness     Heb.  12.  14. 

Mr.  Colman's  Text  was  Rom.  15.  29.  Mr.  Fisk,  Hobart,  Belchar 
and  many  Ministers  and  Scholars  there.  Mr.  Torrey  absent  by  rea- 
son of  sickness  and  the  bad  wether  yesterday.  Of  the  Council,  Lt 
Govr.  Mr.  Russell,  Mr.  Cooke,  Col.  Hathorne,  Sewall,  Addington, 
Sergeant  (Foreseat)  Col.  Foster,  Lynde,  Saffin,  Eliakim  Hutchinson, 
Walley,  Townsend,  Byfield.  Mr.  Willard  pray'd  God  to  pardon  all 
the  frailties  and  follies  of  Ministers  and  people ;  and  that  they  might 
give  that  Respect  to  the  other  churches  that  was  due  to  them  though 
were  not  just  of  their  Constitution,  and  Mr.  Cotton  Mather  in's  prayer 
to  the  same  purpose.  Mr.  Willard  and  C.  Mather  pray'd  excellently 
and  pathetically  for  Mr.  Colman  and  his  Flock.1     (Sewall.) 

1  [From  Cotton  Mather's  journal  we  except  in   one   little    particular.    But  a 

obtain  an  account  of  these  occurrences  young   man   born   and    bred   here,   and 

from  another  point  of  view  :  —  hence  gone  for  England,  is  now  returned 

"  1699  7th  10th  m.     I  see  another  day  hither  at  their  invitation,  equipped  with 

of  temptation  begun  upon  the  town  and  an  ordination  to  qualify  him  for  all  that 

land.     A  company  of  headstrong  men  in  is  intended  on  his  returning  and  arriving 

the  town,  the  chief  of  whom  are  full  of  here ;  these  fallacious  people  desert  their 

malignity    to    the    holy    ways    of     our  vote,  and,  without  the  advice  or  knowl- 

churches,  have  built  in  the  town  another  edge   of  the   ministers   in   the   vicinity, 

meeting  house.     To  delude  many  better  they  have  published,  under  the  title  of 

meaning  men  in  their  own  company,  and  a  manifesto,  certain  articles  that  utterly 

the  churches  in  the  neighbourhood,  they  subvert  our  churches,  and  invite  an  ill 

passed  a  vote  in  the  foundation  of  the  party,  through  all  the  country,  to  throw 

proceedings,  that    they  would  not  vary  all   into   confusion    on   the   first  oppor- 

from   the   practice    of    these    churches,  tunities." 


314  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

The  time  was  now  come  for  the  Third  Church  to  act  har- 
moniously in  calling  a  colleague  pastor.     The  records  say  :  — 

At  a  Church  meeting:  Feb.  21  1699-1700 

Whereas  there  have  formerly  bin  attempts  used,  and  severall  votes 
past,  in  and  by  this  Church,  in  order  to  the  procuring  of  another  min- 
ister to  take  office  among  us ;  which  have  failed  of  their  desired 
success  through  want  of  a  comfortable  unanimity  in  our  proceedings ; 
we  do  therfore  joyntly  agree  to  lay  aside  all  former  pretensions,  that 
we  may  be  no  longer  hindred  in  a  free  Choice  ;  asking  of  God  forgive- 
ness of  what  hath  bin  displeasing  to  him,  and  his  Gracious  conduct, 
in  our  essays  for  a  peacable  and  mercifull  settlement. 

Voted  and  agreed  by  the  Church. 

At  the  same  time,  was  Mr.  Ebenezer  Pemberton  elected,  and  with  a 
free  concurrence  of  the  church,  chosen  to  be  their  minister,  in  order 
to  his  settlement  in  office  amon  them;  and  the  Honoured  Capt. 
Sewall,  Major  Walley,  Mr.  Frary,  Mr.  Hill,  Mr.  Williams  and  Captain 
Checkly  were  chosen  and  desired  to  present  the  desires  of  this  church 
to  Mr.  Pemberton  : 

Attests  Saml  Willard 

Teacher. 

There  was  some  change  in  the  committee.  Mr.  Williams's 
wife  was  then  lying  at  the  point  of  death,1  which  would  account 
for  his  not  going  to  Cambridge,  and  Mr.  Sergeant  seems  to  have 
gone  in  place  of  Mr.  Walley. 

Tuesday  March  5  1699-1700:  Mr.  Sergeant,  Capt.  Frary,  Capt. 
Hill,  Capt  Checkly  and  my  self  goe  to  Cambridge  over  the  Ferry,  and 

"1699  5th  d.  nth  m.  (Saturday)    I  see  Agreement  of   the  United    Brethren   in 

Satan  beginning  a  terrible  shake  in  the  England    ["  the     United   Ministers    for- 

churches  of  New  England,  and  the  in-  merly  called  Presbyterian  and  Congrega- 

iioz'ators  that  had  set  up  a  new  church  in  tional,"]  and  request  the  communion  of 

Boston,  (a  new  one  indeed  !)  have  made  our  churches  in  that  foundation. 

a   day   of   temptation    among   us.     The  "  A  wonderful  joy  filled  the  hearts  of 

men   are   ignorant,    arrogant,    obstinate,  our  good  people  far  and  near,  that  we 

and  full  of  malice  and  slander,  and  they  had  obtained  thus  much  from  them.    Our 

fill   the  land  with  lies,  in  the  misrepre-  strife  seemed  now  at  an  end ;  there  was 

sentations  whereof  I  am  a  very  singular  much  relenting  in  some  of  their  spirits, 

sufferer.      Wherefore    I   set   apart   this  when  they  saw  our  condescension,  our 

day    for    prayer    in    my    study,    to    cry  charity,    our    compassion.        We    over- 

mightily  unto  God."  looked  all  past  offences."] 

"  1699  21st  d.  nth  mo.  ...  I  drew  up  1  Mrs.  Mary  Williams  died  March  7. 
a  proposal,  and,  with  another  minister,  She  was  a  daughter  of  Peter  Oliver,  and 
carried  it  unto  them,  who  at  first  rejected  she  first  married  Jonathan  Shrimpton. 
it,  but  afterwards  so  far  embraced  it,  as  Mr.  Williams,  a  year  or  two  later,  mar- 
to  promise  that  they  will  the  next  week  ried  Sarah,  youngest  daughter  of  the 
publicly  recognize  their  covenant  with  Rev.  John  Wheelwright,  of  Salisbury, 
God  and  one  another,  and  therewithal  and  widow  of  Richard  Crispe ;  she  died 
declare  their  adherence  to  the  Heads  of  March  3,  1726-7. 


MR.  PEMBER  TON'S  ORDINATION.  315 

acquaint  Mr.  Pemberton  with  the  Church's  Call,  and  their  desire  of  his 
Acceptance.  He  makes  a  very  sensible  Answer  as  to  the  Weight  of 
the  Work,  his  own  inability  3  hop'd  God  would  hear  his  earnest  Prayer, 
and  help  him  to  make  a  right  Answer.     (Sewall.) 

Mr.  Pemberton,  as  we  have  said,  was  a  child  of  the  South 
Church.  He  was  baptized  by  its  first  minister,  Mr.  Thacher, 
February  1 1,  1672,  and  was  educated  at  Harvard  College,  gradu- 
ating with  Timothy  Edwards  and  Christopher  Toppan  in  the 
class  of  1 69 1.  After  completing  the  regular  course  of  study, 
he  continued  to  reside  at  Cambridge  as  a  fellow  of  the  house 
or  tutor.  He  was  a  man  of  eminent  talents  and  great  ac- 
quirements, and  became  one  of  the  most  accomplished  preach- 
ers the  country  had  produced.  He  was  a  master  of  logic  and 
an  orator.  The  college  had  never  had  a  more  able  tutor,  nor 
one  who  took  a  deeper  interest  in  the  moral  as  well  as  intel- 
lectual training  of  its  youths.  His  piety  was  of  a  decided  char- 
acter, producing  habitually,  as  we  are  told,  strong  conviction  of 
the  reality  of  things  invisible  and  eternal,  and  "a  zeal  which 
flamed"  in  his  Master's  cause.  Probably  he  did  not  wish  to 
leave  Cambridge  until  the  close  of  the  college  year,  as  he  was 
not  ordained  and  installed  until  the  28th  of  August.  He  had 
been  a  member  of  the  church  since  the  summer  of  1692. 

Wednesday  Aug.  28.  1700.  Mr.  E.  Pemberton  is  ordained:  He 
preached ;  then  Mr.  Willard  Preached  :  Mr.  Willard  gave  the  charge  : 
He,  Mr.  I.  Mather,  and  Mr.  Allen  laying  on  Hands.  Mr.  I.  Mather 
gave  the  Right  Hand  of  Fellowship.  Mr.  Wigglesworth  [of  Maiden] 
and  Mr.  Torrey  [of  Weymouth]  were  in  the  Pulpit,  Mr.  Hubbard  of 
Ipswich  and  many  Ministers  below.  A  very  great  Assembly.  All 
was  so  managed,  as  I  hope  does  bode  well,  that  the  Blessing  of  God 
will  accompany  Him  and  us.     (Sewall.) 

The  installation  council,  as  we  are  familiar  with  it,  was  not 
known  in  New  England  then,  nor  for  more  than  a  century  later. 
It  is  an  abnormal  outgrowth,  an  excrescence  upon  the  con- 
gregational polity,  and  we  may  be  sure  the  fathers  would  never 
have  tolerated  it.  We  can  imagine  the  astonishment  and  indig- 
nation of  Theophilus  Frary,  Samuel  Sewall,  Peter  Sergeant,  and 
the  other  brethren  if  Mr.  Allen,  Mr.  Mather,  and  Mr.  Wiggles- 
worth  had  assumed  to  cross-examine  Mr.  Pemberton  upon  the 
details  of  his  doctrinal  belief,  and  then,  with  the  other  ministers 
invited  to  the  service  of  recognition,  had  gone  into  private 
session  to  discuss  his  relations  to  the  new  movement  at  Cam- 
bridge and  to  vote  upon  the  question  whether  it  was  expedient 


3l6  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

that  the  South  Church  should  settle  him  as  one  of  its  ministers. 
Mr.  Willard  thought  himself  entitled  to  the  "  negative,"  when 
the  church  came  together  for  the  purpose  of  choosing  his  col- 
league ;  but  he  would  have  opened  his  eyes  in  amazement  if  his 
brother  ministers  had  'asserted  the  claim  that  the  negative  be- 
longed, not  to  him,  but  to  themselves,  as  representing  the  neigh- 
boring churches.  To  such  ecclesiastical  bondage  he  and  his 
people  would  have  consented  to  give  place  by  subjection,  "no, 
not  for  an  hour." 

Lords-day,  June,  16,  1700.  Mr.  Daniel  Oliver  has  his  son  Daniel 
baptised. 

June,  17.  Mr.  John  Eyre  makes  his  Will  in  the  morning,  and  dies 
in  the  Afternoon,  an  hour  or  2  before  Sunset  Born  Febr.  19th  1653-4. 
I  visited  him  on  Satterday  in  the  Afternoon  :  He  was  sitting  up  in  his 
little  Room,  Took  me  by  the  hand  at  first  coming  in,  Desired  me 
to  pray  for  him  when  took  leave. 

Fourth-day,  June,  19.  1700.  Mr.  Jno  Eyre  is  entomed  in  the  new 
burying  place.  Nine  of  his  children  are  laid  there  to  handsel  the 
new  Tomb :  Bearers,  Sewall,  Addington,  Townsend,  Byfield,  Dummer, 
Davis  :  Scarvs  and  Rings.  Lt  Govr  and  many  of  the  Council  there. 
Mr.  Thomas  Brattle  led  his  mourning  widowed  Sister.     (Sewall.) 

On  the  24th  of  June,  1700,  Samuel  Sewall  published  his  anti- 
slavery  tract,  The  Selling  of  Joseph,  for  which,  and  for  his  pub- 
lic confession  after  the  witchcraft  trials,  he  would  deserve  to 
be  held  in  grateful  and  affectionate  remembrance  by  all  the 
generations,  if  there  were  no  record  of  any  other  noble  word 
or  act  of  his  in  church  or  state.  He  thus  speaks  of  the  circum- 
stances which  led  to  the  production  of  this  pamphlet :  — 

Having  been  long  and  much  dissatisfied  with  the  Trade  of  fetch- 
ing Negros  from  Guinea ;  at  last  I  had  a  strong  Inclination  to  Write 
something  about  it ;  but  it  wore  off.  At  last  reading  Bayne,  Ephes. 
about  servants,  who  mentions  Blackamoors ;  I  began  to  be  un- 
easy that  I  had  so  long  neglected  doing  any  thing.  When  I  was 
thus  thinking,  in  came  Brother  Belknap  to  shew  me  a  Petition  he  in- 
tended to  present  to  the  General  Court  for  the  freeing  a  Negro  and 
his  wife,  who  were  unjustly  held  in  Bondage.  And  there  is  a  Motion 
by  a  Boston  Committee  to  get  a  Law  that  all  Importers  of  Negros 
shall  pay  40  s  p  head,  to  discourage  the  bringing  of  them.  And  Mr. 
C.  Mather  resolves  to  publish  a  sheet  to  exhort  Masters  to  labour 
their  Conversion.  Which  makes  me  hope  that  I  was  call'd  of  God 
to  Write  this  Apology  for  them;  Let  his  Blessing  accompany  the 
same. 


AN  EARLY  CHALLENGE   TO  SLAVERY.  3*7 

Dr.  George  H.  Moore  says  of  this  pamphlet :  — 

The  earliest  positive  public  challenge  to  slavery  in  Massachusetts  of 
which  we  have  any  knowledge  was  in  the  year  1700,  when  a  learned, 
pious,  and  honored  magistrate  entered  the  lists  alone,  and  sounded 
his  solitary  blast  in  the  ears  of  his  brother  magistrates  and  the  peo- 
ple, who  listened  in  amazement  and  wonder,  not  unmingled  with  sor- 
row and  contempt.  His  performance  is  all  the  more  remarkable  from 
the  fact  that  it  stands  out  in  the  history  of  the  time  separate  and  dis- 
tinct as  "  the  voice  of  one  crying  in  the  wilderness."  1 

Soon  after  Mr.  Pemberton's  ordination,  Mr.  Willard  had  a 
severe  illness. 

Lords  Day  Sepf  29th  1700.  Mr.  Willard,  by  reason  of  sickness 
keeps  house,  and  Mr.  Pemberton  preaches  forenoon  and  Afternoon. 

(Sewall.) 

On  the  6th  of  October  there  was  "  a  meeting  of  some  of  the 
South  Church  occasioned  by  Mr.  Willard's  sickness  ;  "  and  two 
days  later  a  service  with  reference  to  it  was  held  by  the  mem- 
bers of  Brattle  Street  Church,  who  evidently  bore  in  remem- 
brance the  generous  and  kindly  spirit  manifested  by  Mr.  Willard 
and  his  leading  members  during  the  troubles  of  the  preceding 
winter. 

8r  8th  1700.  Is  a  Fast  at  the  New-Meetinghouse  to  pray  for  Mr. 
Willard's  Life.  Mr.  Colman,  Wadsworth  pray.  Mr.  Pemberton 
preaches  :  Philip.  1.  24.  ["  Nevertheless  to  abide  in  the  flesh  is  more 
needful  for  you."]  Mr.  Allen,  Cotton  Mather  Pray.  20th  Psalm  two 
staves  and  i-  sung  L.  Lt.  Govr.  Mr.  Russell,  Cook,  Addington,  Em 
Hutchinson,  Townsend  there.  Mr.  Fisk,  Danforth,  Walter,  Brattle, 
out  of  Town.  Pretty  considerable  congregation,  it  being  so  sudden, 
and  first  intended  in  privat.     (Sewall.) 

It  was  nearly  two  months  before  Mr.  Willard  was  convales- 
cent. 

1  [Notes  071  the  Hist,  of  Slavery  in  saw  a  very  severe  Act  passing  against 
Mass.,  pp.  81,  82.  Dr.  Moore  prints  the  Indians  and  Negros,  and  then  I  re- 
pamphlet  in  full.  It  appears  also  in  the  printed  that  Question,  as  I  found  it 
Sewall  Papers,  vol.  ii.  pp.  16-20.  It  was  stated  and  answered  in  the  Athenian 
printed  as  part  of  a  tract  against  slave-  Oracle ;  which  I  knew  nothing  of  before 
holding  in  1S38,  in  Philadelphia,  by  Ben-  last  Autumn  was  twelve  moneths,  when  I 
jamin  Lay.  Judge  Sewall  wrote  to  the  accidentally  cast  my  Eye  upon  it.  Amidst 
Rev.  John  Higginson,  one  of  "  the  First  the  Frowns  and  hard  Words  I  have  met 
Planters  in  New  England,"  April  13,  with  for  this  Undertaking,  it  is  no  small 
1706: —  refreshment    to    me,  that    I    have    the 

"  It  is  now  near  Six  years  agoe  since  I  Learned,  Reverend  and  aged  Mr.  Hig- 

printed  a  Sheet  in   defence  of  Liberty,  ginson  for  my  Abetter.     By  the  interpo- 

The  next  year  after,  Mr.  Saffin  set  forth  sition  of  this  Brest-Work,  I  hope  to  carry 

a  printed  Answer.     I  forebore  troubling  on   and    manage    this    Enterprise   with 

the  Province  with   any  Reply,   untill    I  Safety  and  Success."] 


3l8  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

Novr.  21.  1700.  Day  of  publick  Thanksgiving.  At  3  post  meridm 
Mr.  Willard  comes  abroad  and  Prays  to  the  great  Refreshment  of  the 
Congregation.  This  the  first  time  since  his  sickness.  In  the  evening 
I  made  these  verses  on  it,  viz, 

As  Joseph  let  his  brethren  see 

Simeon  both  alive,  and  free  : 

So  Jesus  brings  forth  Samuel, 

To  tune  our  hearts  to  praise  Him  well. 

Thus  He  with  beams  of  cheerfull  light, 

Corrects  the  darkness  of  our  night. 

His  Grace  assists  us  in  this  wise 

To  seise,  and  bind  the  Sacrifice. 

(Sewall.) 

During  the  period  of  Mr.  Willard's  illness  the  church  lost  its 
senior  deacon,  Theophilus  Frary,  who  died  October  17.  He 
was  one  of  the  founders  of  1669,  and  he  had  been  a  valuable 
member  and  a  very  useful  citizen.  His  wife,  Hannah,  who  had 
died  some  years  before,  was  a  daughter  of  the  first  Jacob  Eliot, 
and  a  niece  of  the  Rev.  John  Eliot,  of  Roxbury.  On  the  14th 
of  November,  Joseph  Eliot,  son  of  the  second  Jacob  Eliot,  died 
suddenly.  He  was  at  church  on  the  preceding  Sunday,  and 
Judge  Sewall  met  him  in  the  street  on  the  morning  of  the  day 
he  died.  His  name  does  not  appear  as  a  member,  but  he  was 
one  of  the  young  people  who  owned  the  covenant  in  1680,  be- 
ing then  eighteen  years  of  age.  His  wife,  Silence  (Baker) 
Eliot,  became  a  member  in  1697,  and  survived,  until  1744.1 
Samuel  Checkley,  as  we  suppose,  succeeded  Mr.  Frary  in  the 
deaconship.2 

Jan  30  1700-1701  Mr.  Willard  preaches  from  Eccles.  9.  2.  —  he 
that  sweareth,  and  he  that  feareth  an  Oath.  Spake  very  closely  against 
the  many  ways  of  Swearing  amiss.     Great  Storm.     (Sewall.) 

This  was  at  the  Thursday  Lecture.  The  sermon  was  printed 
with  the  title,  The  Fear  of  an  Oath,  or  Some  Cautions  to  be 
used  about  Swearing.  Mr.  Willard  had  previously  preached 
and  printed  sermons  on  Laying  the  Hand  on  the  Bible  in 
Swearing,  and  on  The  Danger  of  Taking  God's  Name  in  Vain. 

Monday,  June.  2-1701.  Mr.  Pemberton  preaches  the  Artillery  Ser- 
mon, from  Luke.  3-14.  Dine  at  Monk's.  Because  of  the  Rain  and 
Mist,  this  day,  the  election  is  made  upon  the  Town-house,  Sewall. 
Capt. ;  Tho.   Hutchinson   Lieut.  ;  Tho.    Savage  junr,   Ensign  ;    Tho. 

1  Their  son,  Jacob  Eliot,  baptized  just  anon,  Conn.,  Nov.  26,    1729,   and   died 

after   his   father's    death,   December    1,  April  12,  1766. 

1700,    Harv.   Coll.   1720,   was    ordained  2  See    p.    294.       Mr.    Checkley    was 

first  minister  of  the  Third  Church  Leb-  elected  first,  October  15,  1693. 


THE  ARTILLERY  COMPANY.  319 

Fitch  1  Sergt. :  Oliver  Noyes  2  :  Hab.  Savage  3  :  Charles  Chauncey  4. 
CalPd  down  the  Council  out  of  the  Chamber,  set  their  chairs  below  ; 
Col.  Pynchon  gave  the  Staves  and  Ensign.     (Sewall.) 

The  town  house,  replaced  in  171 2  by  the  building  now  known 
as  the  Old  State  House,  was  open  and  uninclosed  on  the  ground 
floor,  and  this  was  used  as  a  merchant's  walk  or  exchange. 
Lord  Bellomont  died  in  New  York  three  months  before  this 
anniversary  of  the  artillery  company,  and  the  lieutenant-gov- 
ernor, William  Stoughton,  lay  at  the  point  of  death.  All  the 
officers  of  the  artillery  company  elected  in  1701,  except  Thomas 
Hutchinson  (father  of  Governor  Hutchinson),  as  well  as  the 
preacher  of  the  annual  sermon,  came  from  the  South  Church 
and  congregation.  The  following  members  of  the  church  had 
been  captains  of  the  company  before  Judge  Sewall :  Thomas 
Savage,  William  Davis,  Peter  Oliver,  John  Hull,  John  Walley, 
Theophilus  Frary,  Ephraim  Savage,  Samuel  Checkley.  Among 
those  who  were  elected  later  were  :  Thomas  Fitch,  Habijah  Sav- 
age, Edward  Winslow,  Nathaniel  Cunningham,  Daniel  Hench- 
man, Thomas  Dawes,  Josiah  Waters,  John  Winslow. 

June,  12.  Mr.  Willard  marries  Mr.  Pemberton  and  Mrs.  Mary  Clark. 
All  Mr.  Willard's  family  there,  as  I  am  informed,  and  many  others. 
Come  to  our  Meeting  the  next  Sabbath.     (Sewall.) 

For  some  unexplained  reason,  Judge  Sewall  and  his  family 
were  not  present  at  this  wedding.  Mary  Clark  was  a  daughter 
of  Captain  John  Clark,  who  had  died  in  Barbary,  probably  a 
prisoner,  says  Savage ; x  her  mother,  Mary,  daughter  of  Joshua 
Atwater,  and  granddaughter  of  the  Rev.  Adam  Blakeman,  had 
married  in  1694,  as  her  second  husband,  John  Coney,  the  gold- 
smith, a  member  of  the  Second  Church,  and  one  of  her  daugh- 
ters, Abigail  Coney,  became  the  wife  of  the  second  Edward 
Bromfield.2 

In  the  autumn  of  the  same  year  Mr.  Willard  was  elected  to 
the  presidency,  not  in  name  but  in  fact,  of  Harvard  College.3 

1  After  the  death  of  Mr.  Pemberton  2  Their  daughter  Abigail  became  the 
in  1717,  his  widow  married,  first,  John  wife  of  the  first  William  Phillips,  deacon 
Campbell,  founder  of  the  Boston  News-  in  the  Old  South  Church  from  1764  to 
Letter,  and  secondly,  Mr.  Henry  Lloyd,  of  1793.  See  Hist,  and  Gen.  Register,  vol. 
Long  Island.  Judge  Sewall  speaks  of  xxxix.  p.  III.  Other  daughters  of  John 
her  mother,  Mrs.  Clark,  as  "  a  person  of  Coney  married  the  Rev.  Thomas  Fox- 
great  prudence  and  piety,  and  good  edu-  croft  and  Samuel  Gerrish. 
cation  ;  "  and  Cotton  Mather  says  of  her  8  He  was  probably  called  the  presi- 
grandmother,  Mrs.  Atwater,  afterward  dent.  Sewall  so  speaks  of  him  at  the 
wife  of  the  Rev.  John  Higginson,  that  examination  of  his  son  Joseph  for  admis- 
she  was  a  woman  of  eminent  piety.  sion  to  the  college,  June  28,  1703. 


320  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

Dr.  Increase  Mather  had  been  president  since  1685,  continuing 
his  relations  as  senior  pastor  to  the  Second  Church,  Boston, 
but  he  had  become  so  unpopular  that  it  was  determined,  if  pos- 
sible, to  compel  his  resignation.  He  was  an  able,  zealous,  and 
fearless  man,  but  he  was  overbearing  and  intolerant,  and  an  in- 
tense partisan.  He  had  been  very  prominent  in  public  affairs, 
and 'he  had  rendered  distinguished  service  to  the  province; 
but  as  such  men  will  do  in  high  positions,  he  had  made  many 
and  bitter  enemies.  His  course  in  England  as  confidential 
agent  of  the  colony,  while  the  wisest  and  best  under  the  cir- 
cumstances, as  subsequent  events  proved,  was  greatly  misun- 
derstood and  misrepresented  ;  it  "  was  to  him  an  abundant  source 
of  calumny  and  animosity,"  and  ended  in  the  loss  of  his  politi- 
cal influence,  and  his  severance  from  all  subsequent  employ- 
ment. And  yet,  says  President  Quincy,  "whatever  opinions 
we  may  be  compelled  to  entertain  concerning  his  measures  and 
motives  on  other  occasions,  his  conduct  in  this  great  crisis  of 
his  country  entitles  him  to  unqualified  approbation.  It  is 
scarcely  possible  for  a  public  agent  to  be  placed  in  circumstances 
more  trying  or  critical ;  nor  could  any  one  have  exhibited  more 
sagacity  and  devotedness  to  the  true  interests  of  his  constit- 
uents." 1 

As  related  to  the  presidency,  also,  we  have  it  on  the  same 
high  authority  that  he  "  was  well  qualified  for  the  office,  and 
had  conducted  himself  in  it  faithfully  and  laboriously  ;  "  but  we 
have  just  seen  how  he  sought  to  crush  out  the  spirit  of  free  in- 
quiry at  Cambridge,  and  to  prevent  the  formation  of  another 
church  in  Boston.  Nor  was  he  content  to  let  the  new  church  and 
its  young  minister  alone,  even  after  they  had  been  recognized  as 
within  the  fellowship  of  the  churches.  It  could  not  be  shown 
that  they  were  not  following  the  Master  in  the  work  they  were 
beginning  to  do  ;  but,  worse  than  that,  as  the  partisan  leader 
would  be  disposed   to  think,  they  were  not  following  "  us." 2 

1  "  By  his  wisdom  and  firmness  in  ac-  of  the  character  of  Increase  Mather,  as 

ceding  to  the  new  charter,  and  thus  as-  well   as  of  his  son,  Cotton  Mather,  see 

suming  a  responsibility  of  the  weightiest  the  History  of  the  Second  Church,  by  the 

kind,  in  opposition  to  his  colleagues  in  Rev.  Chandler  Robbins,  D.  D. 

the  agency,  he   saved   his  country,   ap-  2  "  Master,    we   saw   one  casting    out 

parently,  from  a  rebellion  or  a  revolution,  devils  in  thy  name,  and  he  followeth  not 

or  from  having  a  constitution  imposed  us,  and  we  forbade  him,  because  he  fol- 

by  the  will    of   the    transatlantic  sover-  loweth  not  us."  —  Mark  ix.  38. 

eign,  possibly  at   the  point  of  the  bay-  The  disciples  had  this  as  a  plea  for 

onet."  —  Quincy's  Hist,  of  Harv.   Univ.,  their   exclusiveness,  that   in    their   case 

vol.  i.  p.  123.  "us"  included  the  Divine   Master  him- 

For   a    very  discriminating    estimate  self. 


THE  MATHER   CONTROVERSY.  321 

President  Mather  published  a  pamphlet  on  The  Order  of  the 
Gospel,  which  called  forth  a  reply  soon  after,  The  Gospel 
Order  Revived,  by  Sundry  Ministers  of  the  Gospel  in  New 
England.  This  was  the  work  of  Mr.  Colman,  assisted  by  Mr. 
Bradstreet,  of  Charlestown,  and,  perhaps,  Mr.  John  Woodbridge. 
In  1 701  a  rejoinder  was  issued  anonymously,  supposed  to  have 
come  from  the  pen  of  Cotton  Mather,  with  a  preface  to  which 
the  initials  of  his  father  were  suffixed.  Of  this  last  publication 
Quincy  says  :  "  In  the  whole  scope  of  theological  and  political 
controversy  there  is  scarcely  an  example  extant  of  more  select, 
concentrated,  and  unmixed  personal  abuse  than  is  exhibited  in 
this  pamphlet  and  its  preface."  And  Palfrey  says  :  "  The  vo- 
cabulary so  long  consecrated  to  assaults  upon  reformers,  of 
'gross  immorality,'  'impudence,'  'deep  apostasy,'  'open  im- 
piety,' '  profaneness,'  and,  finally,  '  tendency  to  atheism,'  is  most 
liberally  used."  Mr.  Colman  was  called  "a  little  thing,"  "a 
raw  and  unstudied  youth,  but  also  of  a  very  unsanctified  temper 
and  spirit."  That  he  had  once  been  a  member  of  the  president's 
own  church,  "  in  good  and  regular  standing,"  did  not  mitigate 
the  severity  of  his  condemnation  now.  Of  Thomas  Brattle  it 
was  said,  "A  moral  heathen  would  not  have  done  as  he  has 
done." 

The  time  was  come,  at  length,  for  the  enemies  which  the 
president  had  been  making  in  his  political  career  and  in  his 
theological  controversies  to  deprive  him  of  a  part  of  the  power 
which  he  had  wielded  as  with  a  mailed  hand.  He  was  strong 
in  the  confidence  of  the  church  of  which  he  had  been  a  minis- 
ter for  nearly  forty  years,  but  his  seat  at  Cambridge  was  less 
secure.  He  had  been  administering  the  affairs  of  the  college, 
as  has  been  said,  faithfully  and  well,  but  he  had  continued  to 
live  in  Boston.  On  the  2d  of  December,  1693,  the  General 
Court  voted  that  "  the  president  of  Harvard  College,  for  the 
time  being,  shall  reside  there,  as  hath  been  accustomed  in  time 
past."  No  notice  being  taken  of  this  action,  the  House  of  Rep- 
resentatives passed  a  more  emphatic  vote  to  the  same  effect, 
June  5,  1695,  but  this  also  proved  in  vain.  On  the  10th  of  July, 
1700,1  the  General  Court  expressed  its  determination  that  the 

1  July    10.    1700.      "  Waited    on    Mr.  where  there  were  none  to  preserve  Reli- 

Mather  this  day,  at  three   in  the  after-  gion  in  its  Purity.     Put  him  in  mind  how 

noon.     I  told  him  the  Honor  of  Athana-  often  God  had  renewed  his  Call  to  this 

sius,  Mahiit  sedem  qiiam  Fidei  Syllabam  work  which  was  to  be  considered.     That 

mutare  :     Worthies  of  N.  E.  left  their  were  nineteen  in  the  Council ;  and  had 

Houses   in   England,    and   came   hither  every  vote."     (Sewall.) 


322  HISTORY  OF   THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

president  should  live  in  Cambridge  with  so  much  peremptori- 
ness  that  he  obtained  the  consent  of  his  church,  and  went  into 
residence  there,  but  from  the  nature  of.  the  case  this  arrange- 
ment could  be  only  temporary.  As  his  son  says  :  "  The  leaders 
in  this  vote  knew  very  well  that  the  doctor  would  not  remove 
his  habitation  from  a  loving  people  at  Boston,  to  reside  at  Cam- 
bridge, while  the  college  was, — as  it  thus  was."  The  General 
Court  also,  at  this  session,  gave  to  Increase  Mather  as  presi- 
dent, to  Samuel  Willard  as  vice-president,  and  to  the  other 
persons  named  in  the  new  charter,  the  general  care  and  superin- 
tendence of  the  college. 

In  the  month  of  October  following,  Dr.  Mather  returned  to 
Boston,  and  addressed  a  letter  to  Lieutenant-Governor  Stoughton, 
setting  forth  his  reasons  for  removing  from  Cambridge,  "  as  not 
having  his  health  there,  and  desiring  that  another  president 
may  be  thought  of."  This  letter  was  laid  before  the  General 
Court  in  February,  1701,  and  on  the  14th  of  the  next  month  a 
resolution  was  passed  to  the  effect  that  "as  the  Constitution 
requires  that  the  president  reside  in  Cambridge,  which  is  now 
altered  by  his  removal  from  thence,  and  to  the  intent  that  a 
present  necessary  oversight  be  taken  of  the  college,  ...  in  case 
of  Mr.  Mather's  refusal,  absence,  sickness  or  death,  Mr.  Samuel 
Willard  is  nominated  to  be  vice-president,  and  with  the  others 
before  named,  invested  with  like  powers  and  authority  in  all 
respects."  Dr.  Mather  does  not  seem  to  have  really  intended 
to  lay  down  the  presidency,  for  he  informed  the  court,  after 
explaining  his  return  to  Boston,  that  if  it  "thought  fit  to  desire 
he  should  continue  his  care  of  the  college  as  formerly,  he  would 
do  so."  But  the  court  had  other  views,  and  negotiations  were 
at  once  opened  with  Mr.  Willard  and  with  his  church,  looking 
to  his  accession  to  the  vacant  office,  and  to  his  removal  to 
Cambridge.  There  were  at  least  two  applications  to  the  church 
to  this  end,1  but  it  does  not  appear  that  it  was  directly  proposed 
by  any  one  that  Mr.  Willard  should  give  up  the  pastorate.  Mr. 
Willard  was  willing  to  take  the  presidency,  but  he  was  not  will- 
ing to  remove  from  Boston,  and  —  what  this  involved  —  to  leave 
the  South  Church.  After  repeated  conferences,  he  at  length 
"  declared  his  readiness  to  do  the  best  service  he  could  for  the 
college,  and  that  he  would  visit  once  or  twice  every  week,  and 

1  Elisha  Cooke  and  Penn  Townsencl  Mr.  Willard's  church,  and  desire  their 
were  appointed  a  special  committee  by  consent  that  he  might  go  and  reside  at 
the  Council,  "  to  attend  the  meeting  of     Cambridge,  to  take  care  of  the  College." 


MR.    WILLARD  AND    THE  PRESIDENCY. 


323 


continue  there  a  night  or  two,  and  perform  the  services  there 
which  had  been  done  by  former  presidents."  This  was  on  the 
5th  of  September;  on  the  next  day,  after  a  vain  attempt  by  the 
friends  of  Dr.  Mather  to  retain  him  in  office,  a  resolution  was 
passed  "  that  the  Rev.  Samuel  Willard,  nominated  vice-presi- 
dent of  the  college,  be  desired  to  take  the  oversight  of  the  col- 
lege and  the  students  there,  according  to  the  late  establishment 
made  by  the  court,  and  to  manage  the  affairs  thereof,  as  he  has 
proposed  in  his  answer  to  this  court,  viz.  to  reside  there  for  one 
or  two  days  and  nights  in  a  week  and  to  perform  prayers  and 
expositions  in  the  Hall,  and  to  bring  forward  the  exercise  of 
analysing."  His  salary  was  fixed  at  fifty  pounds,  with  ten 
pounds  in  addition  "  for  his  more  than  ordinary  expenses  in  his 
attending:  the  same  services."  x 


1  Judge  Sewall.  as  a  member  both  of 
the  Council  and  of  Mr.  Willard's  church, 
found  it  difficult  to  maintain  friendly 
relations  with  the  Mathers,  during  these 
uncomfortable  times ;  but  he  seems  to 
have  been  able  to  keep  his  temper  ad- 
mirably, under  a  good  deal  of  provoca- 
tion.    He  writes :  — 

"  Octr.  18,  or  thereabouts,  Mr.  Foster 
and  Cooke  had  a  hot  discourse  about 
Mr.  Mather;  Capt.  Foster  moving  fof  a 
Quarter's  Salary.  I  spake  that  he  might 
have  it." 

"  Octr.  20.  Mr.  Cotton  Mather  came 
to  Mr.  Wilkins's  shop,  and  there  talked 
very  sharply  against  me  as  if  I  had  used 
his  father  worse  than  a  Neger;  spake 
so  loud  that  people  in  the  street  might 
hear  him.  Then  went  and  told  Sam, 
That  one  pleaded  much  for  Negros,  and 
he  had  used  his  father  worse  than  a 
Negro,  and  told  him  that  was  his  Father. 
.  .  .  Octr.  9.  I  sent  Mr.  Increase  Mather 
a  Hanch  of  very  good  Venison  ;  I  hope 
in  that  I  did  not  treat  him  as  a  Negro." 

October  21,  Sewall  wrote  to  Cotton 
Mather  :  — 

"  By  what  I  am  told  you  should  say  of 
me  yesterday  at  Mr.  Wilkins's  and  my 
Son's  [Samuel  Gerrish's]  Shop,  I  per- 
ceive you  are  much  offended  with  me ; 
which  is  matter  of  Surprise  and  Grief 
unto  me ;  the  cause  whereof  I  would 
willingly  remove.  I  have  desired  Major 
Walley,  and  Capt.  Samuel  Checkley, 
your  and  my  friends,  to  be  at  Mr.  Wil- 


kins's tomorrow  half  an  hour  past  Nine 
in  the  morning ;  And  do  desire  you  to 
meet  me  and  them  there,  at  that  time, 
And  bring  with  you  one  or  two  Christian 
friends,  if  you  please;  that  so  we  may 
try  to  give  an  Instance  of  the  Truth  of 
that  old  Proverb  ;  Amantium  Ira  Amoris 
Redintegratio  est." 

The  proposed  interview  took  place, 
and  is  thus  described  :  — 

"  Octobr.  22.  1701.  I,  with  Major 
Walley  and  Capt.  Saml.  Checkly,  speak 
with  Mr.  Cotton  Mather  at  Mr.  Wilkins's. 
I  expostulated  with  him  from  1  Tim.  5. 1. 
Rebuke  not  an  elder.  He  said  he  had 
consider'd  that :  I  told  him  of  his  book 
of  the  Law  of  Kindness  for  the  Tongue, 
whether  this  were  correspondent  with 
that.  Whether  correspondent  with 
Christ's  Rule :  He  said,  having  spoken 
to  me  before  there  was  no  need  to  speak 
to  me  again  ;  and  so  justified  his  reviling 
me  behind  my  back.  Charg'd  the  Coun- 
cil with  Lying,  Hypocrisy,  Tricks,  and  I 
know  not  what  all.  I  ask'd  him  if  it 
were  done  with  that  Meekness  as  it 
should ;  answer'd,  yes.  Charg'd  the 
Council  in  general,  and  then  shew'd  my 
share,  which  was  my  speech  in  Council ; 
viz.  If  Mr.  Mather  should  goe  to  Cam- 
bridge again  to  reside  there  with  a  Reso- 
lution not  to  read  the  Scriptures,  and 
expound  in  the  Hall :  I  fear  the  ex- 
ample of  it  will  do  more  hurt  than  his 
going  thither  will  do  good.  This  speech 
I  owned.     Said  Mr.  Corwin  at  Reading, 


324 


HISTORY  OF   THE   OLD   SOUTH  CHURCH. 


It  is  not  strange  that  Dr.  Mather  and  his  friends  felt  ag- 
grieved at  this  arrangement.  What  had  been  refused  to  the 
one  had  in  fact  been  conceded  to  the  other.  Mr.  Willard,  with 
the  title  of  vice-president,  was  really  to  be  president,  and  he 
was  to  live  in  Boston.  The  General  Court  had  maintained  a 
technical  consistency  throughout  in  its  action,  but  no  one  could 
be  deceived  as  to  its  real  purpose.  As  Ouincy  says,  after  per- 
tinaciously insisting  for  years  upon  the  question  of  residence  in 
the  case  of  Mather,  the  court  could  not  rescind  the  rule  in  favor 
of  Mr.  Willard;  but,  he  adds,  "Willard  being  as  unwilling  as 
Mather  to  accept  the  office  on  condition  of  residence,  and  as 
they  could  not  agree  on  a  third  person,  they  resorted  to  the 
subterfuge  of  continuing  Willard  in  the  office  he  then  held  of 
vice-president,  and  vesting  him  with  the  powers  and  duties  of 
president."  1  The  plea  in  justification  of  the  "subterfuge"  was, 
of  course,  that  the  best  interests  of  the  college,  and  of  the 
churches  as  related  to  it,  required  an  immediate  change  in  the 
presidency,  and  that  Mr.  Willard  was  the  best  man  at  the  time 
for  the  succession.  There  had  been  too  much  wrangling  of 
late,  and  Mr.  Willard  was  a  man  of  peace;  he  was  as  much 


upbraided  him,  saying,  This  is  the  man 
you  dedicat  your  books  to !  I  ask'd  him 
If  I  should  suppose  he  had  done  som- 
thing  amiss  in  his  Church  as  an  Officer ; 
whether  it  would  be  well  for  me  to  ex- 
claim against  him  in  the  street  for  it. 
(Mr.  Wilkin  would  fain  have  had  him 
gon  into  the  inner  room,  but  he  would 
not.)  I  told  him  I  conceiv'd  he  had 
done  much  unbecoming  a  Minister  of  the 
Gospel,  and  being  call'd  by  Maxwell  to 
the  Council,  Major  Wally  and  I  went 
thither,  leaving  Capt.  Checkly  there. 
2  Tim.  2.  24.  25.  ["The  servant  of  the 
Lord  must  not  strive  ;  but  be  gentle  un- 
to all,"  etc.]  Went  to  the  Council, 
Sign'd  Mr.  Mather's  order  for  £25." 

"  Octr.  23.  Mr.  Increase  Mather  said 
at  Mr.  Wilkins's,  If  I  am  a  Servant  of 
Jesus  Christ,  some  great  Judgment  will 
fall  on  Capt.  Sewall,  or  his  family." 

"  Octr.  25.  I  got  Mr.  Moody  to  copy 
out  my  Speech,  and  gave  it  to  Mr.  Wil- 
kins  that  all  might  see  what  was  the 
ground  of  Mr.  Mather's  anger.  Writ 
out  another  and  gave  it  to  Joshua  Gee. 
I  perceive  Mr.  Wilkins  carried  his  to 
Mr.  Mathers ;  They  seem  to  grow  calm. 


(On  Friday  received  Mr.  Fitch's  Letter 
and  Blessing.)  " 

On  the  30th  of  October  Cotton  Mather 
wrote  a  letter,  the  character  of  which  we 
can  imagine,  to  Judge  Sewall,  who  de- 
layed answering  it  until  the  31st  of  De- 
cember, and  then,  not  willing  that  the 
declining  sun  of  the  last  day  of  the  year 
should  go  down  upon  his  wrath,  if  he 
had  been  cherishing  anything  of  the  kind, 
he  sent  the  following  pacific  answer :  — 

"  I  once  intended  an  Answer  to  yours 
of  the  30th  of  October  last,  principally  as 
to  some  matters  of  fact  therein  recited. 
But  since  you  were  pleasd  to  sit  with 
me  last  Tuesday  was  fortnight,  and  to 
honour  my  Pue,  with  publishing  there 
the  very  acceptable  News  of  Liberty  again 
granted  to  our  dear  brethren  of  the 
Palatinat,  I  do  now  Remise,  Release, 
and  forever  quitclaim,  as  to  any  personal 
Controversy  we  were  lately  managing 
at  Mr.  Wilkins's.  It  has  been  in  my 
thought  ever  since,  and  the  consideration 
of  this  being  the  last  day  of  the  year, 
suffers  me  to  delay  it  no  longer." 

1  See  Quincy's  Hist,  of  Harvard 
Univ.,  vol.  i.  pp.  109-116,  146. 


MR.    WILLARD'S  INFLUENCE.  325 

attached  as  any  of  his  contemporaries  to  the  doctrines  of  his 
faith,  but  he  cared  little  for  controversy  about  them.1  He  was 
recognized  also  as  a  wise  and  safe  leader.  During  the  witch- 
craft excitement,  the  public  had  seen  how  bravely  he  stemmed 
the  tide  of  feeling  and  frenzy  ;  and  although  it  had  been  angry 
and  indignant  with  him  for  the  moment,  when  the  reaction 
came,  "  his  circumspection  and  boldness  in  that  trying  season 
were  remembered  and  honoured,  and  he  derived  thence  a  weight 
of  popularity  which  President  Mather  had  lost  by  his  conduct 
during  the  excitement.  The  resulting  general  impressions  con- 
cerning the  character  of  each  were  undoubtedly  among  the 
causes  of  that  preference  which  the  exclusion  of  Mather  and 
the  appointment  of  Willard  by  the  legislature  indicate." 

There  was  another  consideration,  also,  which  had  its  influence 
with  the  General  Court.  Mr.  Willard  was  a  man  of  high  family 
connections,  and  a  brother-in-law  of  Joseph  Dudley,2  who,  in 
the  following  year,  was  made  governor  in  succession  to  Lord 
Bellomont.  "  The  appointment  of  Dudley  was  anticipated  ;  and 
the  friends  of  the  college  could  not  deem  it  indifferent  to  its 
interest  with  the  new  governor,  whether  he  should  find  the 
president's  chair  filled  by  Mather,  an  active  leader  of  that  politi- 
cal and  religious  party  which  had  imprisoned  him  and  Andros, 
with  whom  his  name  and  character  had  been  an  unvaried  theme 
of  abuse,  or  by  Willard,  a  brother-in-law,  who  enjoyed  at  once 
his  private  confidence  and  personal  respect." 

Dr.  Mather  and  Mr.  Willard  had  not  been  fully  agreed  on 
questions  of  administration  at  Cambridge.  Sewall  remarks  in 
his  diary,  November  20,  1697  :  "  Mr.  Willard  told  me  of  a  falling 
out  between  the  president  and  him,  about  choosing  fellows  last 
Monday.  Mr.  Mather  has  sent  him  word,  he  will  never  come 
to  his  house  more  till  he  give  him  satisfaction."  The  speedy 
reinstatement  of  certain  gentlemen  as  fellows  who  had  been 
removed  under  the  previous  presidency,  and  the  appointment  of 
the  Rev.  Josiah  Willard  as  tutor,  showed  that  the  Mather  as- 
cendency was  at  an  end.  The  new  governor  was  in  full  accord 
with  Mr.  Willard  ;  but  as  between  him  and  the  ex-president, 

1  Dr.    Palfrey  says   of   Mr.  Willard's  and  the  Brattles."  —  Hist,  of  N.   Eng., 

relations  to  the  Cambridge  movement  of  vol.  iv.  p.  317,  note. 

the  time :    "  In  matters  of  church  doc-  2  Mr.    Willard's     second     wife     was 

trine    and    discipline,    he    sympathized  Eunice,  daughter  of  Edward  Tyng.    Her 

with  the  Mathers  ;    but  their  arrogance  sister  Rebecca  married  Joseph  Dudley, 

offended  and  repelled  him,  and  in  per-  and    their   daughter   Rebecca    married, 

sonal  relations  he  was  constantly  drawn  September   15,    1702,  the   eldest  son  of 

closer  to  the  party  of  Leverett,  Colman,  Judge  Sewall. 


326  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

while  there  was,  for  a  time,  a  show  of  courtesy  and  respect  in 
their  mutual  relations,  there  was  little  confidence  on  either  side, 
and  at  length  the  sharp  controversies  over  the  management  of 
the  college  led  to  a  breach  which  "  seems  never  to  have  been 
closed  by  concession  or  explanation." 

It  is  recorded  of  Mr.  Willard's  performance  of  his  college 
duties  that  it  was  "punctual,  laborious,  and  successful."  The 
mere  passing  back  and  forth  between  Boston  and  Cambridge  in 
those  days  was  a  serious  matter.  To  ride  or  drive  involved  a 
long  detour  through  Roxbury  and  Brookline  ;  and  the  more 
direct  way,  by  the  ferry,  was  not  without  its  perils.1  Affairs 
now  moved  on  at  Cambridge  not  only  peacefully  but  prosper- 
ously, while  at  the  South  Church,  with  Mr.  Pemberton  to  share 
the  duties  and  responsibilities  of  the  pastorate,  there  was  well- 
sustained  life  and  growth. 

The  Rev.  Eliphalet  Adams  (Harvard  College,  1694)  had  been 
settled  as  permanent  assistant  at  Brattle  Street,  and  Judge 
Sewall  desired  to  hear  him  preach,  and  at  the  same  time  to 
show  his  continued  good  will  to  the  new  church.  He  there- 
fore spent  a  Sabbath  with  it,  and  has  left  us  the  following 
account: — 

Sabbath,  Novr.  30.  I  went  to  the  Manifesto  church  to  hear  Mr. 
Adams ;  Mr.  Coleman  was  praying  when  I  went  in,  so  that  I  thought 
myself  disappointed.  But  his  Prayer  was  short ;  When  ended,  he 
read  distinctly  the  137,  and  138th  Psalms,  and  the  seventh  of 
Joshua,  concerning  the  conviction,  sentence  and  execution  of  Achon. 
Then  sung  the  second  part  of  the  Sixty  ninth  Psalm.  Mr.  Brattle  set 
it  to  Windsor  Tune.  Then  Mr.  Adams  pray'd  very  well,  and  more 
largely;  And  gave  us  a  very  good  Sermon  from  Gal.  4.  18.  Doct.  It 
is  just  and  commendable  &c.     Mr.  Adams  gave  the  Blessing. 

In  the  Afternoon  Mr.  Adams  made  a  short  Prayer,  read  the  139th 
Psalm,  and  the  six  and  twentieth  chapters  of  the  Acts  :  Then  Agrippa 

1  The  death  of  the  Rev.  John  Cotton  consequence  of  an  accident  received  on 

in  1652  is  said  to  have  been  caused  by  his  way  home  from  Cambridge.     As  he 

exposure  to  the  wet  in  crossing  the  ferry  came  towards  the  ferry,  his  carriage  was 

from  Cambridge,  after  preaching  to  the  overset,   and    he   was    thrown   into   the 

students.  water.     A  fever  followed,  and  he  died 

Feb.  22,  1702-3.     "  Mrs.  Willard  and  at  the  end  of  a  week.     He  had  been  in 

several  of  her  children  had  like  to  have  Boston  only  fourteen  months, 

been  cast  away  coming  from  Cambridge  Another  route  to  Cambridge  was  by 

by  Water,  wind  was  so  very  high ;  put  ferry  to  Charlestown,  and  thence  by  the 

ashore  at  last  on  Muddy  River  Marsh  :  road.     Joseph  Sewall,  the  future  pastor 

Got  to  the  Governors  by  that  time  twas  of  the  South  Church,  when  in  college, 

dark."     (Sewall.)  used    to   go    between    Cambridge    and 

In    1729    Governor    Burnet    died    in  Charlestown  on  foot. 


A    SABBATH  AT  BRATTLE   STREET.  327 

said  —  Sung.  Mr.  Coleman  made  a  very  good  sermon  from  Jer.  31. 
23.  —  and  will  be  their  God,  and  they  shall  be  my  people.  Pray'd, 
sung  —  Contribution.     Gave  the  Blessing. 

I  spent  this  Sabbath  at  Mr.  Colman's  partly  out  of  dislike  to 
Mr.  Josiah  Willard's  cutting  off  his  Hair,  and  wearing  a  Wigg :  He 
preach'd  for  Mr.  Pemberton  in  the  morning ;  He  that  contemn's  the 
Law  of  Nature,  is  not  fit  to  be  a  publisher  of  the  Law  of  Grace : 
Partly  to  give  an  Example  of  my  holding  Communion  with  that 
Church  who  renounce  the  Cross  in  Baptisme,  Humane  Holidays  &c. 
as  other  New-english  Churches  doe.  And  I  had  spent  a  Sabbath  at 
the  Old  Church,  and  at  Mr.  Mathers.  And  I  thought  if  I  should  have 
absented  my  self  in  the  forenoon  only,  it  might  have  been  more  gravam- 
inous  to  Mr.  Willards  friends  than  keeping  there  all  day.  I  perceive 
by  several,  that  Mr.  Coleman's  people  were  much  gratified  by  my  giving 
them  my  Company,  Several  considerable  persons  express'd  them- 
selves so. 

Mr.  Josiah  Willard  had  joined  the  South  Church  in  the  March 
preceding,  and  for  more  than  fifty  years  he  was  one  of  its  most 
honored  and  useful  members.  He  soon  relinquished  the  clerical 
profession,  and  he  afterward  held  important  positions  in  the 
State.  As  time  went  on,  Judge  Sewall  and  he  became  warm 
friends. 

In  the  autumn  of  1702,  the  small-pox,  the  scourge  of  those 
days,  was  prevalent  in  Boston,  and  the  South  Church  suffered 
among  the  rest :  — 

Dec.  8.  Mr.  Robt.  Gibbs  dies,  one  of  our  Select  men,  a  very  good 
man  and  much  Lamented  ;  died  suddenly  of  the  Small  Pocks.  His 
death,  and  the  death  of  Jno.  Adams,  the  Master,  Isaac  Loring,  and 
Peybody,  is  a  great  stroke  to  our  church  and  congregation.  The  Lord 
vouchsafe  to  dwell  with  us,  and  Not  break  up  Housekeeping  among 
us ! x     (Sewall.) 

At  this  period  of  our  history,  the  records  of  the  church  are 
very  imperfect.  The  only  entry  made  between  February,  1700, 
and  May,  1705,  is  as  follows  :  — 

At  a  church  meeting  Octob.  17.  1703 

Then  voted  that  the  Land  in  Boston,  left  to  this  Church  by  the  last 
will  and  testament  of  Richard  Taylor  shall  be  sold,  and  Mr.  Simeon 
Stoddard,  together  with  the  Deacons,  Captain  James  Hill,  Capt.  Nathl 

1  [.Robert  Gibbs,  son  of  Robert,  who  which  the    son    inherited.      The   latter 

came  of  a  good   Warwickshire  family,  married  Maty  Shrimpton,  who,  in  1722, 

was   a  noted  merchant   in  Boston,  and  became  the  third  wife  of  Judge  Sewall. 

built  a  handsome  house  on   Fort  Hill,  She  died  in  1739-] 


328  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

Williams,  and  Capt.  Saml  Checkly,  are  fully  empowered  to  make  sale 
of  it  in  behalf  of  this  church  : 

attested  by  Saml  Willard 

Teacher. 

The  first  issue  of  the  first  newspaper  printed  in  North  Amer- 
ica—  the  Boston  News-Letter  — appeared  April  24,  1704. 
Its  proprietor,  John  Campbell,  and  its  printer,  Bartholomew 
Green,  were  members  of  the  South  Church,  and  it  was  natural 
that  there  should  be  a  reference  in  its  columns  to  one  of  the 
ministers  of  that  church  :  — 

The  20th.  the  Rev.  Mr.  Pemberton  Preach'd  an  excellent  Sermon 
on  Thes.  4.  n.  And  do  your  own  business,  which  his  Excellency 
[Joseph  Dudley]  has  ordered  to  be  printed. 

The  same  paper  mentions  the  death  of  Mr.  Nathaniel  Oliver, 
"  a  principal  merchant  of  this  place,"  on  the  15th  of  April,  at 
the  age  of  fifty-three.  Mr.  Oliver  had  been  a  member  of  the 
South  Church,  but  went  to  the  church  in  Brattle  Street  when 
this  was  founded. 

April  15.  1704.  Mr.  Nathanl  Oliver  dieth  between  3  and  4  in  the 
morning.     He  was  born  20  days  before  me. 

April  18.  Went  to  the  Funeral  of  Mr.  Nathanl.  Oliver:  Bearers, 
Sewall,  Walley ;  Legg,  Dummer  ;    Cooper, .     Govr.    was    there. 

Feb.  n.  1704-5.  Mr.  Pemberton  preaches  of  the  undoubted  Inter- 
est children  have  in  the  Covenant,  and  baptiseth  his  son  Ebenezer, 
who  was  born  February  6th.  Mrs.  Hannah  Savage,  Mr.  Phillip's 
daughter,  is  taken  into  the  Church,  though  next  Sabbath  be  the  usual 
Season.1     (Sewall.) 

The  church,  having  two  ministers,  needed  two  parsonages  for 
their  use.  Mr.  Willard  had  occupied  the  house  in  which  Gov- 
ernor Winthrop  and  after  him  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Norton  had  lived 
and  died.  Where  Mr.  Pemberton  had  been  living  since  his  mar- 
riage, we  do  not  know.  In  the  spring  of  1705  it  was  deter- 
mined to  proceed  to  the  erection  of  a  second  parsonage. 

[Friday]  May  4th  1705 

At  a  Church  meeting, 

Voted  —  Scil  :  That  it  is  convenient  that  an  other  house  be  built 
for  the  ministry  of  the  South  Church  in  Boston :  And  for  the  forward- 
ing of  the  work,  the  Church  do  consent  and  agree,  that  one  hundred 

1  [Ebenezer,  son  of  the  Rev.  Ebenezer  After  preaching  in  New  York  for  many 

Pemberton,     Harvard     College,      1721,  years,  he  was  settled  in   1754  over   the 

joined  the    South  Church  in  1725   sev-  New  Brick  Church,  Boston,  as  its  fourth 

eral  years  after  the  death  of  his  father,  and  last  minister.] 


A    SECOND  PARSONAGE.  329 

pound  of  their  stock  be  set  apart  for  that  use  if  there  be  need  of  it, 
and  the  intended  voluntary  subscription  will  not  amount  to  a  sufficient 
sum  without  it :  And  that  a  suitable  portion  of  the  land  adjoining  to 
the  meeting  house  be  set  apart  for  the  situation  of  the  intended  build- 
ing, with  convenient  accommodations. 

At  the  same  meeting, 

John  Walley  Esqr.  Andrew  Belcher  Esqr  Simeon  Stoddard  Esqr 
Capt.  Saml  Checkley,  and  Mr.  Thomas  Fitch,  were  desired  to  under- 
take the  promoteing  the  subscriptions,  to  receive  the  money,  and 
manage  the  work:  and  they  were  appointed  a  committee  for  these 
ends ;  any  three  of  them  to  have  power  to  act. 

Attest  Saml  Willard 

Ebenr  Pemberton. 

The  new  house  was  to  be  of  wood,  and  was  to  stand  in  the 
rear  of  the  meeting-house  in  Milk  Street  ;  the  work  upon  it 
seems  to  have  been  begun  at  once.  Sewall  tells  us,  on  his 
return  from  his  circuit,  on  the  1st  of  October :  — 

Drove  a  Pin  in  the  Ministers  House  which  I  found  Raising  ;  bolted 
on  the  Raisers  out  of  Bishop's  Lane  before  I  was  aware. 

The  house,  however,  was  not  completed  for  several  years, 
and  the  next  entry  on  the  books  of  the  church,  April  19,  1710, 
records  a  vote  of  thanks  to  the  building  committee.  In  the 
mean  time  there  were  to  be  many  changes  in  the  church  and 
congregation. 

Septr  10  1705.  In  the  Afternoon  I  went  to  speak  to  Mr.  Allen 
that  the  Lord's  Supper  might  be  celebrated  once  in  four  weeks,  as  it 
was  in  Mr.  Cotton's  Time  and  Mr.  Wilson's :  He  was  just  come  out 
of  his  house  with  Elder  Bridgham,  Elder  Copp,  Deacon  Marion  and 
Deacon  Hubbard :  I  pray'd  them  to  go  back  again,  and  open'd  my 
mind  to  them.  All  save  Mr.  Hubbard  plainly  remember'd  how  it  was 
in  Mr.  Wilson's  days  j  and  the  Alteration  upon  the  coming  in  of  Mr. 
Davenport,  upon  his  desire  because  he  had  it  so  at  Newhaven  :  and 
seem'd  inclinable  enough  to  alter  it.  Then  I  went  to  Mr.  Cooke, 
both  he  and  Madam  Cooke  remember'd  the  change,  and  seem'd  not 
displeas'd  with  my  proposal.  I  discours'd  with  Mr.  Pemberton,  and 
told  him  it  would  be  a  Honor  to  Christ,  and  a  great  Privilege  and 
Honor  to  Boston,  to  have  the  Lord's  Supper  administerd  in  it  every 
Lord's  Day  :  we  having  nothing  to  do  with  moneths  now ;  Their 
respect  now  ceases  with  the  Mosaical  Pedagogy.  [Gal.  hi.  24]  It 
seems  odd,  not  to  have  this  Sacrament  administred  but  upon  the  first 
day  of  each  Moneth  j  and  the  rest  of  the  Sabbaths  always  stand  by. 
(Sewall.) 

Judge  Sewall's  idea  was  that  all  Sabbaths  were  equally  sacred, 


330  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

and  that  neither  the  first  in  the  month,  nor  any  other,  should 
have  the  preeminence ;  and  that  as  there  were  four  churches 
of  the  established  order  in  Boston,  it  would  be  desirable  for 
them  to  have  the  Lord's  Supper  every  four  weeks,  each  church 
taking  a  different  Sabbath,  so  that  there  might 
be  an  administration  in  Boston  every  Lord's 
Day.  Although  the  last  part  of  Judge  Sewall's 
entry  is  somewhat  ambiguous,  we  are  inclined 
to  think  that  the  Lord's  Supper  had  always 
been  administered  at  the  South  Church  on  the 
fourth  Sabbath. 

On  the  6th  of  January,  1706,  Mr.  Willard 
baptized  a  child  from  one  of  the  humbler 
homes  in  the  parish,  and  gave  it  a  name  which, 
as  the  century  advanced,  was  to  be  written 
on  some  of  the  most  memorable  pages  of  the 
world's  history.  (We  present  a  fac-simile  of 
the  baptismal  record.)  It  is  unnecessary  to 
attempt  to  tell  here  who  Benjamin  Franklin 
was  or  what  he  did.  Who  and  what  his  par- 
ents were  is  not  so  well  known.  Josiah  Frank- 
lin belonged  to  a  respectable  family  in  North- 
amptonshire ;  in  England  he  was  a  dyer,  but 
P  &  £7*^  ~]*4  finding  little  request  for  this  occupation  on  his 
^  ift  ^  ^      arrival  on  these  shores,  he  became  a  soap-boil- 

-* 2.    er  and  tallow-chandler.     His  second  wife  was 

^     e*  Abiah,  a  daughter  of   Peter  Folger,  of  Nan- 

j      t  tucket,  and  at   the  time   of  the  birth  of  his 

i     **  youngest  son,  Benjamin,  he  was  living,  as  is 

generally  supposed,  in  a  small  house  near  the 
head  of  Milk  Street,  opposite  the  South  meet- 
ing-house.1    His  son  has  left  this  sketch  of 
^  him :  — 

k?  He    had    an   excellent   constitution,    was   of    a 

*"*"  middle  size,   but  well  made   and  strong,  and  ex- 

tremely active  in  whatever  he  undertook.  He 
designed  with  a  degree  of  neatness,  and  knew  a  little  of  music. 
His  voice  was  sonorous  and  agreeable  ;  so  that  when  he  sung  a  psalm 
or  hymn,  with  the  accompaniment  of  his  violin,  as  was  his  frequent 

1  Drake  thinks  that  Benjamin  Franklin  Streets,  where  his  father  lived  for  many 
was  born  in  a  house  —  the  "  Blue  Bell  "  —  years  after  he  left  Milk  Street.  See 
on  the  corner  of  Union   and  Hanover     Hist,  and  Antiq.  of  Boston,  pp.  492,  493. 


THE  PROPOSALS   OF  1705.  33 l 

practice  in  an  evening,  when  the  labours  of  the  day  were  finished,  it 
was  truly  delightful  to  hear  him.  He  was  versed  also  in  mechanics, 
and  could,  upon  occasion,  use  the  tools  of  a  variety  of  trades.  But 
his  greatest  excellence  was  a  sound  understanding  and  solid  judg- 
ment, in  matters  of  prudence,  both  in  public  and  private  life.  In  the 
former  indeed  he  never  engaged,  because  his  numerous  family,  and 
the  mediocrity  of  his  fortune,  kept  him  unremittingly  employed  in  the 
duties  of  his  profession.  But  I  well  remember,  that  the  leading  men 
of  the  place  used  frequently  to  come  and  ask  his  advice  respecting 
the  affairs  of  the  town,  or  of  the  church  to  which  he  belonged,  and 
that  they  paid  much  deference  to  his  opinion.  Individuals  were  also 
in  the  habit  of  consulting  him  on  their  private  affairs,  and  he  was 
often  chosen  arbiter  between  contending  parties. 

Josiah  Franklin  owned  the  covenant  in  1685,  and,  with  his 
wife,  became  a  communicant  in  1694.  It  will  be  seen,  as  we 
proceed,  that  he  was  highly  respected  and  esteemed  by  his 
brethren  in  the  church. 

An  attempt  was  made  at  this  time,  by  "  certain  "  ministers 
"in  and  about  Boston,"  to  change  some  of  the  foundation  prin- 
ciples of  Congregationalism  by  a  concentration  of  power  in  the 
ministerial  associations,  and  this  attempt  was  defeated  by  the 
sturdy  opposition  of  the  Rev.  John  Wise,  of  Ipswich.  A  docu- 
ment made  its  appearance,  addressed  to  the  churches  and  min- 
isters of  New  England,  bearing  the  unassuming  title,  Question 
and  Proposals.  It  was  anonymous,  and  purported  to  have  been 
prepared  by  an  association  of  ministers,  but  it  was  "understood 
to  have  been  the  work  of  the  Mathers,  backed  by  a  coterie  of 
clerical  admirers."  It  was  dated  November  5,  1705.1  John 
Wise,  says  Professor  Tyler,  "saw  its  true  character, — a  plot 
for  an  ecclesiastical  revolution,  and  a  revolution  backward  ;  and 
having  given  ample  time  for  the  scheme  to  work  its  way  into 
general  discussion,  at  last  he  lifted  up  his  hand,  and,  at  one  blow, 
crushed  it."     As  the  churches  need  to  be  on  their  guard  con- 

1  John  Wise  used  this  date  with  great  day ; '  and  we  are  every  man  ruined, 
effect :  "  The  fifth  day  of  November  has  being  running  Fawkes's  fate  !  Why,  gen- 
been  as  a  guardian  angel  to  the  most  tlemen,  have  you  forgot  it  ?  It  is  the 
sacred  interest  of  the  empire ;  it  has  day  of  the  gunpowder-treason,  and  a 
rescued  the  whole  glory  of  church  and  fatal  day  to  traitors.  ...  I  have  such 
state  from  the  most  fatal  arrest  of  hell  an  awe  upon  my  mind  of  this  very  day, 
and  Rome.  .  .  .  Had  I  been  of  the  that  of  all  the  days  of  the  whole  year,  I 
cabal  .  .  .  which  formed  these  proposals,  will  never  conspire  treason  against  my 
so  soon  as  I  had  seen  ...  the  date,  .  .  .  natural  prince,  nor  mischief  to  the 
I  should  have  cried  out  '  Miserere  nostri  churches,  on  the  fifth  day  of  November." 
Deus '  —  the  good  Lord  have  mercy  on  See  Tyler's  Hist,  of  Am.  Literattire, 
us.     This    is    the  '  gunpowder  -  treason  vol.  ii.  pp.  105-110. 


332  HISTORY  OF   THE   OLD   SOUTH   CHURCH. 

tinually,  in  the  defence  of  their  local  rights  as  against  the 
encroachments  of  a  centralizing  ecclesiasticism,  we  shall  pre- 
sent the  facts  of  this  controversy,  and  we  shall  do  so  in  the 
words  of  one  who  is  a  recognized  authority  on  the  Congre- 
gational polity.  These  words  were  uttered  thirty  years  ago, 
but  they  have  as  much  significance  and  importance  for  the 
present  generation  as  for  any  that  has  preceded  it. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  Boston  Association,  held  November  5th,  1705, 
sixteen  Proposals  were  drawn  up  and  put  forth  for  the  consideration  of 
the  "  several  associated  ministers  in  the  several  parts  of  the  country." 
These,  though  couched  in  plausible  terms,  and  embodying  some  useful 
hints,  were  nevertheless  repugnant,  in  their  general  spirit,  to  the  Cam- 
bridge Platform  and  the  popular  usage ;  or,  as  Mr.  Wise  describes 
them,  "they  seem  a  conjunction  of  all  the  church-governments  in  the 
world,  and  the  least  part  is  congregational,"  —  "  the  spectre  or  ghost  of 
Presbyterianism,"  —  "something  considerable  of  prelacy," — "some- 
thing which  smells  very  strong  of  the  infallible  chair."  The  Congre- 
gationalists  of  our  day,  grown  familiar  with  modern  innovations,  will 
fail  to  detect  in  these  proposals  all  the  ugly  features  here  portrayed, 
unless  they  follow  the  author  through  his  illustrations,  and  learn  to 
look  at  things  in  embrio,  et  in  rerum  natura,  to  cite  one  of  his  classical 
allusions.  The  leading  ideas  contained  in  them  may  be  reduced  to 
these  three  :  first,  to  give  the  ministerial  meetings,  which  were  then 
coming  into  vogue,  an  ecclesiastical  character  by  the  introduction  of 
business  pertinent  only  to  the  churches.  Second,  to  combine  these 
associations  of  ministers,  thus  ecclesiasticized,  and  enlarged  by  a  lay 
delegation,  into  standing  councils,  whose  decisions  in  all  ordinary  cases 
should  be  "  final  and  decisive."  Third,  to  allow  "  no  particular  pastor 
or  congregation  to  employ  any  one  in  occasional  preachings  who  has 
not  been  recommended  by  a  testimonial  under  the  hands  of  some 
association." 

On  this  last  point,  it  may  be  proper  here  to  remark  for  the  informa- 
tion of  those  not  familiar  with  "  the  old  ways,"  that  hitherto  a  "  li- 
cense "  or  "  approbation  "  to  preach  was  only  "  the  express  or  implied 
authority  granted  by  a  church  to  preach  to  them.1"  1  The  Congrega- 
tional churches  had  acknowledged  no  human  authority,  either  ministe- 
rial, prelatic,  or  civil,  as  a  pre-requisite  to  the  employment  of  any  one 
whom  they  chose  to  select.  They  would  submit  to  none  ;  though  they 
thankfully  availed  themselves  of  every  help,  especially  that  of  settled 
ministers,  in  finding  suitable  candidates. 

The  Cambridge  Platform  is  silent  upon  this  subject ;  but  John  Cot- 
ton, in  his  Way  of  the  Churches,2  indirectly  tells  us  how  ministers 
got  licensed  by  showing  "in  what  manner  they  were  chosen."    "  When 

1  \Cong.  Dictionary,  p.  214.]  2  [Pp.  39,  40.] 


THE  RIGHTS  OF  THE   CHURCHES.  333 

any  of  the  churches  are  destitute  of  any  of  these  officers,  the  breth- 
ren of  the  church  (according  to  the  apostle's  advice,  in  defect  of  dea- 
cons, and  so  in  defect  of  all  other  officers),  they  look  out  from  amongst 
themselves,  such  persons  as  are  in  some  measure  qualified  according 
to  the  direction  of  the  word.  If  the  church  can  find  out  none  such 
in  their  own  body,  they  send  to  any  other  church  for  fit  supply,  and 
each  church  looketh  at  it  as  their  duty  to  be  mutually  helpful  one  to 
another,  in  yielding  what  supply  they  may,  without  too  much  prejudice 
to  themselves.  Such  being  recommended  to  them  for  such  a  work, 
they  take  some  time  of  trial  of  them,  partly  by  their  own  observation 
and  communion  with  them,  partly  by  consultation  with  the  elders  of 
other  churches  continuing  there." 

In  theory,  therefore,  a  Congregational  church,  destitute  of  a  pastor, 
looked  over  their  own  list  of  members  for  a  suitable  candidate.  If 
they  could  find  one  of  sufficient  promise,  they  placed  him  in  the  pul- 
pit and  heard  him  preach,  and  applied  such  other  tests  as  they  deemed 
necessary  to  a  satisfactory  judgment  of  his  qualifications.  Their  own 
"  approbation "  was  all  the  testimonial  he  got  or  wanted.  If  they 
found  no  suitable  person  for  that  office  among  themselves,  they  looked 
into  other  churches,  consulted  the  ministers  of  those  churches,  con- 
sulted the  laymen,  conversed  with  the  candidate  recommended,  took 
him  into  the  pulpit,  took  him  to  their  houses,  — used  all  appropriate 
means,  —  and  then  "  lisenced  "  him,  if  he  stood  the  test,  and  settled 
him  if  he  and  they  could  agree. 

The  General  Court  undertook  to  interfere  with  this  right  in  1652, 
by  ordering  that  a  license  should  be  obtained  from  a  council  or  county 
court ;  but  so  determined  was  the  resistance,  that  the  order  was  re- 
voked the  following  year.  "  If  a  church  has  the  liberty  of  election 
and  ordination,"  said  the  Woburn  church  in  their  petition  on  the  sub- 
ject, "  then  it  has  the  power  of  approbation." x  Nearly  fifty  years 
later,  namely,  in  1699,  Increase  Mather,  with  nine  other  ministers, 
signed  and  sent  forth  their  Advice  unto  the  Churches  of  New  Eng- 
land, the  drift  of  which  was  "  to  beware  of  running  after  new  preach- 
ers, of  whose  endowments  and  principles  they  have  not  had  a  reason- 
able attestation,"  — expressing  also  their  own  intention  thenceforth  to 
admit  into  their  pulpits  "  no  stranger,  coming  as  a  preacher  without 
sufficient  assurance  of  his  being  what  he  pretends  to  be,"  except  by 
first  passing  him  through  "  a  solemn  examination  of  his  capacity  for 
the  tremendous  work  of  preaching  the  everlasting  Gospel."  But  this 
put  no  restraints  on  the  ancient  liberties,  or  the  existing  usages,  of  the 
churches  ;  nor  did  it  imply  that  their  trial  and  approbation  of  a  can- 
didate would  not  be  regarded  by  these  ministers  as  a  "  sufficient  assur- 
ance "  of  his  "  capacity "  to  preach.  It  was  simple  and  seasonable 
advice,  having  reference  particularly  to  illiterate  pretenders  coming 

1  [Mass.  Hist.  Collections,  vol.  i.  p.  42.] 


334  HISTORY  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

from  abroad ;  and  it  was  backed  up  by  considerations  like  the  follow- 
ing :  "  If  every  piece  of  ignorance  and  arrogance  be  set  up  for  a 
preacher,  the  name  of  the  holy  God  will  be  profaned  by  an  offering, 
that  is  made  a  ridicule  in  the  repetition."  "  If  God  should  be  pro- 
voked, by  the  unthankfulness  of  men,  to  send  the  plague  of  an  un- 
learned ministry  upon  poor  New  England,  soon  will  the  wild  beast  of 
the  desert  lie  there,  the  houses  will  be  full  of  doleful  creatures,  and 
owls  will  dwell  therein."  * 

Thus  the  matter  stood  when  these  sixteen  Proposals  came  out,  and 
called  forth  in  reply  that  excoriating  satire  from  the  pen  of  John 
Wise,  The  Churches'  Quarrel  Espoused ;  which  had  the  effect,  not 
only  to  explode  the  whole  project,  but  to  recall  the  churches  to  the 
first  principles  of  Congregationalism,  and  to  re-seat  them  on  their 
ancient  platform  more  firmly  than  ever,  for  the  next  sixty  years.  Even 
to  this  day  it  is  common  for  ministerial  bodies  to  insert  in  their  con- 
stitutions, or  rules  of  business,  a  disavowal  of  all  "  ecclesiastical  au- 
thority/' out  of  respect  to  an  inwrought  jealousy  among  the  churches, 
which  had  its  origin  in  this  affair.  The  sudden  and  complete  triumph 
which  this  small  book  achieved  is  the  more  remarkable,  when  it  is 
considered  that  the  proposed  innovations  were  supported  by  an  array 
of  names  which  were  deemed  a  tower  of  strength  to  any  cause  which 
had  their  endorsement.2 

Dec.  27.  Capt.  Belchar  invited  me  to  his  Thanksgiving  on  ac- 
count of  his  Son's  preservation. 

Friday  Dec.  28.  1705.  Mr.  Pemberton  prays  excellently,  and  Mr. 
Willard  Preaches  from  Ps.  66.  20  very  excellently.  ["  Blessed  be  God, 
which  hath  not  turned  away  my  prayer,  nor  his  mercy  from  me."] 
Spake  to  me  to  set  the  Tune  ;  I  intended  Windsor,  and  fell  into  High- 
Dutch,  and  then  essaying  to  set  another  Tune,  went  into  a  Key  much 
too  high.  So  I  pray'd  Mr.  White  to  set  it ;  which  he  did  well,  Litchf. 
Tune.  The  Lord  humble  me  and  Instruct  me,  that  I  should  be  occa- 
sion of  any  Interruption  in  the  Worship  of  God.  Had  a  very  good 
Dinner  at  three  Tables.  Had  the  Meeting ;  and  few  else  except  Re- 
lations in  Town,  and  me.  The  Lord  accept  his  Thank  -  offering. 
(Sewall.) 

Jonathan  Belcher,  who  was  born  in  1682,  and  graduated  at 
Harvard   College   in    1699,  with  Jeremiah    Dummer,  Edmund 

1  \Magnalia,   book   vii.    ch.    5.      This  was  signed  by  Increase  Mather,  James 

paper    was    dated     Boston,    December  Allen,  Samuel  Willard,  Moses  Fisk,  Ne- 

28,    1699,    and    its    full   title    was   "  A  hemiah  Hobart,  John  Danforth,  Cotton 

Faithful  Advice  from  Several  Ministers  Mather,     Nehemiah    Walter,    Jonathan 

of    the   Gospel    near   Boston   unto   the  Pierpont,  and  Joseph  Belcher.] 

Churches   of   New  England  relating  to  2  [Dr.  Joseph  S.  Clark's  Hist.  Sketch 

the   dangers    that   may  arise   from  Im-  of  the  Cong.  Churches  of  Mass.,  pp.  115- 

posters  pretending  to  be  Ministers."     It  118.] 


MR.    WILLARD' S  DEATH.  335 

Quincy,  Nathaniel  Eells  and  others,  had  just  returned  from  a 
long  absence  in  Europe.  He  married,  a  few  days  after  this 
thanksgiving  service,  Mary,  daughter  of  Lieut.-Governor  Par- 
tridge, of  New  Hampshire.  He  soon  became  a  very  prominent 
man  in  the  church  and  in  the  province. 

Wednesday,  March  6  1706  Council  of  Churches  held  at  Mr.  Wil- 
lard's.  They  advise  that  after  a  Moneth,  Mr.  Joseph  Morse  cease  to 
preach  at  Watertown  farms.  Adjourn'd  to  the  first  of  May.  Sharp 
Thunder  the  night  following.  Mr.  Gookin,  Capt.  Morse  and  Deacon 
Larned  dine  with  us.1     (Sewall.) 

Joseph  Mors,  or  Morse,  was  a  graduate  at  Cambridge  in  the 
class  of  1695,  with  (the  Rev.)  John  Hubbard,  Oliver  Noyes, 
Simon  Willard,  Ezekiel  Lewis,  and  others.  After  preaching 
for  some  time  at  Watertown  Precinct,  now  Weston,  he  removed 
to  Dorchester,  New  Village,  now  Canton. 

At  the  opening  of  the  autumn  term  at  Cambridge  in  1707, 
Mr.  Willard's  health  gave  way,  and  believing  that  he  should  not 
live  long,  he  resigned  his  position  as  acting  president.2  He 
continued  in  feeble  health  during  the  next  month,  but  was  able 
to  officiate  at  the  Lord's  table  on  the  first  Sunday  in  Septem- 
ber, and  to  be  present  at  the  weekly  lecture  on  the  following 
Thursday.  On  Friday,  at  noon,  he  cut  his  finger  at  the  dinner- 
table,  and  two  hours  later  he  died. 

Monday  Augt  n.  1707.  Mr.  Willard  goes  to  Cambridge  to  Ex- 
pound, but  finds  few  scholars  come  together  •  and  moreover  was  him- 
self taken  ill  there,  which  oblig'd  him  to  come  from  thence  before 
Prayer-Time. 

Tuesday,  Augt  12.  between  6  and  7.  I  visited  Mr.  Willard  to  see 
how  his  Journey  and  Labour  at  the  College  had  agreed  with  him  ;  and 
he  surpris'd  me  with  the  above-account ;  told  me  of  a  great  pain  in's 
head,  and  sickness  at  his  stomach  ■  and  that  he  believ'd  he  was  near 

1  ["The  church  in  Weston  was  sep-  Mr.  Prince  said,  several  years  later :  — 
arated  from  the  original  Watertown  "  I  shall  never  forget  His  admired 
church  November  2,  1709,  having  had  a  Expositions  Twice  a  Week  in  the  Hall, 
meeting-house  and  a  minister  for  the  His  Gracious  Deportment,  nor  the  copi- 
space  of  ten  years  previously.  The  Rev.  ous,  exact,  and  pathetical  Prayers  He  as 
William  Williams  was  ordained  their  frequently  poured  out  among  Us.  I  must 
first  pastor  when  the  church  was  organ-  ever  Remember  Him  with  peculiar  Es- 
ized."  —  Clark's  Hist.  Sketch  of the  Cong,  teem  and  Gratitude,  for  the  Heavenly 
Churches  of  Mass.,  p.  1 13.]  Gravity,    Condescention,    and     melting 

2  The  last  class  graduated  under  Mr.  Affection  wherewith  he  treated  me  in 
Willard  included  Joseph  Sewall,  Thomas  my  tender  Years,  when  he  took  me  aside 
Prince,  Ames  Cheever,  William  Shurt-  at  Colledge  to  incourage  and  direct  me 
leff,  and  Joshua  Moody.  in  the  Affairs  of  my  Soul." 


336 


HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 


his  end.  I  mention 'd  the  business  of  the  College.  He  desired  me 
to  do  his  message  by  word  of  Mouth ;  which  I  did,  Thorsday  follow- 
ing, to  the  Govr.  and  Council. 

Quickly  after  I  left  Mr.  Willard,  he  fell  very  sick,  and  had  three 
sore  Convulsion  Fits  to  our  great  sorrow  and  amazement. 

Thorsday,  Augt  14th.  When  the  Govr.  enquired  after  Mr.  Willard, 
I  acquainted  the  Govr.  and  council  that  Mr.  Willard  was  not  capable 
of  doing  the  College  work,  another  year  :  He  Thank'd  them  for  their 
Acceptance  of  his  service  and  Reward.  Govr  and  Council  order'd 
Mr.  Winthrop  and  Brown  to  visit  the  Revd.  Mr.  Willard,  and  Thank 
him  for  his  good  service  .the  six  years  past.  Sent  down  for  Concur- 
rence, and  Deputies  to  name  persons  to  join  in  the  Thanks  and  Con- 
dolence. Deputies  concur  and  nominat  the  Rever'd  Mr.  Nehemiah 
Hobart  to  officiat  in  the  mean  time  till  Octr.  next.  This  the  Govr  and 
Council  did  not  accept,  and  so  nothing  was  done.1 

Sept.  12.  Mehetabel  Thurston  tells  me  Mr.  Willard  was  taken  very 
sick.  I  hop'd  it  might  go  off,  and  went  to  Dinner ;  when  I  came  there, 
Mr.  Pemberton  was  at  Prayer,  near  concluding,  a  pretty  many  in  the 
Chamber.     After  Prayer,  many  went  out,  I  staid  and  sat  down  :  and 


1  [On  the  28th  of  October  the  Fellows 
of  Harvard  College  made  choice  of  the 
Rev.  John  Leverett  as  president.  He 
had  eight  votes,  Dr.  Mather  three,  Mr. 
Cotton  Mather  one,  and  Mr.  Brattle  of 
Cambridge  one.  Judge  Sewall  gives  a 
full  account  of  the  inauguration,  which 
took  place  on  the  14th  of  January, 
1707-S.  Joseph  Sewall,  who  had  taken 
his  first  degree  a  few  months  previously, 
pronounced  a  Latin  oration ;  and  so  did 
Edward  Holyoke,  who,  thirty  years  later, 
was  elected  president  as  the  successor  of 
the  Rev.  Benjamin  Wadsworth. 

From  Joseph  Sewall's  MS.  Diary :  — 

"  Oct.  8.  Dr.  Mather  called  Oakes  and 
my  self  to  the  Library.  .  .  .  Gave  us 
three  books  apiece.  Advised  us  to  get 
our  selves  informed  and  well  principled 
in  good  doctrine.  In  the  Method  and 
practice  of  the  New  England  Churches. 
That  we  should  pray  for  a  good  and 
learned  man  [for  the  presidency  of  the 
college].  Mr.  Willard  (He  said)  not  an 
academicall  Schollar. 

"  Nov.  3.  I  visited  Mr.  Pemberton. 
Some  of  his  instructions  such  as  these. 
1.  Lay  the  foundation  in  Systematicall 
Divinity.  2.  Church  History  profitable, 
Jewish  Antiquities.  3.  Academicall 
Studies  now  to  be  fixed  in  the  memory 


so  that  they  may  be  retain'd  ;  yea  to  be 
now  cultivated.  Little  time  for  any  other 
study  when  come  to  preach,  go  leave 
nothing  [to]  be  studied  till  then,  but  get 
some  insight  into  all  that  so  you  may 
then  study  them  with  greater  facility. 
4.  Get  a  knowledge  of  the  arguments 
of  every  Chapter  in  Scripture,  the  time 
of  writing,  occasion  &c.  5.  Study  not 
Divinity  as  Vintners  taste  Wine  ;  apply 
it  to  your  Self.  Mr.  Leverett  commended 
for  a  President.     6.  Naturall  Philosophy 


"  Nov.  13.  I  visit  my  M[aster]  Chee- 
vers.  His  Discourse.  Mr.  Leverett  not 
of  the  Old  Principles.  Examine  the  old 
way  and  the  new ;  Though  the  new 
should  be  the  right  yet  are  they  blame 
worthy  that  they  do  not  write  against 
the  Books  put  out  for  the  Old,  Show 
that  the  Scriptures  will  not  bear  what 
they  hang  upon  them  and  so  convince 
their  Brethren  that  they  may  not  remain 
in  error.  To  this  he  said  He  desired 
Mr.  Wadsworth  but  in  vain." 

We  are  indebted  to  Mr.  Samuel  Sewall 
of  Burlington,  Mass.,  for  the  use  of  the 
volume  of  the  Rev.  Joseph  Sewall's 
diary  (1 707-1 740)  from  which  these  and 
other  extracts  have  been  copied  for  this 
history.] 


MR     WILLARD'S  FUNERAL.  337 

in  a  few  minutes  saw  my  dear  Pastor  Expire :  it  was  a  little  after 
Two,  just  about  two  hours  from  his  being  taken.  It  was  very  surpris- 
ing :  The  Doctors  were  in  another  room  Consulting  what  to  doe.  He 
administred  the  Lord's  Supper,  and  Baptiz'd  a  child  last  Lord's  Day : 
Did  it  with  suitable  voice,  Affection,  Fluency.  Did  not  preach  :  f 
nth  went  to  Lecture  and  heard  Mr.  Pierpont.  At  even  seem'd  much 
better  than  had  been  lately.  Tis  thought  cutting  his  finger,  might 
brino-  on  this  tumultious  passion  that  carried  him  away.1  There  was 
a  dolefull  cry  in  the  house.  Feria  secunda,  f  15th.  Mr.  Willard  is 
laid  by  his  Tutor  in  my  Tomb,  till  a  new  one  can  be  made.2  Bearers, 
Dr.  Mather,  Mr.  Allen  ;  Mr.  Tho.  Bridge,  Mr.  C.  Mather  ;  Mr.  Wads- 
worth,  Mr.  Colman.  Fellows  and  students  of  the  College  went  be- 
fore. Mr.  Pemberton  led  Madam  Willard.  Govr.  and  his  Lady  had 
Rings  :  Bearers  Scarvs  and  Rings.  The  Lady  Davie,  and  Lady  Hob- 
bie  were  there.  Son  [Samuel]  Sewall  led  his  sister  [Madam]  Paul 
Dudley ;  he  being  gon  to  Plimouth  Court.  Very  Comfortable  Day. 
(Sewall.) 

Mr.  Pemberton  preached  the  funeral  sermon  of  his  departed 
colleague  from  Matthew  xxiv.  45,  46  :  "  Who  then  is  a  faithful 
and  wise  servant,  whom  his  Lord  hath  made  ruler  over  his 
household,  to  give  them  meat  in  due  season  ?  Blessed  is  that 
servant,  whom  his  Lord,  when  he  cometh,  shall  find  so  doing." 

We  have  already  quoted  from  this  sermon,  in  our  fourth 
chapter,  a  general  delineation  of  Mr.  Willard's  character  and 
attainments.  Of  his  pastoral  work,  Mr.  Pemberton  said  in 
closing  :  — 

His  affection  and  tenderness  to  this  his  dear  flock  was  singular. 
He  might  have  said  with  the  apostle,  that  he  could  have  imparted  with 
the  gospel  his  own  soul  to  them. 

As  a  wise  and  faithful  steward  over  this  house  of  Christ,  he  gave 
every  man  his  portion  in   due  season.     And  might  at  his  departure 

1  [The  Rev.  Joseph  Sewall,  in  his  the  South  Church  in  Boston  to  make  a 
Journal,  says:  "Sept.  15.  The  Rev.  Toomb  in  the  South  burying  place  nigh 
Mr.  Willard,  after  he  had  cut  his  finger,  the  upper  corner  therof  between  the 
while  eating  oysters,  went  up  to  his  fence  next  the  common  and  Mr.  Browns 
study,  called  his  wife,  thanked  her  for  Toomb,  for  the  Ministry  of  that  Church." 
her  kindness,  prayed  God  to  bless  them  —  Town  Records. 

all;    then  fell  into  a  convulsion,  about  July  31.  1712.     "Williams  calls  me  to 

noon,  which   in    two   hours'    time  {phis  the  Tomb,  I  go  into  it  to  view  the  order 

minus)  despatched  him  to  the  great  grief  of  things  in  it.     Mr.  Willard  was  taken 

and  sorrow  of  all  good  men."]  out  yesterday,  and  laid  in  the  new  Tomb 

2  [At  a  meeting  of  the  Selectmen,  built  by  the  South-Congregation."  — 
April  15.  17 1 2,  Sewall's  Diary. 

"  Liberty  is  granted  to  Major  Thomas  The  tomb  is  No.  160  in  the  Granary- 
Fitch  and  others  of  the  Committee  for     Burying-ground.] 


338  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

have  called  heaven  and  earth  to  record,  that  he  had  not  shun'd  to 
declare  the  whole  counsel  of  God,  and  was  pure  from  the  blood  of  all 
men. 

He  went  before  this  flock  as  a  good  shepherd,  gathering  the  lambs 
with  his  arm,  carrying  them  in  his  bosome,  and  gently  driving  those 
that  are  with  young:  And  is  now  gone  to  the  Great  Shepherd  of  the 
Sheep  ;  whose  flock  he  here  watch'd  over,  led,  fed  and  defended. 

He  took  his  Farewell  of  us  at  the  Table  of  the  Lord ;  and  we  shall 
enjoy  no  more  such  fellowship  with  him,  till  we  come  to  eat  bread  and 
drink  new  wine  with  him  ;  in  our  father's  presence.1 

Mr.  Willard  died  in  the  sixty-eighth  year  of  his  age,  and  the 
thirtieth  of  his  ministry  at  the  South  Church.  In  a  portrait 
before  us,  engraved,  as  we  suppose,  after  his  death,  we  see  a 
noble  head,  a  strong  but  kindly  face,  a  firm  and  dignified  bear- 
ing.2 It  is  an  ideal  representation  of  a  Puritan  leader  of  the 
seventeenth  century.  It  bears  the  legend,  quantte  pieta- 
tis  imago.3  In  the  bibliography  appended  to  this  history  the 
long  list  of  Mr.  Willard's  printed  works  will  be  found.  Among 
these,  his  Complete  Body  of  Divinity,  which  was  not  published 
until  nearly  twenty  years  after  his  death,  stands  preeminent.  It 
contains  the  substance  of  two  hundred  and  twenty  lectures 
delivered  by  him,  and  of  twenty-five  more  which  he  had  pre- 
pared.     He  had  come  to  the  consideration  of  the  Lord's  Prayer 

1  [Mr.  Pemberton  said  in  the  course  of  place  a  man  at  the  head  of  his  profes- 

his  sermon  :  —  sion  and  constitute  him  a  leader  in  the 

"  We   had  scarce  dry'd  our  eyes   for  community.      Sewall  speaks   of   him  as 

the  loss  of  one  Samuel,  but  providence  "a   laborious   faithful   divine,    excellent 

opens  anew  the  fountain  of  our  tears  by  in  prayer."     He  was  succeeded  in  Wey- 

afflicting  us  with   the  death  of  another,  mouth  by  the  Rev.  Peter  Thacher  (son 

It  is  well  if  the  conjunction  of  their  fu-  of  Thomas  Thacher,   Jr.,  and  his  wife 

nerals  be  not  portentous  of  further,  and  Mary,    daughter    of    Thomas    Savage), 

greater  calamities  ;  I  am  sure  it  will  be  whose  grandfather  he  had  succeeded.] 
so  if  it  be  not  laid  to  heart."  2  Mr.  Willard  was    inflexible    in    the 

This  was  a  reference  to  the  Rev.  Sam-  maintenance  of  his  opinions  and  thor- 
uel  Torrey,  who  died  April  21,  1707.  oughly  independent  in  action.  With 
He  was  the  successor  at  Weymouth  of  this  independence,  however,  there  was, 
the  Rev.  Thomas  Thacher,  and  preached  as  we  judge,  no  want  of  proper  consider- 
there  more  than  forty  years.  He  was  a  ation  for  the  opinions  of  others.  Edward 
man  of  broad  and  generous  sympathies,  Randolph  wrote  of  him  in  1682:  "He 
and  his  spirit  was  eminently  catholic,  is  a  moderate  man,  and  baptiseth  those 
He  was  a  warm  and  active  friend  of  the  who  are  refused  by  the  other  churches, 
Third  Church  during  all  the  period  of  for  which  he  is  hated."  John  Dunton 
its  controversy  with  the  First  Church,  said  of  him  in  16S6,  he  "  can  say  what 
He  was  also  friendly  to  Mr.  Colman  and  he  pleases." 

the  Brattle  Street  Church,  when  others         3  This  recalls   the  inscription  on  the 

were  bitterly  opposing  them.     He  is  said  tomb  of    Machiavelli  in  the  Church  of 

to  have  possessed  all  those  mental,  per-  Santa  Croce,  in  Florence  :   tanto  nom- 

sonal,   and   social    qualifications    which  ini  nullum  par  eulogium. 


MR.    WILLARD'S  "BODY  OF  DIVINITY:'  339 

when  the  course  was  cut  short  by  his  death.     Of  these  lectures 
an  accomplished  critic,  Professor  Tyler,  has  said  :  — 

Nineteen  years  before  his  death,  he  began  to  give  at  his  own  church, 
on  Tuesday  afternoons,  once  a  month,  an  elaborate  lecture  on  theol- 
ogy. His  was  a  mind  formed  for  theological  method.  He  did  not 
desire  to  impose  upon  himself  or  upon  any  one  a  slavish  submission 
to  a  theological  system ;  he  only  wished  to  get  for  himself  and  others 
the  clearness  and  vigor  and  practical  utility  that  come  from  putting 
one's  most  careful  ideas  into  orderly  combination.  He  was  a  theo- 
logical drill-sergeant.  He  was  also  a  truly  great  divine.  In  the  lec- 
tures upon  systematic  theology,  which  he  thus  began  in  1688,  and 
continued  unflinchingly  till  he  died,  his  object  was  to  move  step  by 
step  around  "the  whole  circle  of  religion."  The  fame  of  his  lucid 
talks  on  those  great  themes  soon  flew  abroad,  and  drew  to  him  a  large 
permanent  audience  of  the  learned  and  the  unlearned  ;  and  after  his 
death,  theological  students  and  others  kept  clamoring  for  the  publica- 
tion of  those  talks.     In  1726  all  such  persons  were  gratified. 

"  A  Complete  Body  of  Divinity  "  is  a  vast  book  in  all  senses ;  by 
no  one  to  be  trifled  with.  Let  us  salute  it  with  uncovered  heads. 
The  attempted  perusal  of  all  these  nine  hundred  and  fourteen  double- 
columned  pages  was,  for  many  a  theological  scholar  of  the  last  cen- 
tury, a  liberal  education,  and  a  training  in  every  heroic  and  heavenly 
virtue.  .  .  . 

The  thought  and  expression  of  this  literary  mammoth  are  lucid, 
firm,  close.  The  author  moves  over  the  great  spaces  of  his  subject 
with  a  calm  and  commanding  tread,  as  of  one  well  assured  both  of 
himself  and  of  the  ground  he  walked  on.  His  object  seemed  to  be, 
not  merely  to  enlighten  the  mind,  but  to  elevate  the  character  and  the 
life ;  and  whenever,  in  the  discussion  of  a  topic,  he  has  finished  the 
merely  logical  process,  he  advances  at  once  to  the  practical  bearings 
of  it,  and  urges  upon  his  hearers  the  deductions  of  a  moral  logic, 
always  doing  this  earnestly,  persuasively,  and  in  a  kingly  way.  The 
whole  effect  is  nutritious  to  brain  and  to  moral  sense  ;  and  the  book 
might  still  serve  to  make  men  good  Christians  as  well  as  good  theo- 
logians, if  only  there  were  still  left  upon  the  earth  the  men  capable 
of  reading  it.1 

The  work  was  published  with  an  introduction  by  the  Rev. 
Joseph  Sewall  and  the  Rev.  Thomas  Prince,  who,  evidently, 
were  in  full  sympathy  with  their  learned  predecessor's  method 
of  studying  theology,  not  dogmatically  or  slavishly,  but  intelli- 
gently and  independently,  subordinating  the  sign  to  the  sense, 
the  letter  to  the  spirit,  and  distinguishing  between  the  tradi- 
tions of  men  and  the  revealed  truth  of  God.     They  said  :  — 

1  [Tyler's  History  of  American  Literature,  vol.  ii.  pp.  167-169.] 


34°  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

If  by  Systematical  Divinity  be  meant  a  mere  slavish  Subjection  or 
Confinement  to  any  Schemes  thereof  what  ever,  conceiv'd  or  pub- 
lish'd  by  the  mere  Wit  of  men,  tho  founded  in  their  own  apprehen- 
sions on  divine  Revelation,  without  a  Liberty  reserv'd  of  varying  from 
them  upon  further  Discoveries  ;  our  Author  was  of  too  generous  and 
great  a  Soul,  and  had  too  deep  an  Insight  into  the  present  Imperfec- 
tion and  Fallibility  of  Humane  Nature,  than  to  be  capable  of  such  a 
Slavery.  He  was  indeed  a  Recommender  of  Divinity-Systems  even 
to  all  sorts  of  Persons,  and  especially  Young  Students,  in  order  to 
Methodize  their  Enquiries  and  Conceptions,  to  keep  their  minds  from 
wandering  and  Inconsistency,  and  help  them  to  see  the  Connection 
and  Harmony  of  divine  Truths ;  but  without  obliging  them  to  an  im- 
plicit servile  Subjection  to  any  mere  humane  Compositions.  And 
whatever  System  he  fell  into,  it  arose  from  a  careful  Scrutiny  into 
the  genuine  meaning  of  the  Holy  Scriptures,  with  a  deep  Penetration 
into  the  Nature  and  Relations  of  the  things  they  reveal ;  and  not 
from  any  mere  previous  Veneration  of  the  Systems  themselves  or 
their  renown'd  Compilers  or  Abettors,  tho'  worthy  of  ever  so  much 
esteem  :  making  use  of  their  Fame  and  Worth  as  Inducements  only 
to  peruse  their  Systems,  as  the  special  Fruits  of  their  laborious 
Searches  and  Discoveries,  and  their  most  mature  and  accurate  Ex- 
pressions of  them ;  and  making  use  of  their  Systems  only  as  the  best 
Assistances  to  form  a  perfect  notion  of  their  most  elaborate  Ideas, 
that  he  might  more  clearly  see  and  judge  of  their  Agreement  with  the 
Holy  Writings,  the  first  Foundation,  the  sovereign  Rule  and  the  der- 
nier Resort  of  all. 


CHAPTER   VII. 

1707-1717. 

CHURCH    WORK    AND    GROWTH. 

SHORTLY  after  Mr.  Willard's  death,  a  day  of  fasting  and 
humiliation  was  observed  by  the  church,  the  sister  churches 
participating  with  it,  in  accordance  with  the  custom  of  those 
days.  Death  was  regarded  not  as  a  servant  sent  by  the  Re- 
deemer to  bring  his  children  home  to  their  rest  and  reward,  so 
much  as  an  avenging  angel  commissioned  to  punish  a  commu- 
nity, or  a  church,  or  a  family,  by  the  removal  of  prominent  or 
beloved  members  from  their  sight.  Mr.  Willard's  sermon  on 
the  death  of  Major  Savage,  in  168 1,  to  which  we  have  already 
referred,  was  entitled  The  Righteous  Man's  Death  a  Presaging 
of  Evil  Approaching ;  and  a  reference  in  it  to  several  recent 
bereavements  was  in  these  words  :  "  Since  the  time  wherein 
God  by  [or  through]  his  servants  began  to  treat  us  with  these 
warnings,  his  hand  hath  bin  awfully  out  upon  us  in  taking  away 
eminent,  useful,  publique  and  pious  men."  When  the  Hon. 
John  Walley  died  in  171 2,  Mr.  Pemberton  said  in  his  funeral 
sermon  :  "  It  becomes  the  whole  land  to  resent  his  removal, 
and  this  church  in  particular :  for  God  hereby  has  made  a 
breach  upon  us,  and  taken  away  one  of  our  main  and  most  an- 
cient pillars.  And  if  we  do  not  resent  and  improve  the  hand 
of  God,  we  shall  have  reason  to  fear  lest  God  smite  us  with 
breach  upon  breach,  and  remove  more  of  those  ancient  and  hon- 
ourable senators,  which  are  now  no  small  part  of  our  strength 
and  glory."  x 

Thursday,  Oct.  2,   1707.      Fast  at  the  South  church.     Mr.  Wads- 
worth  prays,  Mr.  Pemberton  preaches :  Mr.  Bridge  prays  and  gives 

1  Mr.    Willard's    Thursday    Lecture,  for  the  godly  man  ceaseth,  etc. ;"  he  said  : 

July  17,  1701,  on  the  death  of  William  "  Hence   we    may   also   see    the    awful 

Stoughton,  was    entitled   Prognostics   of  frowns  of  God  upon  this  town  and  land 

Impending  Calamities.  in  the  ceasing  and  failing  of  such  ;  what 

When  the  Hon.  Thomas  Cushing  died  abundant  reason  we  have  to  be  deeply 

in  1746,  Mr.  Prince  preached  his  funeral  affected  therewith,  and  earnestly  cry  to 

sermon  from  Psal.  xii.  i,  "  Help,  Lord  ;  the  Lord  for  help." 


342  HISTORY  OF   THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

the  Blessing.  Capt.  Atwood,  Bernard,  Gooding,  Atkins  go  home  with 
me  at  Noon.  I  give  each  of  them  one  of  Mr.  W.  Williams's  Sermons, 
p.  m.  Mr.  Cotton  Mather  Prays,  Dr.  Mather  Preaches,  prays,  gives 
the  Blessing.     Was  a  great  Assembly.1 

Octr.  3.  had  a  Meeting  of  the  Church  and  Congregation  :  But  very 
thin,  Several  came  not  because  Mr.  Pemberton  said  [in  giving  the 
notice  for  the  meeting,]  Gentlemen  of  the  church  and  Congregation ; 
affirmed  they  were  not  Gentlemen  and  therefore  they  were  not  warned 
to  come.  Mr.  Pemberton  prayed,  upon  debate  appointed  this  day 
sennight  for  the  meeting.     (Sewall.) 

This  last  passage  illustrates  the  sharply  defined  social  dis- 
tinctions which  were  then  recognized  and  accepted.  The 
church  evidently  had  under  consideration  the  question  of  set- 
tling a  colleague  pastor,  or  at  least  of  giving  Mr.  Pemberton 
assistance  in  his  pulpit  work,  for  he  was  not  a  strong  man  physi- 
cally. On  the  10th  of  the  following  February,  Judge  Sewall 
kept  "  a  private  day  of  prayer  with  fasting,"  as  was  his  habit 
from  time  to  time,  and  in  the  record  of  the  "general  heads"  of 
his  meditations  and  prayers  we  find  these  words  :  "  Bless  the 
South  Church  in  preserving  and  spiriting  our  Pastor  ;  in  direct- 
ing unto  suitable  Supply,  and  making  the  Church  unanimous." 
Six  years  passed,  however,  before  a  colleague  pastor  was  settled. 

On  the  arrival  in  Boston  harbor  of  several  overdue  ships 
from  London,  Sewall  says,  Friday,  October  24,  1707:  "Thanks 
were  given  on  this  account  at  Mr.  Willard's  Meeting,  which  was 
kept  at  his  widows  House  this  Afternoon  ;  began  between  1  and 
2.  Mr.  Wadsworth,  Colman  pray'd,  Mr.  Pemberton  preach'd 
and  pray'd  excellently."  We  suppose  this  to  have  been  a 
private  meeting  held  by  the  ministers  of  the  town,  perhaps 
monthly,  and  that  it  would  have  been  Mr.  Willard's  turn  to 
have  it  at  his  house  had  he  lived. 

Nov.  23.  1707  Mr.  Pemberton  preaches  more  fully  and  vehe- 
mently against  being  cover'd  in  Sermon  time.  p.  m.  Simeon  Stod- 
dard, the  Son  of  A[nthony]  Stoddard,  is  baptised.2  David  Stoddard 
and  others  taken  into  Church.     (Sewall.) 

1  [Mr.  Joseph  Sewall  says  :  "  Private  were   gathered   together    and   lamented 

Fast.    South  Church.  A.  M.    Mr.  Wads-  him.      He  said  would  not  make  a  Fu- 

worth  prayed,  Mr.  Pemberton  preached  neral    Sermon,   yet  would   speak   some 

from  Eccles.  7.  14 — In  the  Day  of  ad-  things  which  he  knew  to  be  true.     He 

versity  consider.     Mr.  Bridge  concluded,  spoke  of  Mr.  Willard's  Strictness,  Ortho- 

P.  M.      Mr.    C.    Mather    pray'd.      Dr.  doxy  in  the  matter  of  Justification."] 

Mather    preachd    from    1   Samuel  25.  1.  2  [Simeon,  son  of  Anthony  and  Martha 

And  Samuel  died  and  all  the  Israelites  (Belcher)  Stoddard  :  Harv.  Coll.,  1726.] 


THE  REV.   JOHN  LEVERETT.  343 

We  have  been  unable  to  satisfy  ourselves  in  relation  to 
"being  cover'd  in  Sermon  time,"  against  which  Mr.  Pemberton 
preached  on  this  occasion,  and  to  which  Mr.  Gookin  is  supposed 
to  have  referred,  in  a  sermon  at  the  South  meeting-house  several 
months  later.  It  looks  very  much  as  though  the  men  were  in 
the  habit  of  putting  on  their  hats  after  the  devotional  exercises 
were  concluded,  and  during  the  delivery  of  the  sermon. 

Governor  Fitz  John  Winthrop,  of  Connecticut,  was  buried 
from  the  Council  Chamber,  December  4. 

Mr.  C.  Mather  preached  a  funeral  Sermon  for  G[overnor]  Winthrop. 
Gen:  5.  11. — And  He  (Enoch)  died.  One  reason  He  gave  for  his 
taking  this  text  was  Enoch  being  Son  to  Shem,  grandson  to  Adam  : 
then  He  instanct  in  the  Shephards,  [see  ante,  pp.  236-238]  after  said 
that  the  Family  of  the  Winthrops  had  something  peculiar  :  Three 
John  Winthrops  (when  this  is  buried)  will  lay  in  the  same  Tomb. 
Two  by  a  peculiar  providence  came  to  die  here.  Said  twas  nothing 
inconsistant  to  Speak  of  a  Man's  good  actions  and  yet  disapprove  his 
evil  ones.  The  funeral  was  perform'd  with  great  solemnity.  (Joseph 
Sewall.) 

The  long  dispute  between  the  Mathers  and  the  party  repre- 
sented by  Thomas  Brattle  came  to  a  head  when  the  Rev.  John 
Leverett  was  chosen  president  of  Harvard  College,  to  fill  the 
vacancy  created  by  the  resignation  and  death  of  Mr.  Willard. 
This  choice  was  a  triumph  for  the  liberal  party,  to  which  Gov- 
ernor Dudley  had  attached  himself.1  Dr.  Mather,  Mr.  Cotton 
Mather,  Mr.  Bridge,  and  Mr.  Allen  absented  themselves  from 
the  exercises  of  inauguration,  and  so  did  some  prominent  laymen, 
Wait  Still  Winthrop,  Elisha  Hutchinson,  John  Foster,  and  Peter 
Sergeant.  Among  those  who  went  to  Cambridge  on  the  occa- 
sion were  Mr.  Pemberton,  Mr.  Wadsworth,  one  of  the  ministers 
of  the  First  Church,  and  Mr.  Colman  ;  and,  among  the  laymen, 
Penn  Townsend,  Edward  Bromfield,  Simeon  Stoddard,  Eliakim 

1  John  Leverett,  born  in  1662,  was  a  ment  to  promote  the  holy  religion  here 

grandson  of  Governor  Leverett.     After  practiced  and  established,  by  instructing 

completing  his  studies  he  preached  for  a  and  fitting  for  our  pulpits  and  churches, 

time,  then  practised  as   a   lawyer,    and  and  other  public  and  useful  service,  such 

became  speaker  of   the  House  of  Rep-  as  shall  in  this  School  of  the  Prophets 

resentatives  and  a  judge  of  the  superior  be  committed  to  his  care  and  charge." 

court.     In  appointing  him  president  of  Thirty-nine  ministers  signed  an  address 

the  college,  the   Fellows   expressed  the  to    Governor  Dudley,    expressing    their 

hope  that  he  would  "lay  aside  and  de-  "great  joy"  at   the  appointment.     The 

cline  all  interfering  offices  and  employ-  altogether  inadequate  salary  of  £\spper 

ments,  and  devote  himself  to  said  work,  annum    was    voted,    payable    from   the 

and  be  a  very  able  and  faithful  instru-  public  treasury. 


344  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

Hutchinson,  and  Andrew  Belcher.  From  the  names  on  the  two 
sides  we  judge  that  the  lines  were  drawn  not  altogether  by 
churches.  A  few  days  after  the  inauguration,  virulent  letters 
were  addressed  to  the  governor  by  Increase  and  Cotton  Mather, 
and  these  naturally  widened  the  breach.1  On  the  31st  of  Jan- 
uary, Judge  Sewall  met  Mr.  Pemberton,  who,  says  the  former, 
"  talk'd  to  me  very  warmly  about  Mr.  Cotton  Mather's  Letter  to 
the  Governor,  seem'd  to  resent  it,  and  expect  the  Governor 
should  animadvert  upon  him.  Said  if  he  were  as  the  Governor 
he  would  humble  him  though  it  cost  him  his  head  ;  Speaking 
with  great  vehemency  just  as  I  parted  with  him  at  his  Gate." 
The  Thursday  Lecture  gave  opportunity  for  the  expression 
of  the  indignation  which  others  felt  in  common  with  Mr. 
Pemberton. 

Febr.  5.  Mr.  Colman  preaches  the  Lecture  in  Mr.  Wadsworth's 
Turn,  from  Gal.  5.  25.  If  we  live  in  the  Spirit,  let  we  also  Walk  in 
the  Spirit.  Spake  of  Envy  and  Revenge  as  the  Complexion  and  Con- 
demnation of  the  Devil ;  Spake  of  other  walking :  it  bloted  our  ser- 
mons, bloted  our  Prayers,  bloted  our  Admonitions  and  Exhortations. 
It  might  justly  put  us  upon  asking  our  selves  whether  we  did  live  in 
the  Spirit,  whether  we  were  ever  truly  regenerated,  or  no.  'Tis 
reckon'd  he  lash'd  Dr.  Mather  and  Mr.  Cotton  Mather  and  Mr.  Bridge 
for  what  they  have  written,  preach'd  and  pray'd  about  the  present 
Contest  with  the  Governor.  I  heard  not  of  it  before,  but  yesterday 
Col.  Townsend  told  me  of  Dr.  Mather's  Prayer  J  any.  25,  Wherein  he 
made  mention  of  One  in  Twenty-Eight  being  faithfull ;  which  makes 

1  For  these   letters,  see  Collections  of  and  moderate,  with  something  of  caustic 

Mass.  Hist.  Soc,  ist  series,  vol.  iii.  pp.  sarcasm  in  its  tone  and  tenor,  especially 

126-134.  hi  its  galling  reminder  to  the  Mathers 

"  The  letters  of  the  Mathers,  father  and  that   their   conceit    and    assumption    of 

son,  to  Governor  Dudley,  and  Dudley's  clerical   power  were    well   observed   by 

single  reply  to  both  of   them,  — always  their  brethren  and   by  the  people  gen- 

excepting   some    of   the   documents   re-  erally,  and  that  their  glory  was  for  the 

lating  to  the  troubles  with  the  Quakers  future  to  fade.     The  governor  allowed  a 

—  are  the  most  embittered  in  their  per-  fortnight  to  pass  before  he  sent  this  let- 

sonalities  and   invectives   of   the  whole  ter,  and  thus  gave  his  wrath  a  space  for 

mass  of  highly  seasoned  papers  which  cooling,  while  he  had  the  advantage  of 

have   been    preserved   in   our   cabiuets.  deliberation.      During  this  interval,  the 

The   Mather   letters   are   dated   on  the  fact   that   the    Mathers   had   written  to 

same    day,   January   20,     1707-8.      The  Dudley  in  a  somewhat  pointed  way  had 

father  contented  himself  with  what  cov-  become  noised  abroad  by  one  or  another 

ers,  in  print,  two  pages  of  octavo  ;  the  of  the   parties    having   divulged  it,  and 

son   wrote   at   three   times  that  length,  those  most  concerned,  especially  Cotton 

Perfidy,  hypocrisy,  bribery,  cruelty,  and  Mather,  were  waiting  the  result."  —  The 

corrupt  dealing  in  divers  forms  are  the  Rev.  Dr.  Geo.  E.  Ellis,  in  the  Memorial 

burden  of  the  charges  against  the  gov-  History  of  Boston,  vol.  ii.  p.  45.     (Chapter 

ernor.   The  reply  is  to  a  degree  dignified  on  the  Royal  Governors  of  Mass.) 


JAMES  OR  ST.   JAMES?  345 

many  look  on  me  with  an  evil  eye  :  supposing  Dr.  Mather  ment  my 
withdrawing  my  vote  of  the  first  of  Novr.     (Sewall.) 

In  the  autumn  following,  the  state  of  Mr.  Pemberton's  health 
was  the  cause  of  anxiety  among  his  people. 

Sept.  9.  I  speak  to  Mr.  Pemberton  that  a  Day  of  Prayer  may  be 
kept  respecting  his  Health.      It  ^ 

was  mov'd  last  night  at  Mr.  Josiah       dfrff  Q-ff      _  (frOshlfFn^ 
Franklin's  at  our  Meeting,  where    O  0  Ai  M-'^- 

I  read  the  Eleventh  Sermon  on 

the  Barren  Fig-Tree.     Tis  the  first  time  of  Meeting  at  his  House  since 
he  join'd  [the  meeting]. 

Deer.  5,  1708.  Mr.  Nathanael  Gookin  preaches  in  the  forenoon; 
I  think  every  time  he  mention'd  James,  twas  with  prefixing  Saint: 
about  4  or  5  times  that  I  took  notice  of.  I  suppose  he  did  it  to  con- 
front me,  and  to  assert  his  own  Liberty.  Probably  he  had  seen  the 
Letter  I  writt  to  Mr.  Flint.1  Spake  also  of  Reverence  in  Gods  Wor- 
ship ;  he  may  partly  intend  being  Cover'd  in  Sermon-Time  :  It  had 
better  becom'd  a  person  of  some  Age  and  Authority  to  have  inter- 
meddled in  things  of  such  a  nature.  Qucedam  Confidentia  non  est  vir- 
tus, at  audacia. 

Apr.  29.  1709.  about  4.  post  m.  the  Dragon  Frigat  arrives  at  Nan- 
tasket,  in  whom  come  Col.  Nicholson,  Col.  Vetch,  Mr.  Jonathan 
Belchar,  Mr.  Giles  Dyer,  Mr.  Bill,  Mr.  Walley,  Capt.  John  Alden  and 
others. 

Novr.  6th  Lord's  day;  Mr.  Rowland  Cotton  preach'd  in  the  fore- 
noon ;  Mr.  Corwin  in  the  Afternoon.  Mr.  Pemberton  had  propounded 
Hannah  Butler  to  renew  her  Baptismal  Covenant;  and  now  mention'd 
it,  and  said  she  had  sin'd  scandulously  against  the  7th  Command- 
ment ;  read  her  Confession  immediately,  and  by  the  silential  vote 
restored  her.  I  think  it  is  inconvenient,  when  persons  have  so  fallen, 
not  to  give  the  Church  some  previous  notice  of  it ;  that  the  Brethren 
may  have  Opportunity  to  enquire  into  the  Repentance.     An  ignorant 

1  [Sewall  wrote  to  Henry  Flint  August  Saint   James   &c.    has   been  disused   in 

23,  1708,  as  follows  :  —  New-England.     And  to  take  it  up  again, 

"  Sir,  I  thank  you  for  your  good  Ser-  is  distastefull   to   me  ;    because   it  is  a 

mon  yesterday.      The  subject  is  excel-  Change  for  the  Worse.     I  have  heard 

lent,  and  always   seasonable  ;  and  now  it  from  several ;  but  to  hear  it  from  the 

peculiarly  so.     Continue  to  pray,  that  I  Senior  Fellow  of    Harvard   College   is 

may   have   the   Integrity  and    Upright-  more  surprising  ;   lest  by  his  Example 

ness  exhorted  to ;  and  that  I  may  grow  he  should  seem  to  countenance  and  Au- 

therein.  thorize  Inconvenient  Innovations.    Thus 

"Upon  this  occasion,  you  will  allow  I  reckon;  but  if  reckoning  without  my 

me  the  freedom  of  speaking  what  I  have  Host,  I  reckon  wrong;  your  Adjusting 

lately  been  often  thinking.  the  Account,  will  gratify 

"  According  to  the  Simplicity  of  the  Sir,  your  humble  Servant 

Gospel,   the    saying    Saint    Luke,    and  Samuel  Sewall."] 


346  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

Consent  is  no  Consent.  And  I  understood  Mr.  Pemberton  that  he 
would  not  go  in  that  way  again.  Once  before  he  did  it,  saying  he 
knew  not  of  it  when  the  party  was  propounded.1 

Thursday,  Nov.  24.  Thanksgiving  Day,  Mr.  Pemberton  preached 
forenoon  and  Afternoon,  from  Psal.  29.  3  latter  part  of  the  verse. 
["  The  Lord  is  upon  many  waters."]  In  the  afternoon  he  express'd 
his  dislike  of  the  Guns  fired  by  the  Ships  and  Castle,  as  not  sutable 
for  a  Day  of  Thanksgiving. 

[1709-10.]  Lord's-day,  Jany  8.  My  old  Friend  Mr.  John  Hubbard 
dyes,  in  the  forenoon,  just  before  the  Exercise  began.  Mr.  Pemberton 
makes  a  pathetical  mention  of  it  in  his  Prayer,  and  that  we  might  fol- 
low him  so  far  as  he  followed  Christ ;  mention'd  him  as  a  real  Chris- 
tian.    Madam  Hubbard  put  up  a  Note.     Alias  Leverett.2     (Sewall.) 

After  a  silence  of  five  years  the  church  records  give  us  the 
following  votes,  and  then  there  is  an  hiatus  until  1718  :  — 

At  a  church  meeting  April  19.  17 10 

Voted  —  that  the  thanks  of  this  church  be  given  to  the  Honourable 
John  Walley  Esqr.  Andrew  Belcher  Esqr.  Simeon  Stoddard  Esqr.  Col. 
Samuel  Checkly,  and  Capt.  Thomas  Fitch,  who  were  appointed  a 
committee  to  build  a  ministerial  house,  for  their  great  care  and  pains 
in  building  the  same  ;  and  that  their  accounts  be  allowed,  and  that 
the  Deacons  take  care  to  pay  to  the  said  committee  one  hundred  thirty 
pound,  nine  shillings  and  fourpence,  which  remains  due  to  balance, 
out  of  the  church  stock. 

Voted  —  That  in  honour  to  the  memory  of  the  Revd.  Mr.  Saml 
Willard,  our  late  Pastor,  this  church  do  allow  some  sutable  assist- 
ance to  the  support  of  his  relict ;  and  that  the  Honourable  Samuel 
Sewall  Esqr.  Peter  Sergeant  Esqr.  Capt  Ephraim  Savage,  Mr.  Sam- 
uel Phillips,  be  appointed  a  committee  to  joyn  with  the  Deacons,  to 
advise  and  determine  what  allowance  shall  be  made  out  of  the  church 
stock,  to  Mrs.  Eunice  Willard,  from  time  to  time,  as  her  circumstances 
shall  require,  and  our's  can  allow;  and  that  this  committee  stand  for 
two  years.3 

Voted  —  That- our  Pastor  E.  Pemberton  be  desired  to  remove  into 
the  new  ministerial  house  when,  and  as  soon  as  he  shall  see  it  conve- 
nient so  to  do.  Ebenr.  Pemberton 

Pastor. 

1  [We  do  not  find  the  name  of  Hannah  Leverett.  They  evidently  belonged  to 
Butler  on  any  of  the  church  lists.  There  the  South  congregation,  but  we  do  not 
are  no  entries  on  the  list  for  those  who  find  their  names  on  the  list  of  members 
owned  the  covenant  between   1706  and  of  the  church.] 

17 17.]  8  [The  church  gave  Mrs.  Willard,  for 

2  [Mr.  Hubbard  was  a  son  of  the  Rev.  her  support,  ^40  per  annum  for  four 
William  Hubbard,  of  Ipswich;  and  his  years,  and  £\o  for  entertaining.  See 
wife  was  Ann,  daughter    of    Governor  ante,  p.  228,  note.] 


THE  NEW  PARSONAGE   COMPLETED. 


347 


Why  it  should  have  taken  five  years  to  complete  the  new  par- 
sonage,1 we  cannot  say  ;  perhaps  the  money  was  not  forthcom- 
ing, or,  there  may  have  been  the  feeling  that  it  was  not  needed 
immediately.    We  pre- 
sent   a    plan    of     the 
ground  floor  as  drawn 
by  Thomas  Dawes  in 
1770. 

[1 710.]  April,  30-  Lord's 
day  :  In  the  Evening  be- 
fore the  dismission  of 
the  Assembly  ;  Mr.  Pem- 
berton  said,  The  Minis- 
ters of  the  Town  had  ap- 
pointed next  Thorsday 
to  be  kept  as  a  Fast  for 
Rain  ;  to  turn  the  Lec- 
ture into  a  Fast ;  and 
God's  beginning  to  send 
Rain  would  not  be  a  discouragement. 


s 


V. 


1 


(Sewall.) 

Mr.  Pemberton  preached  the  Election  Sermon  on  the  31st  of 
May,  from  the  words  "  I  have  said,  Ye  are  gods,  but  ye  shall 
die  like  men."  His  subject  was:  The  Divine  Original  and 
Dignity  of  Government  Asserted  ;  and  an  Advantageous  Pros- 
pect of  the  Rulers  Mortality  Recommended.  There  was  a 
dinner  afterward  at  the  Green  Dragon.  On  the  5th  of  July 
Joseph  Sewall  took  his  Master's  degree  at  Cambridge.  In  Au- 
gust he  preached  his  first  sermon  in  the  South  meeting-house. 

Augt.  15.  p.  m  I  pray'd  with  Joseph  in  Cous.  Dummer's  Chamber, 
respecting  his  being  call'd  to  preach  for  Mr.  Pemberton  the  next 
Lord's  Day  at  the  South-Meeting-house.  Then  I  read  the  13th  of 
Matthew  and  Joseph  concluded  with  Prayer.     I  hope  God  heard  us. 

Lord's  Day,  Augt.  20.  Mr.  Joseph  Sewall  preaches  for  Mr.  Pem- 
berton, from  Ps.  73.  28.  But  it  is  good  for  me  to  draw  near  unto 
God  :  stood  a  little  above  an  hour.  Before  we  went  out  of  the  seat, 
Majr  Genl  [Wait  Winthrop]  congratulated  me  on  account  of  my  son  ; 
said  he  had  done  Pie  et  Docte.  In  the  Afternoon,  Mr.  Pemberton 
traced  much  of  his  Discourse  in  his  Prayer. 

Augt.  21.  The  Deacons  come  and  deliver  him  20s.  Col.  Check- 
ley  very  cheerfully  congratulated  me  on  account  of  my  Son's  very  good 
Sermon.     Capt.  Hill  congratulated  me,  coming  in  first.     (Sewall.) 


1  See  ante,  p.  329. 


34^  HISTORY  OF   THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

Three  years  later  this  young  man  was  ordained  and  installed 
as  Mr.  Pemberton's  colleague.1 

Novemr.  19.  Mr.  Pemberton  preaches  from  Gen.  33.  5.  And  he 
said,  The  children  which  God  hath  graciously  given  thy  Servant.  Bap- 
tis'd  his  Son  [born  on  the  17th]  having  named  him  William.     (Sewall.) 

At  this  time  Judge  Sewall  had  a  serious  falling  out  with  his 
minister,  which,  happily,  was  not  of  long  duration.  It  grew 
chiefly  out  of  the  old  controversy  between  the  Mathers  and  the 
Brattles.  The  former  claimed  that  they  had  been  libelled  in 
some  pamphlets  recently  published ;  and  Judge  Sewall  and  Mr. 
Bromfield,  whose  sympathies  had  been  decidedly  on  the  other 
side,  felt  it  to  be  their  duty  as  magistrates  to  issue  warrants  to 
bring  the  authors  into  a  justice's  court,  where,  although  they 
were  defended  by  Mr.  Thomas  Brattle,  they  were  fined  and 
bound  over  to  the  Sessions.  On  the  same  day,  Mr.  Pemberton, 
having  come  to  Judge  Sewall's  house  by  invitation,  to  meet  the 
president  of  the  college  and  Mr.  Sergeant  at  dinner,  at  once 
attacked  his  host  with  the  remark,  What,  you  have  been  hold- 
ing a  court  to-day !  An  explanation  was  offered,  but  this  did 
not  satisfy  Mr.  Pemberton,  who  proceeded  to  denounce  the 
Mathers  "with  extraordinary  vehemency,"  saying,  "If  the 
Mathers  ordered  it,  I  would  shoot  him  thorow."  The  judge 
told  him  he  was  in  a  passion,  which  he  denied,  and  the  rejoinder 

1  The   following  paper,  addressed  to  Society  and  your  Humble   Servants  to 

the    overseers  of  seats,  has    been   pre-  Command 

served: —  Joshua  Hinchy. 

Boston,  Sepr  4th  1710  James  Bliss 

Wee  the  Subscribers  being  under  some  Stephen  greenleaf 

Inconveniency  for   Want  of    accomma-  Samll  greenleafe 

dations   in   the    South   Church   for  our  Thos  Daws 

Wives  and  being  Willing  to  be  at  the  John  Flack 

Cost  of   makeing  those  accomadations  Thos  Salter 

that    are    Nessesary,  —  Provided    your  Richd  Hall 

Honours  with  the  other  Gentlemen  of  Samll  Salter 

the  Committy,  would  please  to  grant  us  Mr  pell  ye  painter 

our  Request,  which  is  to  Have  the  lib-  Henery  Howell 

erty  to  add  to  the  ffront  of  the  Womens  David  Craigg 

galleries  Soe  much  In  bredth  as  to  make  Robt  Pattashall 

room  for  one  teer  of  Chairs.     In  Each  Josiah  ffranklin 

Seat,  the  persons  Now  owning  the  Seats  Thomas  Chamberlin 

to  possess  the  front  and  Second  Ranke  To  the   Gentlemen    that    are    of    the 

of  Chairs  our  Wives  to  Have  the  Backe  Committy  for   Seating   persons  In    the 

part  to  them  selves  —  Which  adition  Will  South  Church, 
make  Room  for  Eighteen  persons  more, 

and  be  Noe  Inconveniency  to  Noe  Body  This  request  was  granted  April  6,  1711. 
but  oblidge  us  Who  are  freinds  to  the 


JUDGE   SEW  ALL   AND  HIS  MINISTER.  349 

was  made  to  him,  "  So  much  the  worse."  He  then  upbraided 
the  judge  very  plainly  "with  partiality,"  to  which  charge  the 
answer  was  made  that  his  carriage  was  "neither  becoming  a 
scholar  nor  minister."  The  president  said  that  the  governor 
had  been  "  barbarously  treated  "  by  Dr.  Cotton  Mather,  to  which 
the  judge  replied  that  that  matter  had  been  under  consideration 
before  the  Council.  Judge  Sewall  in  his  diary  adds :  "  The 
Truth  is  I  was  surpris'd  to  see  my  self  insulted  with  such  ex- 
traordinary Fierceness,  by  my  Pastor,  just  when  I  had  been 
vindicating  two  worthy  Embassadors  of  Christ  (his  own  usual 
Thrase)  from  most  villanous  libels."  After  dinner,  when  they 
were  all  on  their  way  to  the  Council  Chamber  in  the  Town  Hall, 
to  attend  a  meeting  of  the  Commissioners  of  the  Society  for 
the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel,  Mr.  Pemberton  renewed  the  dis- 
pute with  the  judge,  and  with  so  much  warmth  that  Mr.  Ser- 
geant, who  was  walking  in  front  with  the  president,  turned  back 
to  still  them  in  the  street. 

On  the  next  Sunday,  in  the  afternoon,  Mr.  Pemberton  or- 
dered the  first  five  verses  of  the  58th  Psalm  to  be  sung.  Sew- 
all  says  :  "  I  think  if  I  had  been  in  his  place,  and  had  been 
kindly  and  tenderly  affectioned,  I  should  not  have  done  it  at 
this  time.  Another  Psalm  might  have  suited  his  Subject  as 
well  as  the  5th  verse  of  this.1  Tis  certain,  one  may  make  Libels 
of  David's  Psalms  ;  and  if  a  person  be  abused,  there  is  no  Rem- 
edy :  I  desire  to  leave  it  to  God  who  can  and  will  Judge  Right- 
eously." A  few  days  later  Sewall  went  to  see  his  minister,  to 
expostulate  with  him,  but  there  was  no  reconciliation  at  that 
time.     He  was  particular,  however,  to  call  on  Mrs.  Pemberton, 

1   [The  editors  of  SewalPs  Diary,  be-  Or  must  not  Innocence  appeal 
ing  in  doubt  as  to  whether  the  Bay  Psalm  to  Heav'n  Irom  y°ur  Decree  ? 

Book   or  Tate   and   Brady's  version   was  Your  wicked  Hearts  and  Judgments  are 
then  in  use  at  the  South  Church,  quote  alike  by  Malice  sway'd ; 

from  both,  as  follows.  Your  griPing  Hands,  by  weighty  Bribes, 

In   the   former,  the  fourth    and   fifth  t0  Vi°'enCe  betrayed 

verses    of  the   58th    Psalm  are    thus   ren-  To  Virtue,  strangers  from  the  Womb 

dered  :  their  Infant  Steps  went  wrong  : 

They  prattled  Slander,  and  in  Lyes 
Their  poyson's  like  serpents  poyson  ;  employ'd  their  lisping  Tongue. 

they  like  deafe  Aspe,  her  eare  .T    _  -  ...    .,.,    „       , 

tW  «™      ti,.     u    v.  •     ,      1  No  Serpent  of  parch  d  Afric's  Breed 

that  stops.      1  hough  charmer  wisely  charme,  j     .         ,       tT  •        i_ 

1,;=  „™„„  „u        -u       ..  i_  doth  ranker  Poison  bear ; 

his  voice  she  will  not  heare.  „,  ...         ... 

1  he  drowsy  Adder  will  as  soon 

Tate  and  Brady  thus  render  the  five  ,,nlock  his  sullen  Ean 

verses  :  —  Unmov'd  by  good  Advice,  and  deaf 

as  Adders  they  remain  ; 
Speak,  O  ye  Judges  of  the  Earth  From  whom  the  skilful  Charmer's  Voice 

if  just  your  Sentence  be:  can  no  attention  gain.] 


35°  HISTORY  OF   THE   OLD   SOUTH   CHURCH. 

to  inquire  for  the  baby,  and  to  give  a  "  tip  "  to  the  nurse.  On 
the  first  Sunday  in  January,  having  ascertained  that  it  would 
be  Mr.  Wadsworth's  turn  to  administer  the  Communion  at  the 
First  Church,  he  attended  service  there  all  day.  On  the  23d 
of  the  same  month  he  records  :  "  Mr.  Pemberton  visits  us  and 
prays  Excellently."     The  breach  was  healed. 

Lord's  Day  Feb  4.  1710-11  Mr.  Joseph  Sewall  preaches  for  Mr. 
Colman  p.  m  :  prays  for  Col.  Foster.     Mr.  Pemberton  Prays  for  him.1 

Feb.  5.     Joseph  returns  to  the  College. 

Feb.  18.     Joseph  preaches  at  the  North  [meeting-house]. 

Feb.  19  Returns  to  Cambridge.  Capt.  Atwood  comes  after  his* 
going  away,  brings  20s.  ;  speaks  very  favourably  of  my  Son. 

March  2.  Joseph  comes  to  Town ;  this  morning  Mr.  Pemberton's 
desire  that  he  should  preach  for  him  was  told  him  by  Mr.  Flint,  which 
comply'd  with,  though  he  was  to  preach  at  Mrs.  Bridghams  in  the 
evening. 

March  4.  To  my  apprehension  God  assists  my  Son  remarkably  in 
prayer  and  preaching.  I  hope  tis  an  Answer  of  my  prayer  last  Mid- 
week.    Preaches  again  in  the  Evening. 

March  6.     Joseph  visits  Mr.  Pemberton. 

April  15.  Mr.  Pemberton  is  indisposed  as  was  administring  the 
Lord's  Supper.  Had  so  much  of  a  Fever  as  to  keep  him  at  home  in 
the  Afternoon,  by  which  means  Mr.  Holyoke  was  alone.     (Sewall.) 

The  reference  in  the  last  sentence  quoted  is  to  the  Rev.  Ed- 
ward Holyoke,  a  graduate  of  the  college  in  1705,  and  afterward, 
from  1737  to  1769,  its  president.  He  was  preaching  from  time 
to  time  for  Mr.  Pemberton,  and  was  one  of  those  who  were 
thought  of  for  the  colleagueship.  He  became  minister  of  the 
Second  Church  in  Marblehead  in  17 16. 

One  of  the  great  fires  of  Boston  occurred  in  the  autumn  of 
171 1.  "  It  broke  out  in  an  old  Tenement  within  a  back  Yard 
in  Cornhill,  near  the  First  Meeting-house,  occasioned  by  the 
carelessness  of  a  poor  Scottish  Woman,  by  using  Fire  near  a 
parcel   of    Ocum,    Chips    and   other    combustible    Rubbish."2 

1  [This  was  Colonel  John  Foster,  an  Church,  Mr.  Tho.  Bridge  pray'd,  Mr. 
eminent  merchant  and  a  member  of  the  Pemberton  preach'd :  just  as  had  done 
Council,  who  died  Feb.  9,  1710-11.]  his  Sermon  and  stood  up  to  pray,  a  Cry 

2  News-Letter;  Drake's  History  and  of  Fire  was  made,  by  which  means  the 
Antiquities  of  Boston,  p.  541.  The  build-  Assembly  was  broken  up,  but  it  pleas'd 
ing  in  which  the  fire  began  was  owned  God  the  Fire  was  wonderfully  Quench'd. 
by  Ephraim  Savage.  The  Old  Meeting-  The  wind  was  Southwardly,  so  that  if  it 
House  and  Town  House  had  had  a  nar-  had  proceeded  from  the  Tavern  Ancor 
row  escape  a  few  years  before.  Sewall  [the  Blue  Anchor],  probably  the  old 
says,    August,     1704:    "At    the    South  Meeting   House   and   Townhouse  must 


THE  FIRST   CHURCH  BURNT  OUT.  35 1 

Hutchinson  says  it  began  in  or  near  Williams's  Court.  "  All 
the  houses  on  both  sides  of  Cornhill  [Washington  Street],  from 
School  Street  to  what  is  called  the  stone-shop  in  Dock-square, 
all  the  upper  part  of  King  Street  on  the  south  and  north  side, 
together  with  the  Town-House,  and  what  was  called  the  Old 
Meeting-house  above  it,  were  consumed  to  ashes." 

The  South  Church  was  prompt  to  offer  hospitality  to  its 
brethren  of  the  First  Church  in  their  trouble,  and  it  opened  its 
doors  to  them,  not  for  separate  services,  but  for  worship  and 
the  administration  of  the  Sacraments  in  common  fellowship. 

Sunday,  Oct  7.  Mr.  Pemberton  stays  the  Church,  who  vote  to 
have  the  Pastors  of  the  First  Church  to  officiat  with  us  alternately  in 
Preaching  and  administering  the  Sacraments  :  and  to  be  recompensed 
as  our  Minister.     (Sewall.) 

We  have  to  depend  upon  the  records  of  the  First  Church 
for  the  precise  form  in  which  this  action  was  taken,  and  for  the 
letter  of  Mr.  Pemberton  in  which  it  was  communicated. 

Boston,  October  12,  17 11. 
Reverend  Gentlemen 

The  Church  of  Christ  which  I  stand  related  to  having  considered 
the  present  dispersion  of  your  flock  thro'  the  holy  hand  of  God  in 
the  late  desolation  of  their  meeting-house,  thought  it  a  proper  and 
necessary  expression  of  their  Christian  love  and  Regards  to  your 
selves  and  flock  to  pass  the  Votes,  a  coppy  of  which  I  now  send  you, 
according  to  their  desire,  which  you  may  communicate  to  your  church 
if  you  think  proper.  The  Votes  were  passed  with  the  greatest  una- 
nimity and  readiness.  It  will  be  to  the  last  degree  pleasing  to  us  to 
have  the  advantage  of  your  gifts  and  graces  in  every  article  desired. 
The  last  Vote,  which  invites  you  to  administer  the  special  Ordinances 
with  us  in  your  turn,  we  hope  will  be  agreeable  to  your  Church  ;  for 
sure  we  are  it  is  a  point  of  fellowship  which  is  Justifiable  by  the  first 
and  stricktest  principles  of  these  Churches. 

The  alwise  God  has  holy  ends  which  he  is  carrying  on  by  the  pres- 
ent dark  dispensation  your  people  are  under ;  and  if  it  may  but  be 
serviceable  to  advance  the  spirit  of  [unity  among  these  churches  of] 
Christ  in  this  Towne,  whereby  we  shall  be  better  qualifyed  for  the 
society  of  the  Assembly  of  the  First  born  above,  wee  shall  all  have 
reason  to  bless  and  adore  the  Holy  Providence  of  Heaven. 

May  our  gracious  God  speedily  and  peaceably  repair  your  desola- 
tions, building  up  and  beautifying  your  church  with  greater  measures 

have  been  consumed  and  a  great  part  of  this  Deliverance.  Dr.  Incr.  Mather 
the  Town  beside.  Ministers  express'd  pray'd,  Mr.  Willard  preach'd  and  then 
great  Thankfulness  in  the  Afternoon  for     pray'd." 


352  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

of  his  Holy  Spirit ;  may  all  under  your  charge  be  your  crown  and  joy 
in  the  day  of  Christ.  This,  Reverend  Brethren,  shall  be  allwayes  the 
prayer  of  your  affectionate  Brother 

Ebenr  Pemberton. 

At  the  meeting  of  the  church  in  the  South  part  of  Boston  October 
7th  It  was  Voted  That  the  Rev.  Mr.  Bridge  and  Mr.  Wadsworth,  Pas- 
tors of  the  ffirst  Church  in  Boston  be  desired,  during  the  present  dis- 
persion of  their  fflock,  to  carry  on  alternately  one  halfe  of  the  work 
of  preaching  in  this  Congregation. 

That  the  Deacons  of  this  Church  make  the  same  weekly  allowance 
to  them  for  this  service  that  they  do  to  our  own  pastor. 

That  the  Reverend  Mr.  Bridge  and  Mr.  Wadsworth  be  desired,  also, 
to  take  their  turns  in  the  Administration  of  Baptism  and  the  Lord's 
supper  with  us.  Ebenr  Pemberton.1 

A  similar  invitation  came  from  the  Brattle  Street  Church,  and 
both  were  accepted ;  the  members  of  the  scattered  congrega- 
tion divided  their  attendance  between  the  two  meeting-houses, 
and  their  ministers  performed  half  the  services  in  each.  This 
arrangement  continued  for  a  year  and  a  half,  until  the  comple- 
tion of  a  new  meeting-house  for  the  First  Church  upon  the  old 
site. 

Octobr  11.  Fifth-day,  Fast.  A  collection  was  made  for  sufferers 
by  the  Fire ;  Two  Hundred  Sixty  odd  pounds  gathered  at  the  South 
church,  the  oldest  Meetinghouse  in  Town.2 

Octob.  28.  Joseph  preaches  for  Mr.  Colman,  who  is  at  Salem  ; 
Reads  the  Scripture.  Mr.  Pemberton  prays  largely  for  the  Lieut 
Govr  [William  Tailer],  that  God  would  make  him  a  Blessing  like  his 
predecessor,  meaning  Mr.  Stoughton.  Mr.  Wadsworth  p.  m.  pray'd 
for  the  Govr,  Lt  Govr,  and  all  in  Authority ;  Baptis'd  2  children. 
(Sewall.) 

Dec.  18.  The  Old  Church  keeps  this  Day  as  a  Day  of  Fasting 
and  prayr,  that  God  would  sanctify  the  late  desolating  judgment,  and 
prosper  them  in  building  a  New  House  for  their  Publick  Worship.8 
(J.  Sewall.) 

1  [In  printing  this  letter,  we  have  fol-  was   rung   until   the   new  house   of  the 

lowed  Ellis's  History,  pp.  168,  169.     Dr.  First  Church  was  built.     At  a  meeting 

Wisner  prints  it  with  very  slight  varia-  of   the  selectmen,  October   15,    171 1,   it 

tions  from  the  above.  Mr.  Emerson  prints  was   ordered   that    Mr.  Williams   "  with 

it  in  his  History,  p.  158,  and  says   that  the  leave  of  Mr.  Pemberton's  church  do 

it  "  embalms    in   the   memory  of    First  ring  that  bell  at  nine  at  night  and  five  in 

Church  the  piety,  good  sense,  and  sym-  the  morning."] 
pathy  of  a  Pemberton."]  3  [These  services  were  probably  held 

-  [This  fast  was   observed  in  all  the  in  the  South  meeting-house,  as  Mr.  Pem- 

churches,  and  about  £700  were  collected,  berton  took  part  in  the  afternoon.     We 

The  bell  of  the   South  meeting-house  quote  from    the   Rev.  Joseph    Sewall's 


DEATH  OF  JOHN  W ALLEY.  353 

Decern.  23.  Very  sharp  Weather ;  yet  serene,  and  had  a  comforta- 
ble day :  Mr.  Pemberton  administred  the  Lord's  Supper.  Mr.  Bridge 
baptized  John  Grice. 

Decern.  31.  Major  Walley  has  prayer  at  his  house  respecting  his 
Foot ;  began  between  2  and  3  p.  m.  Mr.  Pemberton  first,  Mr.  Bridge, 
Mr.  Colman,  Mr.  Wadsworth,  Dr.  C.  Mather.  Mr.  Wadsworth  in- 
sisted pretty  much,  that  several  in  the  room  might  dy  before  Major 
Walley  ;  all  of  them  might.  Dr.  C.  Mather  very  near  the  Conclusion 
of  his  Prayer,  said,  Probably,  some  remarkable  person  in  the  room 
might  dye  before  Major  Walley.  Major  Walley  was  easy  all  the  time 
of  the  exercise,  had  not  one  Twinging  pain.     (Sewall.) 

Major  Walley  died  January  11,  1711-12.  Judge  Sewall  says 
of  him  :  "  He  was  a  good  Neighbour,  a  publick  spirited  Man,  a 
Purchaser  and  principal  Settler  of  Bristol.'1  He  held  important 
military  and  judicial  positions.  Ouincy  says  of  him,  in  connec- 
tion with  the  expedition  against  Quebec  in  1690  :  "  He  was  sub- 
jected, like  all  unsuccessful  commanders,  to  the  suspicion  of  mis- 
conduct. But  although  he  solicited  an  investigation,  none  was 
granted.  Public  opinion  finally  settled  into  a  firm  conviction 
that  the  causes  of  the  failure  were  insufficiency  of  preparation 
and  ignorance  of  the  difficulty  of  the  attempt,  rather  than  want 
of  courage  and  talent  in  the  commander."1  Mr.  Pemberton 
preached  his  funeral  sermon,  which  was  printed  under  the  title, 
A  True  Servant  of  his  Generation  Characterized. 

Mr.  Joseph  Sewall  had  been  preaching  in  Salem,2  and  he  now 
received  a  call  to  become  the  pastor  in  the  new  precinct  there. 
Judge  Sewall  went  to  Cambridge,  to  consult  with  the  president  of 
the  college  and  Mr.  Brattle  ;  they  did  not  advise  an  acceptance 
of  the  call.  Drs.  Increase  and  Cotton  Mather  and  Mr.  Pemberton 
advised  against  it,  and  it  was  declined  on  the  8th  of  January, 
when  a  committee,  consisting  of  Captain  Gardiner,  the  younger, 
Mr.  Felton,  and  Mr.  Foster,  came  to   Boston  to  urge  it.     Mr. 

MS.  Diary  for  the  years  1711-1716,  be-  of  a  descendant,  Samuel  Hurd  Walley, 

longing  to   Professor  Edward   E.   Salis-  preached  at   the  Old   South,  November 

bury,  of  New  Haven,  who  has  given  us  25,  1877,  Dr.  Manning  said  of  this  inscrip- 

every  opportunity  for  examining  it.]  tion:  "The  words  could  hardly  be  truer 

1  Hist,  of  Harv.  Univ.,  vol.  i.  pp.  422,  there  than    they  would  be  at  the  fresh 

423.     Major   Walley   bequeathed   £100  made  grave  at  Mount  Auburn." 

to  Harvard  College,  to  be  applied  to  the  2  Mr.   Sewall   preached  for    the  new 

support   of    "  scholars    devoted    to   the  parish  in  Salem  on  Sunday,  December  9, 

ministry."      His   father   was    the    Rev.  from  Heb.  vii.  25,  and  2  Cor.  iv.  17  ;  and 

Thomas  Walley,  of  Barnstable,  who  was  on  Wednesday,  December  12,  he  preached 

called   on  his  tombstone  "  that  blessed  the  lecture  for  Mr.  Noyes,  from  John  xiv. 

son  of  peace."     In  the  funeral  sermon  27. 


354  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

Sewall  says  in  his  diary  :  "  I  declined  it,  though  not  without 
pain.  Their  expressions  of  love  and  respect  were  truly  affect- 
ing and  extraordinary.  .  .  .  The  differences  at  Salem,  the  diffi- 
culty of  calling  a  church,  the  distance  of  the  place  from  my 
friends,  the  suddenness  of  the  thing,  among  other  considerations 
sway'd  with  me."1 

Mr.  Sewall  records  a  fire  on  the  12th,  when  "Gray's  Baker 
House  and  Kitchen,  most  of  Brightman's  House  were  consum'd." 
This  was  not  very  far  from  the  South  meeting-house,  in  Bishop's 
Lane,  now  Hawley  Street.2 

Midweek,  Febr.  27.  Fast  at  the  South-church  in  order  to  call  a 
Minister.  Mr.  Colman  began  with  Prayer,  Mr.  Pemberton  Preach'd 
excellently ;  Mr.  Wadsworth  pray'd.  p.  m.  Dr.  Cotton  Mather  pray'd 
Excellently  :  Dr.  Incr.  Mather  preach'd  a  very  good  sermon,  Mr. 
Bridge  pray'd.  Sung  2  first  Staves  67.  Ps.  Dr.  Mather  gave  the 
Blessing.     Great  Auditory. 

Midweek,  March,  19th.  Church  Meeting;  each  gave  in  one  vote: 
I  alleg'd  twas  fit  to  give  two  votes,  seeing  Two  were  to  be  Nominated  ; 
But  Mr.  Pemberton  stood  for  the  first  and  twas  carried  :  Mr.  Joseph 
Stephens  had  19.  Written  Votes  ;  Mr.  Joseph  Sewall  44.  Mr.  Flint, 
4.  Mr.  Holyoke,  2.  Before  voting,  Capt.  Belchar  mov'd  it  might  be 
kept  secret  what  Number  each  had  ;  I  oppos'd  it  as  a  Novel  [nov- 
elty] ;  and  should  not  know  whether  any  had  above  two  votes ;  some 
others  seconded  me  ;  and  that  was  best.     (Sewall.) 

The  South  Church  came  to  a  Vote  today.  The  agreement  was  that 
those  Two  who  were  highest  in  the  votes  should  be  in  nomination. 
Mr.  Stevens  had  nineteen  votes,  I  had  forty  four,  which  were  all  but 
six.  Lord  direct  in  that  affair.  Things  were  carried  on,  as  it  is  said, 
amicably  and  peacably.     (J.  Sewall.) 

Mr.  Sewall  had  been  preaching,  in  the  mean  time,  for  Dr.  In- 
crease Mather  at  the  North  Church,  for  Mr.  Brattle  at  Cam- 
bridge, and  at  Charlestown  and  Watertown. 

Lord's  Day  March  23.  Heard  Mr.  Eels  [at  Scituate].  Rain'd  hard 
last  night  and  somthing  this  day  ;  Thin  Meeting. 

Midweek,  April,  2.  Congregational  Meeting  at  South-Church. 
What  the  Church  had  done  in  their  Nomination,  was  by  a  Silential 
Vote  Approved.     The  Money  left  in  ^Eneas  Salter's  hand,  is  to  be 

1  [Benjamin  Prescott,  Harv.  Coll.,  1709,  three  groce  of  pailes  Sutable  to  be  used 
accepted  a  call  to  the  Middle  District,  in  case  of  the  breaking  out  of  Fire,  be 
Salem,  and  was  ordained  there  Septem-  provided  at  the  Townes  Charge,  and 
ber  23,  1713.]  that  Mr.  Daniell  Oliver  and  Capt.  Oliver 

2  At  a  meeting  of  the  selectmen,  Jan-  Noyes  be  desired  to  procure  the  Same." 
uary   21,    1711-12,   it  was   voted  "That     — Town  Records. 


A    COLLEAGUE  PASTOR   CHOSEN.  355 

improv'd  in  making  a  Tomb  for  the  South-church  Ministry.  I  was 
not  at  the  Meeting  ;  because  Some  had  given  out  that  they  would  have 
both  the  persons  Nominated.  I  went  to  Mr.  Pemberton's  before-hand 
and  intimated  to  him ;  that  Such  debates  might  happen  that  I  might 
not  know  well  how  to  demean  myself,  and  therefore  had  thoughts  of 
not  being  at  the  Meeting.  Speaking  of  Mr.  Eels,  and  enquiring  how 
he  preach'd,  I  Comended  him  ;  and  Mr.  Pemberton  upon  it,  with  a 
very  remarkable  Aer  Said,  his  Pupils  could  do  worthily,  he  was  one 
of  them.     I  gave  no  occasion  at  all  for  that  Air.1 

Sixth-day,  April,  25th.  Church-Meeting  in  the  Afternoon :  Mr. 
Pemberton  enquired  whether  were  ready  to  proceed;  Answer  d  Affirm- 
atively. Whether  would  goe  by  a  majority,  or  two  Thirds :  were  for  a 
Majority  as  the  usual  way.  Voted  by  papers ;  Mr.  Joseph  Stevens 
had  Twenty  votes  ;  Mr.  Joseph  Sewall,  Forty  seven.  Mr.  Pemberton 
pray'd  earnestly  for  them  both.  Mr.  Commissary  [Belcher]  sent  his 
vote  seal'd  up.     Major  Genl  [Winthrop]  is  at  New-London. 

April,  26.  Mr.  Pemberton  prays  with  Joseph  [who  had  been 
brought  home  from  Cambridge,  sick,  a  few  days  before]. 

April,  27.  Mr.  Wadsworth  prays  very  much  for  him  as  Elected  j 
and  Mr.  Pemberton  p.  m. 

Lord's  Day,  May,  4th  17 12.  Mr.  Pemberton  speaks  to  the  Congre- 
gation, and  by  a  Silential  Vote,  Mr.  David  Jeffries,  Col.  Thomas  Sav- 
age, and  Capt.  John  Gerrish  are  appointed  to  join  with  the  Churches 
Messengers  to  acquaint  Mr.  Joseph  Sewall  with  his  Election. 

Wednesday,  May  7.  Between  6  and  7.  Mr.  Sergeant,  Mr.  Brom- 
field,  Capt.  Hill,  Capt.  Williams,  Col.  Checkley,  Major  Fitch,  Lt  Col. 
Savage,  and  Capt.  Gerrish,  come  and  acquaint  my  Son  with  the 
Churches  Election.  He  acknowledges  the  Honor  done  him,  sensi- 
ble of  the  weightiness  of  the  Work,  and  asks  time  to  consider  of  it. 
(Sewall.) 

Mr.  Sergeant  said  there  was  a  more  than  common  agreement  in  it, 
or  to  that  effect.  .  .  .  Messrs.  Stoddard,  Jeffries,  Phillips  were  ap- 
pointed, but  did  not  come.     (J.  Sewall.) 

The  question  of  the  settlement  of  a  colleague  pastor,  which 
had  been  on  the  minds  of  the  members  of  the  church  for  four  or 
five  years,  was  now  decided.  It  is  not  easy,  in  making  choice 
of  a  pastor,  to  approximate  closely  to  unanimity,  much  less  to 
reach  it  absolutely.  In  the  present  case,  although  Mr.  Joseph 
Sewall  had  a  decided  majority,  he  lacked  two  of  a  two  thirds 
vote,  in  the  meeting  at  which  the  nominations  were  made,  and 

1  [The    Rev.    Nathanael    Eells  was  a  many  years  the  minister  at  Scituate,  and 

member  of  the  class  of  1699,  one  of  the  we  shall  have  occasion  to  refer  to  him 

classes  taught  by  Mr.  Pemberton  when  in  connection  with   the   revival  period, 

he  was  tutor  at  Cambridge  ;  he  was  for  1 740-1 744.] 


356  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

he  had  only  two  more  than  two  thirds  in  the  meeting  at  which 
the  election  took  place.  The  friends  of  Mr.  Stevens  were  so 
strongly  in  his  favor,  that  after  the  choice  of  the  church  had 
been  narrowed  down  to  two  candidates,  it  was  proposed  by 
some  to  arrange  the  matter  by  settling  both.  Whether  Mr. 
Pemberton  would  have  preferred  Mr.  Stevens  to  Mr.  Sewall,  we 
cannot  say  positively,  but,  evidently,  he  was  not  very  earnestly 
in  favor  of  the  latter.  The  old  feeling  of  mutual  confidence 
between  himself  and  Judge  Sewall  may  not  have  been  fully 
restored,  and  he  may  also  have  had  misgivings  about  accepting 
as  his  colleague  the  son  of  one  of  the  most  influential  members 
of  the  church.  It  may  not  have  occurred  to  him,  in  this  connec- 
tion, that  he  himself  was  a  child  of  the  church  over  which,  as  a 
young  man,  he  was  settled  as  colleague  pastor  ;  but  it  should  be 
said  that  his  father  had  never  been  as  prominent  in  the  mem- 
bership as  Judge  Sewall  was,  and,  further,  that  he  had  died  four 
or  five  years  before  his  son's  ordination.  We  are  inclined  to 
think  that  Mr.  Belcher,  and  perhaps  Mr.  Winthrop  and  some 
other  influential  men,  preferred  Mr.  Stevens.  Be  this  as  it 
may,  the  minority  acquiesced  in  the  choice  of  the  majority,  and 
when  the  time  for  ordination  came  the  young  man  was  kindly 
welcomed  by  all  to  the  church  whose  beloved  minister  he  was 
to  be  for  more  than  half  a  century.  There  was  some  delay  in 
his  formal  acceptance  of  the  call,  owing  to  an  illness  he  had  at 
this  time.  Partly,  perhaps,  because  of  the  state  of  his  health, 
but  mainly  for  another  reason,  as  we  shall  see,  he  was  not  or- 
dained until  sixteen  months  after  the  call  was  given.  Once 
since  then,  in  the  history  of  the  church,  it  has  waited  more  than 
a  year  for  the  man  of  its  choice. 

May  12.  I  visited  Mr.  Pemberton  and  He  exprest  himself  as  well 
satisfied  in  the  choice  which  the  Church  hath  made,  and  told  me  He 
should  doe  his  utmost  to  make  my  life  easy  &c.  Lord  help  me  to  doe 
my  duty  to  him,  if  I  settle  in  that  Church,  and  let  us  be  united  in  love, 
and  a  desire  to  advance  thy  glory  among  thy  people.     (J.  Sewall.) 

Mr.  Sewall  was  to  preach  on  the  ist  of  June,  but  he  had  been 
taken  ill  on  the  Wednesday  preceding,  and  had  been  obliged  to 
leave  the  meeting-house  during  the  preaching  of  the  Election 
sermon.     He  was  very  ill  for  several  weeks.1 

1  Judge  Sewall's  record  on  Artillery  [the    annual]    Dinner ;    because    of   my 

Election   Day,  June    2,  shows  the   ten-  Son's   incapacity   to   feed,   I    refus'd   to 

derness  of  nis  heart :   "  Mr.  Thacher  of  Feast.     Mr.  Sam.   Carter  din'd  with  us 

Weymouth  preaches :  I  refrain  going  to  at  home." 


MR.   SEW  ALL  ACCEPTS   THE   CALL.  357 

Lord's  Day  July,  27.  Mr.  Joseph  Sewall  goes  to  Meeting  in  the 
Fore-Noon  :  Note  was,  Joseph  Sewall  being,  after  long  Sickness,  in 
some  good  measure  Restored,  desires  thanks  may  be  given  to  God ; 
and  begs  Prayers,  that  he  may  profit  by  the  Affliction,  and  may  have 
his  Health  perfected  and  Confirmed. 

Lord's  Day,  Augt.  10.  17 12.  Joseph  goes  to  Meeting  forenoon 
and  p.  m.     Mr.  Pemberton  prays  very  particularly  for  him. 

Aug  19.  Mr.  Pemberton  and  Mr.  Commissary  [Belcher]  and  son 
walk'd  a  considerable  time  together  on  the  Parade. 

Aug.  24.  Both  Mr.  Bridge  and  Pemberton  pray  very  Expressly  for 
my  Son  as  call'd  to  the  south-church.     (Sewall.) 

Mr.  Sewall  preached  in  the  South  meeting-house  in  the  after- 
noon of  August  31,  from  Eph.  iv.  30:  "And  grieve  not  the 
holy  Spirit  of  God."  On  the  4th  of  October  he  sent  his  answer 
to  the  church. 

Oct.  4.  This  day  I  gave  in  my  Answer  in  writing  to  Mr.  Sergeant: 
wherein  I  said,  "  If  it  shall  please  the  great  Shepherd  and  Bishop  of 
Souls  to  discover  his  will  by  continuing  the  affection  of  this  Church 
and  congregation  to  me,  I  dare  not  but  comply  with  the  invitation." 
(J.  Sewall.) 

He  preached  for  the  South  Church  on  Sunday  morning,  Oc- 
tober 12,  from  Rom.  viii.  6:  "For  to  be  carnally  minded  is 
death  ;  but  to  be  spiritually  minded  is  life  and  peace  ;  "  and  in 
the  afternoon,  Mr.  Pemberton  read  his  letter  accepting  the  call. 

Oct.  12.  This  day  Mr.  Joseph  Sewall's  Answer  to  the  Church  and 
Congregation's  Call,  was  read  to  them. 

Oct.  15.  Mr.  Pemberton  visits  us,  staid  a  good  while,  was  very 
placid. 

Oct.  24.  Son  J.  S.  and  I  go  to  Mr.  Pemberton's  privat  Meeting. 
Made  a  good  Thanksgiving-Sermon  from  Ps.  116.  9. 

Nov.  2.  Govr.  Saltonstall  and  Col.  Thomas  come  to  the  South 
Assembly:  Mr.  J.  Sewall  preaches  a.  m.  [Phil.  i.  29.]  Mr.  Bridge 
p.  m.1 

1  Governor    Gurdon     Saltonstall,    of  South  Church,"   "  to  be  disposed  of  at 

Connecticut,  had  come  from  New  Lon-  the  discretion  of  the  said  Church  ;  "  also, 

don  to  marry  his  third  wife,  Mary,  widow  £10  each  to  Mr.  Sewall  and  Mr.  Prince, 

of   William   Clarke,   of   Boston.     After  Mrs.  Saltonstall  bequeathed  ,£  1,000   to 

the   governor's   death,  she  returned    to  Harvard  College,  "  the  Income  whereof 

Boston,  and  became  a   member  of  the  to  be  Improved  for  the  assistance  of  two 

South  congregation,  and  probably  of  the  persons  who  shall  by  the  overseers  be 

church.     By  her  will,  proved  January  16,  esteemed  of  bright  parts,  and  good  Dil- 

1729-30,   £100  were  given  to  the  over-  gence,  (always  a  Dissenter)  to  fit  them 

seers  of  the  poor  for  the  poor  of  Boston,  for  the  service  of  the  Church  of  Christ, 

and  ^20  "  to  the  poor  of  the  now  Old  and  who  has  not  means  of  his  own."    Mr. 


358 


HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 


Nov.  20.  [Thanksgiving  Day]  Joseph  preaches  in  the  Forenoon. 
[2  Cor.  vii.  1.]     Mr.  Pemberton  not  abroad. 

Nov.  27.     In  the  evening  in  the  Street  Mr.  Pemberton  spake  to 

me  whether  some  further  step 
should  not  be  taken  about 
Joseph.  Spake  of  the  church's 
Thanking  him  for  his  Answer 
and  desiring  his  readiness  to 
assist.  I  told  him,  I  left  it  to 
him.     (Sewall.) 

March  3.  1712-13.  Mr.  Pem- 
berton was  here  with  the  Dea- 
cons of  the  South  Church.  He 
inform'd  me  of  the  Meeting  which  the  Church  had  ;  they  unanimously 
exprest  their  satisfaction  with  my  Answer,  and  thankt  me  for  it,  and 
design'd  my  compleat  Settlement  as  soon  as  the  Old  Church  gott 
into  their  new  meeting  House.  He  spoke  of  the  remarkable  agree- 
ment there  was  in  the  management  of  this  affair  &c.  I  acknowl- 
edged the  great  kindness  and  respect  which  the  Church  had  shown 
me  ;  spake  of  my  weakness  and  insufficiency,  and  earnestly  desir'd 
their  prayers  &c.  (or  much  to  this  effect). 

April  19.  17 13.  A.  M.  Mr.  Wadsworth  preacht  from  1  Pet.  3.  8. 
Made  a  thankfull  mention  of  the  kindness  which  the  South  and  Mr. 
Coleman's  Churches  had  shown  them  since  the  fire,  and  seem'd  to 
take  leave.  Lord  bless  the  old  Church,  and  settle  them  peacably  in 
the  House  that's  built  for  thy  Service.     (J.  Sewall.) 

April  19.  Mr.  Wadsworth  preaches  at  the  South,  Excellently ;  and 
with  Great  and  very  obliging  Affection  Took  leave  of  the  South 
church.  Pray'd  for  Joseph  in  the  2d  Prayer.  Post  Meridiem,  Dr. 
Increase  Mather  preaches  1  Timo.  2.  1.  Excellently,  vigorously.  Prays 
for  Joseph,  mentioning  his  having  been  made  a  Blessing.  Pray'd  not 
a  second  time  because  was  Baptisme.  Mr.  Pemberton  preach'd  for 
the  Dr.  in  the  Forenoon,  by  which  means  Mr.  Wadsworth  was  alone  ; 
but  now  had  all  Three. 

April  26.  Mr.  Bridge  signifies  to  the  scattered  Flock  their  intention 
to  meet  in  their  new  built  Meeting-house,  the  next  Lords-day ;  Took 
Leave  in  very  pathetical,  obliging  Terms.  Pray'd  much  for  Mr.  Pem- 
berton, acknowledging  the  Gifts  with  which  God  had  adorn'd  him.     In 


Joseph  Sewall  writes,  Jan.  16, 1729-30: 
"Madam  Saltonstall  died  on  the  nth  — 
was  buried  yesterday.  A  Gentlewoman 
of  Superiour  Accomplishments,  and  I 
believe  of  true  Piety."  Quincy  says  of 
her:  "Uniting  exemplary  piety  and  en- 
larged charity  with  a  highly  cultivated 
mind,  she  filled  the  high  station  to  which 


she  was  called  with  prudence  and  dignity. 
By  her  contemporaries  she  is  celebrated 
for  the  graces  which  adorn  and  the 
virtues  which  are  the  honor  of  human 
nature."  The  baptismal  basin  now  in 
use  at  the  Old  South  bears  her  name 
as  its  giver,  with  her  coat  of  arms.  (See 
above.) 


THE   OLD  BRICK  MEETING-HOUSE.  359 

second  Prayer  pray'd  for  that  other  worthy  person  call'd  to  assist, 
that  his  Settlement  might  be  hasten'd,  might  be  a  lasting  Blessing. 
(Sewall.) 

April  26.  A.  M.  Mr.  Bridge  gave  publick  Notice  of  their  design  to 
meet  in  the  New  Meeting  House  next  Lord's  day.  Blest  God  and 
thankt  the  Congregation  for  the  kindness  they  had  receiv'd.  P.M. 
Mr.  Pemberton  preacht  from  [Psalm]  133.  1.  Spoke  of  Unity  and 
peace  we  have  had  together  since  the  dispersion  &c.  I  prayd  to  God 
for  strength  to  doe  the  work  which  I  shall  now  engage  in.    (J.  Sewall.) 

Mr.  Sewall  preached  at  the  South  Church  on  the  following 
Sunday,  from  Luke  ii.  14:  "  Glory  to  God  in  the  highest." 

April  29.  At  the  Council  an  Order  was  made  to  restore  the  Lecture 
to  the  new  built  Meetinghouse,  as  accustomed ;  and  the  place  most 
Central. 

Lords-Day,  May  3,  17 13.  In  the  forenoon  Mr.  Wadsworth  preaches 
the  first  Sermon  in  their  New-built  Meetinghouse,  from  Haggai  2.  9. 
The  glory  of  this  latter  House.     (Sewall.) 

The  old  Church  met  in  their  New  Meeting  House  today ;  so  that 
now  I  shall  probably  be  employ'd  in  a  constant  course  of  preaching. 
O  Lord  grant  that  I  may  find  that  as  the  day  is,  so  strength  is  given 
to  me.  O  help  me  in  this  great  and  difficult  work  !  Let  me  come 
to  the  People  in  the  fullness  of  the  blessing  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ. 
(J.  Sewall.) 

The  First  Church  was  now  settled  in  its  new  house  of  wor- 
ship upon  the  old  site.  It  was  built  of  brick,  a  dignified 
structure  of  its  kind,  and  in  after  years  it  was  called  the  Old 
Brick.  It  stood  until  1808.  During  the  year  and  a  half  after 
the  fire  of  171 1,  the  Thursday  Lecture  had  been  preached  in 
the  South  meeting-house ;  but,  by  order  of  the  council,  as  men- 
tioned above,  it  was  restored  to  the  church  by  whose  pastor, 
John  Cotton,  it  was  first  established.  The  Election  Sermon, 
which  also  had  been  usually  preached  in  the  old  meeting-house, 
was,  in  17 12,  preached  in  the  South,  by  the  Rev.  Samuel 
Cheever,  of  Marblehead  ;  it  did  not  return  with  the  Thursday 
Lecture,  but  remained  at  the  South,  or  Old  South,  with  brief 
interruptions,  so  long  as  it  continued  to  be  preached. 

So  long  as  Mr.  Wadsworth  and  Mr.  Bridge  were  occupying 
the  South  Church  pulpit  with  Mr.  Pemberton,  there  was  no  im- 
mediate necessity  for  Mr.  Joseph  Sewall's  ordination.  When 
they  and  the  members  of  their  congregation  left,  some  read- 
justment of  the  seating  arrangements  in  the  South  meeting- 
house had  to  be  made,  and,  in  connection  with  this,  the  first  and, 


360  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

so  far  as  we  know,  the  only  manifestation  of  jealousy  took  place, 
at  the  possibly  increased  influence  of  Judge  Sewall  in  church 
affairs  through  the  new  colleague  pastor.  It  was  well  that  this 
feeling  showed  itself  then,  and  that  it  spent  its  force  before 
the  ordination.  The  position  of  overseer  of  seats,  which  Judge 
Sewall  had  held  for  some  time,  was  a  responsible  one,  and  the 
duty  which  it  involved,  of  arranging  the  sittings  of  the  congre- 
gation, was  oftentimes  difficult  and  perplexing. 

Tuesday,  April  28.  I  waited  on  Mr.  Pemberton.  Mr.  Wisewall 
was  there.  Mr.  Marsh  of  Braintry  came  in.  Mr.  Pemberton  spake 
very  fiercely  against  the  Govr  and  Council's  meddling  with  suspension 
of  Laws,  respecting  Church  of  England  men  not  paying  Taxes  to  the 
dissenting  Ministers.  Spake  very  fiercely  in  dislike  of  the  overseers, 
that  nothing  had  been  done  ;  would  chuse  others.  I  think  this  was 
before  Mr.  Marsh  came  in.  At  the  Gate  said  what  I  did  twould  be 
reckon'd  my  Son  did  ;  intimating  as  I  conceive,  twere  best  for  me  to 
lay  down  my  Overseers  place. 

Monday,  May  4.  I  wait  on  Mr.  Pemberton  at  his  desire.  Mr. 
Sergeant  and  Col.  Checkley  there  :  Mr.  Pemberton  declares  a  Ne- 
cessity of  adding  to  the  number  of  the  Seaters.  Would  have  us 
nominat  at  least.  I  said  I  would  venture  to  mention  one,  Mr.  Daniel 
Oliver ;  then  Major  Fitch  was  nam'd,  whom  Mr.  Pemberton  much 
applauded ;  I  and  all  lik'd  him  very  well.  Then  Mr.  Pemberton 
enquired  whether  it  might  not  be  convenient  to  appoint  one  of  the 
Congregation ;  we  came  into  it.  Mr.  Jeffries  was  mention'd,  whom  all 
approv'd.  I  desired  Mr.  Pemberton  to  assist  at  opening  the  Court 
to  morrow ;  He  wholly  declin'd  it  upon  the  account  of  his  Lecture  this 
week,  and  his  great  Indisposition.  Mention'd  my  son.  But  I  chose 
to  call  Dr.  Cotton  Mather  in  the  evening.     He  readily  undertook  it.1 

Tuesday,  May  5.  The  Church  Meeting  was  begun  before  I  could 
get  to  it ;  Major  Fitch  and  Mr.  Oliver  Nominated.  Then  were  chosen 
by  lifting  up  the  Hand.  Then  Mr.  Pemberton  calPd  on  them  to 
Nominat  another ;  Som  body  said,  Capt.  Savage  (I  understood  it  of 
Ephraim)  ;  but  Capt.  Habijah  Savage  stood  up  and  disabled  himself 
because  of  the  Dispute  between  his  Unkle  and  him  about  the  Pue.2 

1  [Court  was  to  be  held  on  the  follow-  ber.     Mr.  Pain,  one  of  the  Overseers  of 

ing  day  for  the  first  time  in  the  building  the  Work  wellcom'd  us,  as  the  Judges 

now  called  the  Old  State  House.  went  up  Stairs."  —  Sewall 's  Diary. 

"Monday    May   5th    [1712]    I    lay  a  Town  meetings  were  held  in  the  South 

stone  at   the  South-east  Corner  of  the  meeting-house,  May  14,  1712,  and  March 

Town   House  and   had  Engraven  on  it  9,  17 13.] 

S.  S.  1 7 12."  2  [The  following  letter  from  Ephraim 

"Tuesday,  May  5,   1713.    viane.     Dr.  Savage,  son  of  Major  Savage,  explains 

Cotton  Mather  makes  an  Excellent  Ded-  the  controversy  about  the  pew,  referred 

ication  Prayer  in  the  New  Court  Cham-  to  by  Judge  Sewall :  — 


CONTROVERSY  ABOUT  A   PEW. 


361 


Then  some  body  mention'd  Mr.  Phillips.     After  awhile,  I  said,  Some 
have  thought  it  might  be  convenient  to  have  one  of  the  Congregation. 


To  the  Gentlemen  of  the  Committee  for 
the  regulating  the  seating  of  the  south 
meeting  kous 

Upon  the  Perusall  of  an  Order  from 
you  about  a  Pew  &c  I  am  Emboldned 
to  beg  your  Consideration  of  the  follow- 
ing lines  :  My  father  was  at  great  Ex- 
pence  in  building  the  hous  and  had  a 
place  given  him  to  make  a  Pew  in,  which 
he  built  at  his  own  Charg  and  therefore 
had  an  undoubted  right  to  dispose  of  it 
as  he  saw  fit  (which  I  apprehend  no 
Church  Vote  fifteen  years  after  could 
take  away)  this  right  he  bestowed  on  me 
and  my  two  Sisters  (one  of  which  desert- 
ing) my  sister  Thacher  and  I  and  our 
children  have  enjoyed  it  forty  four  years 
Peaceably  (excepting  this  disturbance  of 
my  Nephew)  four  years  ago)  which  I 
have  often  complained  to  you  of,  but  am 
not  yet  releived :  but  instead  thereof,  you 
have  Ordered  him  half  the  Pew  and  the 
Priveledg  of  my  sister  Thacher,  so  that 
instead  of  having  two  thirds  or  three 
quarters  of  the  Pew  as  I  should  have  by 
my  fathers  gift  and  my  Purchas  there  is 
left  for  me  but  one  half  of  one  third,  or 
one  Sixth  part,  for  me,  my  wife,  my  three 
daughters,  their  Husbands,  and  their 
children :  which  I  do  apprehend  is  by 
reason  of  some  mistake  or  some  differ- 
ent Interpretation  of  the  church  vote 
and  not  according  to  the  true  Intent  and 
Meaning  of  it.  ffor  my  father  while  he 
had  this  unlimited  power  and  right  gave 
it  to  us  and  none  els  (my  brother  Thomas 
Savage  and  sister  Hannah  Gillam  having 
Pews  Provided  for  them)  this  right  we 
enjoyed  ten  years  in  his  life  time  and 
thirty  years  more,  after  his  death,  with- 
out any  so  much  as  Pretence  of  a  claim 
to  it.  And  I  apprehend  that  this  right 
is  Confirmed  to  us,  in  the  year  16S5,  by 
a  church  vote  (if  that  have  any  force  in 
it)  which  saith  that  the  right  of  the 
builder  or  owner  of  Pews,  shall  descend 
to  their  children  or  so  many  of  them  as 
they  shall  leav  them  to  to  :  We  are  these 
Children  and  we  are  they  that  our  father 
hath  left  this  Pew  to  and  we  are  they 
that  were  then  in  lawfull  Possession  ac- 


cording to  the  Direction  given  in  that 
vote  and  were  found  so  by  those  that 
took  accompt  of  the  owners  of  the  Pews  : 
but  if  there  were  any  right  which  my 
father  had  not  given  away  in  his  lifetime, 
it  came  to  his  Executours  and  was  settled 
before  this  vote  of  the  Church  and  it 
was  all  sold  to  me  :  and  I  can  see  no 
reason  why  my  Children  should  be  drove 
out  to  accomodate  my  brothers  Chil- 
dren but  if  they  want  a  Pew  let  them  go 
to  their  ffathers  Pew  (according  to  the 
Church  vote)  and  not  to  mine  :  But  if  all 
this  be  over  ruled  and  it  is  replyed  that 
this  vote  is  to  be  understood  that  the 
children  of  the  first  owners  have  this 
right  and  so  their  children,  I  apprehend 
that  the  church  vote  can  not  look  Back- 
ward to  unravel  rights  but  if  that  also  be 
over  ruled  and  all  the  children  of  the 
first  owners  have  this  right,  he  can  have 
but  one  ninth  part  for  my  father  had 
nine  Children  alive  when  he  dyed  (reck- 
oning the  only  son  of  the  eldest  Brother 
to  be  one)  and  that  right  with  all 
other  rights  to  the  reall  and  Personall 
estate  of  my  father  my  brother  Thomas 
Savage  sold  me  almost  thirty  years  ago 
under  his  hand  and  seal  acknowledged 
before  one  of  this  Committee  and  is  en- 
rolled in  the  Records  of  the  County  of 
Suffolk  and  hath  warranted  to  defend 
the  same  And  it  is  reckoned  not  to  be 
Morally  honest  in  civill  cases  for  any  to 
assume  that  right  which  their  parents 
have  lawfully  sold  and  is  it  not  much 
more  so  in  this  case. 

This  right  is  further  confirmed  to  me 
by  the  greatest  part  of  my  fathers  Chil- 
dren viz  by  mr.  Thomas  Savage  Gold- 
smith only  son  of  my  eldest  brother 
Habbijah  Savage  under  his  hand  and 
Seal  in  record,  by  my  brother  Thomas 
Savage  and  by  my  brother  Perez  Savage 
Sons  and  Executours  under  both  their 
hands  and  Seales  and  recorded,  by  my 
two  younger  Brothers  under  their  hands 
and  Seales  viz  Ebenezer  and  Benjamin 
Savage  :  and  by  Captn  Ravenscroft  that 
married  one  of  my  sisters  released  to  me 
under  his  hand  all  which  I  have  ready  to 


3^2  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

Mr.  Pemberton  assented.  Mr.  Jeffries  was  Nominated  and  voted. 
Mr.  Pemberton  said,  Mr.  Phillips  was  Nominated ;  but  I  had  carried 
it  over  to  the  Congregation  :  whereas  twas  what  he  himself  had  intro- 
duc'd  at  the  Meeting  of  the  Overseers  at  his  House.  And  I  reckon'd 
Mr.  Phillips  not  so  fit  because  of  the  Controversy  about  the  Pue.1 
Concluded  with  Prayr  :  Pray'd  that  my  son  now  call'd  to  more  Con- 
stant Work  might  be  blessed  of  God. 

May  7.  Mr.  Pemberton  preaches  the  First  Lecture  in  the  New- 
built  Meeting-house,  from  2  Chron.  6.  18.  But  will  God  in  very  deed 
dwell  with  Men — very  good  Discourse. 

May  10.     Lord's  day.     Joseph  preaches  again. 

May  24.     Joseph  preaches  again. 

May  28.  The  Four  Churches  [First,  Second,  Third,  and  Brattle 
Street]  Treat  the  Ministers  and  Councillors  in  Town  at  the  Exchange 
Tavern.'2     (Sewall.) 

May  28.  Att  the  Ministers'  Meeting  Dr.  Increase  Mather  open'd 
the  Meeting  with  pray'r.  Question  —  How  may  a  Minister  best  de- 
port and  behave  himself :  suppose  the  Church-Interest  should  prevail 
amongst  us  ?  Answer :  Let  Him  be  well  studied  in  the  point  of  Non- 
Conformity.  2.  Take  care  of  his  life  and  Conversation  &c.  Dr.  Cot- 
'ton  Mather  concluded  with  prayr.  The  Ministers  din'd  at  the  Ex- 
change Tavern.     (J.  Sewall.) 

To  understand  the  question  which  engaged  the  attention  of 
the  clergy  at  this  meeting,  we  must  remember  that  the  policy 
of  the  Anglican  Church  was  becoming  much  more  aggressive 
than  it  had  been.  Writing  of  this  period,  the  historian  of 
King's  Chapel. says:  — 

The  bitterness  and  distrust  toward  the  Church  of  England,  which 

shew :  some  of  which  viz  that  of  Thomas  Court  was  chosen   as  "the  occasion  for 

and  Perez  were  shewn  to  you  and  owned  the    ministers    of    the    country    towns, 

by                my  Nephew  thawed  out  from  the  isolation  of  a  long 

My  request  therefore  is  that  you  would  winter,  to  make  an  annual  visit  to  Bos- 
reconsider  the  case  and  call  in  that  ton,  where  they  found  genial  hospitality 
order,  and  restore  me  to  my  right,  and  in  friendly  homes.  The  Convention  of 
remove  the  caus  of  our  troubles  :  which  Congregational  Ministers  was  formed  to 
I  apprehend  will  be  for  the  Peace  and  bring  the  pastors  together  mainly  for  a 
Profit  of  the  Church  and  more  for  the  sermon  and  for  a  charitable  collection 
Comfort  of  the  Persons^  contending  for  the  widows  and  orphans  of  the 
and  may  Prevent  many  Sinfull  Incon-  clergy.  When  the  benevolent  societies 
veniencys.  were  organized,  their  anniversaries  were 
Yr  Humble  Servt  held,  naturally,  during  Election  Week, 
Ephraim  Savage  which  thus  became  Anniversary  Week. 

Boston  9th  March  1714-15  J  On   some   day   of   Election   Week,   the 

Congregational  churches  gave  the  min- 

1  [Habijah  Savage  married  Hannah,  isters  a  public  dinner.  Editors  of  the 
daughter  of  Samuel  Phillips.]  Sewall  Papers,  vol.  ii.  p.  386.     The  first 

2  [The  May  meeting   of   the  General  con  vention  sermon  was  preached  in  172 1.] 


THE  EPISCOPAL   CAUSE.  3^3 

had  been  implanted  and  nourished  by  ancient  sufferings,  had  become 
ingrained  in  the  New  England  character  to  an  extent  now  difficult  to 
comprehend.  This  intense  aversion  to  that  Church  was  due  not  only 
to  a  dislike  of  her  practices,  but  far  more  to  the  sensitive  feeling  that 
she  was  an  aggressive  presence  among  them  ;  not  only  seeking  to  feed 
the  spiritual  life  of  her  own  members,  but  aiming  to  proselytize  from 
their  churches,  and  really  desiring  nothing  less  than  the  same  suprem- 
acy in  a  colony  which  was  peopled  by  non-conformists  that  she  exer- 
cised in  the  mother  country.  This  jealousy  was  unfortunately  fostered 
by  much  that  was  said  and  done  by  the  representatives  of  the  Epis- 
copal cause.  As  it  was  expressed  :  "  If  the  church  can  be  settled  in 
New  England,  it  pulls  up  schisme  in  America  by  the  roots,  that  being 
the  fountain  that  supplyes  with  infectious  streams  the  rest  of  America."  1 

For  thirty  years,  King's  Chapel  had  been  the  only  Anglican 
place  of  worship  in  the  province,  but  a  determined  effort  was 
now  to  be  made  to  organize  Episcopal  parishes  in  other  places  ; 
those  of  Braintree,  Newbury,  and  Marblehead  date  from  this 
time.  "  Their  establishment  was  attended  with  much  ill-feeling 
throughout  the  province."  2 

June  10.  This  day  Mr.  Pemberton  comes  to  our  House,  desires 
me  to  take  my  Letter  again,  would  not  have  me  resign  my  Seaters 
place  now.  I  took  it.  Would  have  Joseph  ordain'd  in  August ;  Marry 
first,  that  might  lose  no  time.  I  again  express'd  myself  desirous  that 
it  might  be  before  changes  from  England.  Best  to  be  fix'd  before 
such  Temptations  arrive.3 

June  14.  Lord's  Day.  Dr.  Incr.  Mather  preaches  for  Mr.  Pember- 
ton p.  m.  Prays  very  much  for  Mr.  Pemberton  that  God  would  con- 
tinue him  long  a  great  Blessing  :  for  Joseph  thus,  that  other  Servant 
upon  whom  their  eyes  are  that  God  would  fit  him  and  furnish  him. 

August  12.  Mr.  Pemberton  spake  [to  me]  of  some  General  Meet- 
ing to  morrow  night  in  order  to  call  a  Church  Meeting  referring  to 
Joseph's  ordination,  said  I  need  not  expect  any  other  Notice  :  I  said 
I  needed  not. 

August  13.  A  little  after  7.  Met  at  Mr.  Pemberton's,  Winthrop, 
Sewall,  Sergeant,  Bromfield,  Sim.  Stoddard,  Hill,  Williams,  Checkley, 
Mr.  Nathanl.  Williams,  Schoolmaster,  Major  Fitch,  Mr.  S.  Phillips, 
Mr.  Borland,  Mr.  Danl.  Oliver,  Capt.  Winlow,  Mr.  Campbell.  Con- 
ferred about  the  Ordination  in  order  to  have  the  Churches'  Approba- 

1  [Foote's  Annals  of  King's  Chapel,  vol.  of  October,  to  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  the 
i.  p.  250.]  late  Hon.  John  Walley.     On  the  follow- 

2  Ibid.,  vol.  i.  pp.  252,  253.  ing  Sunday,  according  to  the  custom  of 

3  [Judge  Sewall  may  have  feared  the  the  time,  "Joseph  and  his  Bride  sat 
arrival  of  some  invitation  to  his  son  to  in  Mr.  Walley's  Pue."  The  Rev.  John 
go  to  England.  Mr.  Joseph  Sewall  was  Williams,  we  suppose  of  Deerfield, 
married  by  Mr.  Pemberton,  on  the  29th  preached  for  him.] 


364  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD   SOUTH  CHURCH. 

tion.  Propounded  Wednesday,  the  Sixteenth  of  September,  That 
Mr.  Pemberton  should  give  the  Charge,  as  Mr.  Willard  gave  him. 
Twas  debated  whether  Joseph  should  preach,  or  some  other.  Some 
thought  it  was  better  for  some  other  to  tell  Joseph  and  the  people 
their  Duty  :  Others  said,  His  Duty  would  be  told  him  by  the  Charge. 
Finally,  twas  left  to  the  Church  Meeting  which  is  to  be  held  next 
Tuesday  at  10.  m.  in  the  Meetinghouse.  One  Bell  to  be  Rung. 
Churches  to  be  sent  to,  Old,  [First],  North,  [Second],  Colman,  [Brattle 
Street],  Cambridge,  Charlestown,  Roxbury,  Dorchester,  Milton,  Wey- 
mouth. 

August  16.  Lord's  Day.  In  the  Afternoon,  after  Sermon  and 
Prayer  and  Contribution,  Mr.  Pemberton  Warn'd  a  Church-meeting 
next  Friday,  at  Ten  in  the  morning  at  the  Meeting-house,  One  Bell 
to  be  Rung.  To  agree  about  Mr.  Sewall's  Ordination,  the  Time  and 
Circumstances  of  it.     (Sewall.) 

Aug  21.  This  Day  the  Church  had  a  meeting  to  agree  about  the 
time  and  circumstances  of  my  Ordination.  It  is  to  be  on  the  16th  of 
September  next.  Mr.  Pemberton  is  to  give  the  charge.  There  is  to 
be  but  one  sermon  which  I  am  to  preach.  The  Churches  which  are 
to  be  sent  to  are,  The  Old,  North,  Colman's,  Cambridge,  Charleston 
[Charlestown],  Roxbury,  Dorchester,  Milton,  Weymouth. 

Aug  26.  Major  Winthrop,  Sergeant,  Belcher,  Bromfield,  Stoddard 
Esqrs.  Mr.  Pemberton  and  the  Deacons  visited  me  and  inform'd  me 
of  the  time  which  is  appointed  for  my  ordination. 

Sept  13.  Before  the  last  Singing,  Mr.  Pemberton  read  my  Dis- 
mission from  the  Church  of  Christ  in  Cambridge  into  which  I  was 
admitted  A  1706,  and  then  gave  me  the  Covenant.     (J.  Sewall.) 

We  have  no  other  account  of  the  meeting  of  the  21st  of  Au- 
gust than  the  brief  record  of  the  pastor  elect,  but,  evidently,  the 
recommendations  of  the  preliminary  meeting  held  at  Mr.  Pem- 
berton's  house  were  agreed  to.  When  the  representatives  of 
the  churches  were  assembled  (we  do  not  find  that  they  were 
called  a  council),  they  appear  to  have  taken  the  following  action  : 
first,  they  chose  a  moderator,  Mr.  Pemberton ;  secondly,  they 
desired  the  Boston  ministers,  Dr.  Increase  Mather,  Dr.  Cotton 
Mather,  Mr.  Wadsworth,  Mr.  Pemberton,  and  Mr.  Colman  (Mr. 
Bridge  was  absent  because  of  illness),  to  lay  on  hands  in  the 
ordaining  prayer  ;  thirdly,  tney  designated  Dr.  Increase  Mather 
to  act  for  them  in  giving  the  right  hand  of  fellowship.  The 
church  had  previously  requested  Mr.  Pemberton  to  give  the 
charge  to  the  pastor- elect,  and  no  separate  charge  was  then 
given  to  the  church  and  congregation.  There  was  no  cross- 
examination  of  the  pastor-elect ;  no  assumption  beforehand  that 


PRIMITIVE   CONGREGATIONALISM. 


365 


he  was  unsound,  and  that  the  onus  probandi  rested  upon  him  to 
show  his  orthodoxy  ;  and  no  voting,  except  by  the  church,  which 
openly  confirmed,  in  the  presence  of  representatives  of  the  sister 
churches,  the  definitive  choice  it  had  already  made.  We  know 
it  is  said  by  some  that  this  service  and  others  like  it  took  place 
when  Congregationalism  was  in  a  crude  and  partially  developed 
state.  On  the  contrary,  we  contend  that  Congregationalism 
was  then  in  the  purity  and  strength  of  its  early  prime,  and  that 
the  men  who  assisted  in  these  services  knew  perfectly  well  what 
they  were  doing,  and  intended  to  do  just  what  they  did.1  The 
fathers  of  some  of  them  had  seen  parish  ministers  thrust  upon 
unwilling  congregations,  in  the  mother  country  ;  and  they  did 
not  propose  to  build  up  an  ecclesiastical  system  here,  under 
which  congregations  should  be  hampered  and  irritated  and 
sometimes  baffled  in  the  exercise  of  their  undoubted  right  to 
choose  and  settle  pastors  for  themselves. 

We  come  now  to  Judge  Sewall's  interesting  account  of  the 


1  The  Congregationalist  of  April  10, 
1S84,  referred  to  the  letter-missive  sent 
out  by  the  Old  South  Church,  in  antici- 
pation of  the  installation  of  the  Rev. 
George  A.  Gordon,  in  these  words : 
"  The  letter-missive  calling  the  council 
conspicuously  violated  a  fundamental 
principle  of  Congregationalism,  by  going 
back  to  the  days  when  our  churches 
were  crude  in  polity  and  vague  in  faith, 
and  selecting  a  form  which  in  language 
failed  to  submit  to  the  decision  of  the 
body  the  question  of  the  fitness  of  the 
candidate  for  the  place." 

The  utterances  of  this  periodical  were 
much  more  in  accordance  with  its  name 
a  generation  ago  than  they  have  been  of 
late.  Dr.  Clark's  Historical  Sketch,  pub- 
lished in  1858,  from  which  we  have 
quoted  so  freely,  appeared  originally  as 
a  series  of  papers  in  the  Congregational- 
ist ;  this  author  was  guilty  of  no  such 
slighting,  not  to  say  contemptuous,  crit- 
icism upon  the  faith  and  polity  of  the 
fathers  as  appears  above.  On  the  con- 
trary, his  judgment  is :  "  All  the  essential 
features  of  New  England  Congregation- 
alism, and  the  religious  characteristics  of 
her  Congregational  churches,  especially 
in  Massachusetts,  received  a  permanent 
shape  during  that  period  [1640  to  1650], 
which  in  every  subsequent  age  has  been 


looked  back  upon  as  the  primitive  pat- 
tern, when  conscious  degeneracy  has 
waked  up  a  wish  to  reform  "  (p.  35). 

Referring  to  the  report  of  a  Congre- 
gational committee  appointed  in  May, 
1844,  for  the  purpose  (not  avowed),  of 
"mending  or  remodelling  our  good 
old  Congregational  system,"  the  same 
writer  says :  "  Though  the  whole  sub- 
ject of  church  government  was  laid 
open  by  the  committee,  their  leading 
object  evidently  was  to  magnify  the 
office-work  of  councils,  and  to  strengthen 
the  authority  of  their  decisions.  To 
do  this  without  trenching  on  that  first 
and  fundamental  principle  of  Congre- 
gationalism—  the  independent  and  self- 
governing  power  of  the  churches  —  had 
often  been  attempted  before,  and  had 
always  failed.  It  did  so  in  this  in- 
stance, and  always  must.  The  veri- 
table old  Cambridge  Platform  (thanks 
to  the  committee)  was  printed  as  an 
appendix  to  their  proposed  Manual ;  and 
in  passing  from  one  to  the  other,  the 
reader  experiences  a  feeling  of  disenthral- 
ment,  —  a  grateful  relief  from  needless 
and  perplexing  restraints,  —  like  one 
sailing  on  a  broad,  open  sea,  after  de- 
scending a  stream  where  snags  and  saw- 
yers and  sand-bars  have  kept  him  on  a 
constant  and  anxious  look-out"  (p.  2S3). 


366  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

services,  to  which,  as  a  member  of  the  church  and  as  a  father,  he 
had  been  looking  forward  so  long.  A  northeast  storm,  he  tells 
us,  had  been  threatening ;  but  after  much  rain  in  the  night  the 
weather  cleared  in  the  morning,  and  the  day  was  "  very  com- 
fortable." 

September  16.  Began  a  little  after  Ten  m.  Dr.  Cotton  Mather 
begun  with  Prayer,  Excellently,  concluded  about  the  Bell  ringing  for 
Eleven.  My  son  preached  from  i  Cor.  3.  7.  So  then  neither  is  he 
that  planteth  anything,  nor  he  that  Watereth  ;  but  God  that  gives  the 
Increase.  Was  a  very  great  Assembly  :  were  Elders  and  Messengers 
from  nine  Churches,  viz.  North,  Old,  Colman,  Cambridge,  Charles- 
town,  Roxbury,  Dorchester,  Milton,  Weymouth.  Twelve  Ministers 
sat  at  the  Table  by  the  Pulpit.  Mr.  Pemberton  made  an  August 
Speech,  shewing  the  Validity  and  Antiquity  of  New  English  Ordina- 
tions. Then  having  made  his  way,  went  on,  ask'd  as  Customary,  if 
any  had  to  say  against  the  ordaining  the  person.  Took  the  Churches 
Handy  vote  ;  Church  sat  in  the  Gallery.  Then  declar'd  the  Elders 
and  Messengers  had  desired  the  Ministers  of  Boston  to  lay  on  Hands 
(Mr.  Bridge  was  indispos'd  and  not  there).  Dr.  Increase  Mather, 
Dr.  Cotton  Mather,  Mr.  Benjamin  Wadsworth,  Mr.  Ebenezer  Pember- 
ton and  Mr.  Benjamin  Colman  laid  on  Hands.  Then  Mr.  Pember- 
ton pray'd,  Ordain'd,  and  gave  the  Charge  Excellently.  Then  Dr. 
Increase  Mather  made  a  notable  Speech,  gave  the  Right  Hand  of 
Fellowship,  and  pray'd.  Mr.  Pemberton  directed  the  three  and  Twen- 
tieth Psalm  to  be  sung.  The  person  now  Ordain'd  dismiss'd  the  Con- 
gregation with  Blessing.  The  chief  Entertainment  was  at  Mr.  Pem- 
berton's  ;  but  was  considerable  elsewhere.  Two  Tables  at  our  House, 
whereat  were  Mr.  Gerrish  of  Wenham,  Mr.  Green,  Mr.  Graves,  Mr. 
Holyoke,  Mr.  Robie  &c.  &c.  At  night  Mr.  Pemberton  was  taken 
very  ill  with  his  old  distemper,  that  could  not  sit  down,  took  little  or 
no[thing].  On  the  Sabbath  7X.  20.  Mr.  Rowland  Cotton  preaches  for 
Mr.  Pemberton,  and  will  preach  in  the  Fore-noon,  that  may  preach  at 
the  North  p.  m.  Felix  trembled  &c.  J.  S.  preach'd  p.  m.  from  Jno  1. 
29.  Behold  the  Lamb  of  God  which  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the 
world.1     (Sewall.) 

Mr.  Sewall's  account  of  the  services  of  ordination  is  in  the 
following  words  :  — 

Sept.  16.  This  Day  I  was  ordain'd  a  Pastor  of  the  South  Church 
in  Boston.  Dr.  Cotton  Mather  began  with  prayer.  Then  I  preach'd 
from  1  Cor.  3  :  7,  So  then  neither  is  He  that  planteth  anything  etc. 
After  Sermon  Mr.  Pemberton  made   a  learned   Speech,  shewing  the 

1  [Mr.  Sewall,  in  his  diary,  tells  us  as  Robinson,  Deborah  Simpson,  and 
that  he  baptized,  on  this  occasion,  Thorn-     John  Merrifield.] 


t 


1 


C_)<lWotl . 


MR.   SEWALVS  ORDINATION.  367 

Validity  and  Antiquity  of  New  English  Ordinations.  Then  ask'd  as 
Customary  if  any  had  to  say  against  ordaining  the  Person.  Took  the 
church's  handy  vote.  Church  satt  in  the  Gallery.  I  gave  my  Consent 
in  such  words  as  These  :  Relying  on  the  help  of  God  I  devote  myself 
to  the  work  of  the  ministry  in  this  Place.  Then  Mr.  Pemberton  de- 
clar'd  that  the  Elders  and  Messengers  had  desir'd  the  Ministers  of 
Boston  to  lay  on  Hands  (Mr.  Bridge  was  not  there  by  reason  of  his  in- 
disposition). Dr.  Increase  Mather,  Dr.  Cotton  Mather,  Mr.  Benjamin 
Wadsworth,  Mr.  Ebenezer  Pemberton,  and  Mr.  Benjamin  Colman  laid 
on  Hands.  Then  Mr.  Pemberton  Pray'd,  and  gave  the  Charge  excel- 
lently (pray'd  twice).  Then  Dr.  Increase  Mather  made  a  notable 
Speech,  gave  the  Right  Hand  of  Fellowship  and  pray'd.  Mr.  Pem- 
berton directed  the  23  Psalm  to  be  sung.  I  dismissed  the  Congrega- 
tion with  Blessing.  Who  am  I  that  God  should  call  me  and  sett  me 
apart  to  this  divine  and  honourable  Employment  ?  O  Lord,  I  desire 
to  be  deeply  humbl'd  under  a  sense  of  my  own  sinfulness  and  unwor- 
thiness  !  O  God,  my  Dependence  is  upon  Thee  !  Pour  out  on  thine 
unworthy  Servant  the  Gifts  and  Graces  of  thine  Holy  Spirit !  Help  me 
to  .  .  .  this  thy  People  in  the  fullness  of  the  blessing  of  the  Gospel 
of  Christ.  O  that  I  might  save  my  own  Soul  and  the  Souls  of  them 
that  hear  me  !     I  am  a  Child  —  Lord  undertake  for  me  ! 

Thus  began  a  ministry  which  was  to  be  most  memorable  and 
successful.  The  young  pastor  had  just  completed  his  twenty- 
fifth  year.  He  had  been  the  child  of  many  prayers,  and  proba- 
bly at  an  early  age  had  been  consecrated  by  his  parents  to  this 
sacred  work.  When  he  was  baptized  by  Mr.  Willard  within 
the  walls  where  he  was  now  to  preach  the  gospel,  he  received 
the  name  of  Joseph,  "  not  out  of  respect  to  any  relation,  or 
other  person,"  wrote  his  father,  "  except  the  first  Joseph."  He 
soon  gave  evidence  of  a  beauty  and  purity  of  character  such  as 
made  the  youth  of  his  great  namesake  so  attractive  and  his  long 
life  so  useful ;  like  him,  too,  but  more  like  Him  of  whom  Joseph 
was  only  a  type,  he  was  to  dispense  bread  to  his  brethren,  — 
not,  indeed,  the  bread  that  perisheth,  but  that  which  endures  unto 
everlasting  life.1  He  may  not  have  been  endowed  with  excep- 
tional ability,  but  he  possessed  that  which  is  worth  more  than 
this  for  permanent  success  in  the  pastoral  work,  —  adaptation 
to  its  requirements  by  natural  tastes,  by  careful  training,  and 
by  an  experimental  knowledge  of  the  truth. 

Lord's  Day.  Sept  27.     a.  m.    Mr.  Pemberton  still  kept  in  by  Sick- 

1  "Treasure  house  of  golden  grain  Auto  on  the  Lord's  Supper,  by  Calde- 

By  our  Joseph  laid  in  store  ron>     gee  Trench's  Sacred  Latin  Poetry, 
In  his  brethren's  famine  sore  r 

Freely  to  dispense  again."  "'  ^ 


368  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

ness,  his  Collegue  preaches  from  Philip.  2.  8.  Being  found  in  fash- 
ion as  a  man,  he  humbled  himself  to  death,  even  the  death  of  the 
cross.  Administred  the  Lord's  Supper  to  good  Satisfaction.  Mr. 
Bromfield  and  Mr.  Sergeant  congratulated  me  upon  it :  p.  m.  Mr. 
Flynt  preaches. 

Oct.  4.  Mr.  Jno.  Barnard  [of  Marblehead]  preaches  a  Sermon  too 
much  savoring  of  Arminianisme.  p.  m.  Son  preaches  from  ps.  37.  37. 
on  occasion  of  Mrs.  Rock's  death.1  Samuel  Eliot,  son  of  Andrew 
Eliot,  Baptis'd.     (Sewall.) 

On  the  13th  of  October  Mr.  Joseph  Stevens,  whom  some  had 
desired  to  settle  at  the  South  Church,  was  ordained  at  Charles- 
town  as  colleague  with  Mr.  Bradstreet.2  Neither  of  the  pastors 
of  the  South  Church  took  part  in  the  services,  but  Mr.  Sewall 
was  present  ;  of  the  laymen,  Samuel  Sewall,  Andrew  Bel- 
cher, and  Edward  Bromfield  were  there.  Dr.  Increase  Mather 
was  moderator,  and  the  pastor  elect  preached  the  sermon  from 
Dan.  xii.  3.  Dr.  Cotton  Mather  gave  the  Right  Hand  of  Fel- 
lowship, and  made  "an  august  speech,  showing  that  the  Con- 
gregational Churches  early  declar'd  against  Independency,  that 
all  the  Reformation  of  the  Continent  of  Europe  ordain'd  as 
New  England  did ;  shew'd  that  their  Ordination  had  no  other 
foundation."  As  Mr.  Pemberton  four  weeks  previously  had 
defended  the  validity  of  New  England  ordination  against  the 
claims  of  prelacy,  Dr.  Mather  now  insisted  on  the  laying  on  of 
the  hands  of  the  presbytery,  as  against  the  ordination  of  minis- 
ters by  individual  and  independent  churches.3 

Deer.  11.  Yesterday  Mr.  Francis  Boroughs  was  buried.  He  was 
a  Member  of  our  Church  and  hath  the  character  of  a  knowing  and 
good  Christian,  This  day,  Major  Fitch's  Eldest  Son  was  buried.  He 
was  a  very  pious  and  hopefull  youth,  about  16  or  17.     (J.  Sewall.) 

The  disease  which  proved  fatal  to  this  promising  young  man, 
Thomas  Fitch,  was  the  measles.  Mr.  Burroughs  was  one  of  the 
most  highly  respected  men  in  the  town.  Judge  Sewall  wrote 
of  him  as  "an  intelligent  exemplary  Christian;"  and  John  Dun- 

1  [Mrs.  Rock  was  second  wife  and  "2  Mr.  Stevens  graduated  at  Cam- 
widow  of  Joseph  Rock,  one  of  the  bridge  in  1703.  He  died  in  1721. 
founders  of  the  South  Church.  She  was  3  Mr.  Sewall  records  that  the  churches 
a  daughter  of  the  Rev.  John  Wilson,  of  invited  on  this  occasion  were  "  Old, 
Boston,  and  her  first  husband  was  the  North,  South,  Column's,  Cambridge, 
Rev.  Samuel  Danforth,  of  Roxbury.  She  Andover,  Meadford  ;  "  and  that  Drs.  In- 
was  probably  a  member  of  the  Second  crease  and  Cotton  Mather,  Mr.  Brattle, 
or  North  Church  at  the  time  of  her  Mr.  Barnard,  and  Mr.  Bradstreet  laid  on 
death.l  hands. 


SCARCITY  OF  GRAIN.  369 

ton  called  him  "an  Israelite  indeed,"  and  said  that  Sir  Henry 
Wotton's  verses  on  the  character  of  a  happy  life  exactly  de- 
scribed him  :  — 

Whose  armour  is  his  honest  thought, 
And  simple  truth  his  utmost  skill. 

Another  useful  member  of  the  church  and  prominent  citizen, 
Mr.  Peter  Sergeant,  was  in  a  precarious  state  of  health,  and 
on  the  afternoon  of  the  14th  several  ministers  met  at  his 
house  to  pray  with  and  for  him.  Those  present  were  Mr. 
Wadsworth,  Mr.  Pemberton,  Mr.  Colman,  Mr.  Joseph  Sewall, 
and  Mr.  Danforth,  of  Dorchester.     He  died  a  few  weeks  later. 

Dec.  17.  The  Lecture  was  turn'd  into  a  Fast,  upon  the  account  of 
the  Epidemical  Sickness,  and  the  Scarcity  which  the  Town  is  afflicted 
with.  p.  m.  There  was  a  Contribution  for  the  Poor.  The  Old 
Church  gather'd  about  *]o£,  the  North  126^  the  South  \o-$£}  (J. 
Sewall.) 

Deer.  17.  Thorsday  is  a  Cloudy  and  very  Cold  Day,  which  made 
the  Fast-Assemblies  the  thinner  in  the  four  Congregations  in  Boston  ; 
yet  the  Work  was  carried  on.  Two  sermons.  In  the  afternoon  ,£103. 
was  gather'd  at  the  South  Church,  68.  at  the  old,  about  70  at  Mr.  Col- 
man's,  £126.  at  the  North. 

Dec.  20.  The  weather  is  much  more  moderate  :  my  Son  adminis- 
ters the  Lord's  Supper.     (Sewall.) 

Mr.  Sewall  preached  the  Lecture  for  the  first  time  (in  Mr. 
Bridge's  turn)  on  the  3d  of  January,  from  Gen.  xvii.  1 :  "I  am 
the  Almighty  God  :  walk  before  me,  and  be  thou  perfect." 

At  the  beginning  of  the  year,  Mr.  Sewall,  with  his  bride,  Eliz- 
abeth, daughter  of  the  late  Hon.  John  Walley,  moved  into  the 

1  [How  serious  a  matter  the  scarcity  thereof  for  each  family,  and  out  of  ves- 
was  to  which  Mr.  Sewall  refers  will  ap-  sells  with  a  thousand  bushells,  two  bush- 
pear  from  the  following :  —  ells  to  each,  and  out  of  vessells  with  five 

"  At  a  meeting  of  the  Selectmen  Novr.  hundred   bushells,   one   bushel    to  each 

24.  family  and  of  flower  one  barrell  to  each 

"Pursuant  to  a  Proclamation  of  his  family. 

Excellency   the  Governor,    Relating    to  "  And  they  do  hereby  Signifie  the  pres- 

the  present   Scarcity  of  Graine,  and  in  ent  moderate  accustomary  Prices  thereof 

order  to  the  necessary  Supply  of  the  In-  to  be  as  followeth  vizt. 

habitants  of  Boston.  Shill.      . 

"  The  Said  Select  men  do  accordingly  Of  good  Winter  Wheat      8          ^ 

order  and  direct  That  the  Master  of  each  Summer  Wheat   7          5 

Sloop  or    other  vessell,  Importing   into  Rhy                         6          ft, 

this  Town  the  quantity  of  fifteen  hundred  Indian  Corn          5          "s 

Bushells  of  Graine,  Do  Supply  each  per-  Town  Records. 

son  who  Shall  come  or  Send  to  buy  for  Judge  Sewall  records,  November  27  : 

the   relief    of    their  respective   families,  "  I  got  a  Grist  of  Wheat  among  the  many 

not  exceeding  two  bushells  and  an  halfe,  that  were  pressing  for  it."] 


37o 


HISTORY  OF   THE    OLD   SOUTH   CHURCH. 


old  parsonage,  which  had  been  vacated  by  Mr.  Pemberton  on 
the  completion  of  the  new  one  in  Milk  Street. 

Jan.  26.  1713-14.  This  day  my  son,  Mr.  Joseph  Sewall,  Removes 
into  the  Church's  House  and  Lodges  there. 

Jan.  27.  As  I  pass  along  I  call  at  my  Son's  and  wish  the  Blessing 
of  Winthrop,  Norton,  Willard,  Pemberton  [his  predecessors  in  the 
occupancy  of  the  house]  to  come  upon  him.     (Sewall.) 

April  1,  1714.  There  was  a  Day  of  Thanksgiving  kept  by  the  Town 
of  Boston,  in  Consideration  of  the  great  goodness  of  God  to  us  in 
Providing  for  us  this  last  Winter,  and  in  restoring  such  general  Health 
to  the  Town.  I  preacht  from  Ps.  103.  2  Bless  the  Lord  O  my  soul 
&c. 

April  9.  Old  Mrs.  Mather  was  buried  in  the  North  Burying  Place. 
Bearers  [Messrs.]  Bridge,  J.  Danforth,  Wadsworth,  Pemberton,  Cole- 
man, Sewall.1 

April  11.  Admitted  to  church,  Mrs.  Faith  Savage,  Mary  Neeland, 
Mary  Eliot  to  full  communion,  which  were  the  first  I  ever  admitted. - 


1  [This  was  Sarah,  widow  of  the  Rev. 
John  Cotton,  and  secondly  of  the  Rev. 
Richard  Mather.  See  ante,  pp.  120,  121. 
At  the  time  of  her  death  she  was  the 
owner  of  a  house  and  garden  in  the 
market-place,  in  Boston,  Lincolnshire.] 

2  [These  names  do  not  appear  on  the 
church  register,  on  which  there  are  no 
entries  between  February  7, 1713-14,  and 
March  3,  17 16-17. 

When  a  pew  had  more  than  one  owner, 
the  overseers  of  seats  were  called  upon 
to  settle  the  question  of  precedence. 

"  At  a  Meeting  of  the  Seaters  of  the 
South  Church  at  Maj.  Genl  Winthrops 
the  10th  April  17 14, 

"  Present,  Maj.  Genl  Winthrop,  Col. 
Saml  Checkley,  Mr.  David  Jeffries,  Mr. 
Danl  Oliver,  Maj.  Thomas  Fitch. 

"  There   having   happened   a    dispute 
about  the  Rights   in  that  Pew  formerly 
possess'd  by  Mr.  Paul  Dudley  and  Doer 
Allen  —  And     the     Committee     having 
heard  the  Pleas  that  have  been  offered, 
and  made  inquiry  ;  do  find  that  that  Place 
was  by  the  then  Overseers  Granted  to 
Mr.  Paul    Dudley  and   Mr.  Danl  Allen 
[that  is,  granted  to  them  in  this  order]. 
Wait  Winthrop 
Saml  Checkley 
David  Jeffries 
Daniel  Oliver 
Thomas  Fitch. 


"  Aprill  20th  1 7 14 

"  At  a  Meeting  of  the  above  Seaters. 

"  We  Conceiving  the  Precedency  in  the 
above  said  Pew  did  at  first  belong  to  Mr. 
Paul  Dudley,  we  think  it's  Reasonable  it 
should  be  so  still,  and  Accordingly  order, 
That  the  Southerly  halfe  of  Said  Pew 
Adjoyning  to  Mr.  Willard's  Pew  belong 
of  Right  to  said  Dudley. 

Wait  Winthrop 
Saml  Checkley 
David  Jeffries 
Daniel  Oliver 
Thomas  Fitch. 

"  This  is  a  true  Coppy." 

Mass.  Archives. 

Paul  Dudley,  "  the  well  accomplish'd 
merchant  and  accomptant,"  died  Decem- 
ber 1,  1681.  His  widow,  Mary,  married 
Penn  Townsend  as  his  second  wife.  His 
posthumous  child,  Paul,  was  baptized  at 
the  South  Church,  April  30,  16S2.  His 
interest  in  the  pew  in  controversy  had 
been  sold  to  Col.  Taylor  or  Tailer. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  "  Seaters,"  Febru- 
ary 24,  1719,  it  was  "Voted  that  Mr. 
Francis  Willoughby  on  his  request  have 
liberty  to  purchase  Mr.  Paul  Dudleys  •$■ 
of  the  pew  of  Coll.  Tayler,  said  Wil- 
loughby and  his  wife  late  Chauncey  quit- 
ting their  right  in  the  pew  Major  Wal- 
ley's  held  §  rds  of."  Mrs.  Willoughby 
was  a  daughter  of  Major  Walley.     Her 


A    SCORCHING  DROUGHT.  37 1 

June  7.  Preached  to  Artillery  Co.  from  Rev.  19.  14.  "And  the 
armies  which  were  in  Heaven."     (J.  Sewall.) 

July  5.  I  went  to  Mr.  Pemberton,  found  Mr.  Commissary  [Bel- 
cher] and  Mr.  Bromfield  there.  They  began  to  speak  to  me  about 
Deacons.  Some  of  ours  very  old  and  infirm.  Mr.  Pemberton  spake 
how  much  Col.  Checkley  was  broken  ;  which  I  had  not  observ'd.  Men- 
tion'd  the  expediency  of  adding  to  their  number.  Nam'd  Mr.  Daniel 
Oliver :  I  said  I  should  like  him  very  well  if  he  would  Accept.  Then 
nam'd  Mr.  Sam.  Phillips  :  I  said  nothing.  But  said,  I  had  need  of  a 
List  of  the  Church  members  before  I  could  speak  to  it.  Mr.  Pember- 
ton said  he  was  a  man  of  Substance  ;  seem'd  to  be  much  for  him. 
(Sewall.) 

The  deacons  at  this  time  were  Nathaniel  Williams,  James 
Hill,  and  Samuel  Checkley.  Both  Mr.  Williams  and  Mr.  Hill 
were  more  than  seventy  years  old,  and  the  former  died  in  the 
following  December.  There  is  no  evidence  that  any  new  dea- 
cons were  chosen  until  1719. 

Aug.  5.  The  lecture  was  turn'd  into  a  Fast,  upon  the  account  of 
the  great  Drought  which  the  land  is  afflicted  with.  A.  M.  Mr.  Pem- 
berton preacht  from  Jer.  5.  24  ["Neither  say  they  in  their  heart,  Let 
us  now  fear  the  Lord  our  God  that  giveth  rain,  both  the  former  and 
the  latter,  in  his  season  :  he  reserveth  unto  us  the  appointed  weeks  of 
the  harvest "].  Mr.  Wadsworth  began  with  prayer  and  Mr.  Bridge 
concluded.  P.  M.  Dr.  Cotton  Mather  preacht  from  Hosea  10.  12. 
["  Sow  to  yourselves  in  righteousness,  reap  in  mercy  ;  break  up  your 
fallow  ground  :  for  it  is  time  to  seek  the  Lord,  till  he  come  and  rain 
righteousness  upon  you."]  Mr.  Colman  began  with  prayer.  I  made 
the  last  prayer. 

Sept.  2.  There  was  a  general  Fast  kept  upon  the  Consideration 
of  the  Distress  on  this  Province  by  a  Scorching  Drought.  I  preach'd 
from  Amos  4.  12.  ["Therefore  thus  will  I  do  unto  thee,  O  Israel: 
and  because  I  will  do  this  unto  thee,  prepare  to  meet  thy  God,  O  Is- 
rael."]    (J.  Sewall.) 

first  husband  was  Charles  Chauncy,  Boston,  Feb :  26:  1719 
grandson  of  the  second  president  of  Har-  Reced  of  Ezekiel  Lewis  in  behalf  of 
vard  College,  and  father  of  the  minister  the  South  Church  in  Boston,  and  in  the 
of  the  First  Church  of  Boston,  of  the  name  of  the  Overseers,  five  Pounds 
same  name.  money,  being  for  One  half  of  that  Pew 
At  the  same  meeting  it  was  "  Voted  which  belonged  to  my  former  Husband 
That  Mr.  James  Pemberton  be  placed  Doctr  Daniel  Allen  (the  Other  half  orig- 
in that  half  of  the  pew  which  was  Doctr.  inally  to  Mr.  Paul  Dudley  Deceasd)  this 
Aliens."  Dr.  Allen's  half  of  the  pew  by  the  Direction  of  the  Overseers  &  &  is 
became  the  property  of  the  church  by  entirely  now  at  their  Disposal  for  the  ser- 
purchase  from  his  widow,  as  appears  vice  of  the  Church, 
from  the  following  receipt :  —  Mariana  Lynde.] 


372  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

On  the  20th  of  October  the  fifth  Congregational  church  in 
Boston,  the  New  North,  was  organized  by  a  friendly  secession 
from  the  Second  or  North  Church,  and  the  Rev.  John  Webb 
was  ordained  as  its  minister.1  Alexander  Sears  and  his  wife 
Rebecca,  who  had  been  connected  with  the  South  Church  for  a 
year  or  two,  were  among  the  original  members. 

October  20.  New  North  Church  Gathered :  Dr.  Increase  Mather 
read  their  Names  and  Covenant,  which  they  had  Subscrib'd,  and  took 
their  Assent  to  it,  then  voted  their  choice  of  Mr.  Webb.  Gave  him 
his  Charge,  He,  Dr.  C  Mather,  Mr.  Bridge,  Mr.  Pemberton  Laying  on 
their  Hands.  Dr.  C.  Mather  gave  the  Right  Hand  of  Fellowship. 
Govr  was  there,  Mr.  Speaker  and  many  of  the  Court.  Only  the  Four 
Churches  in  Town  sent  to.  Mr.  Webb's  Text,  He  was  a  Burning  and 
a  Shining  Light ;  were  entertain'd  at  Mr.  Seers's. 

Lord's-Day,  Nov.  28.  Rains  very  much.  Have  the  Lord's  Supper 
at  the  New  North,  which  is  the  first  time.  My  son  preaches  there  in 
the  After-noon.     (Sewall.) 

From  the  last  quotation,  and  from  other  passages  in  the 
diary,  we  see  that  what  Judge  Sewall  had  said  to  Mr.  Pemberton 
and  others  in  1705  on  the  subject  of  observing  the  Lord's  Sup- 
per once  in  four  weeks,  without  reference  to  the  first  Sunday  in 
the  month,  had  had  some  effect.  This  was  always  the  estab- 
lished usage  in  the  South  Church,  and  seems  to  have  been 
made  the  rule  in  the  new  church. 

Lord's  Day,  Decembr.  26.  Mr.  Bromfield  and  I  go  and  Keep  the 
Sabbath  with  Mr.  John  Webb,  and  sit  down  with  that  Church  at  the 
Lord's  Table.  I  did  it  to  hold  Communion  with  that  Church ;  and,  so 
far  as  in  me  lay,  to  put  Respect  upon  that  affronted,  despised  Lord's 
Day.  For  the  Church  of  England  had  the  Lord's  Supper  yesterday 
[Christmas]  the  last  day  of  the  Week :  but  will  not  have  it  to-day,  the 
day  that  the  Lord  has  made.  And  Genl.  Nicholson,  who  kept  Satter- 
day,  was  this  Lord's  Day  Rummaging  and  Chittering  with  Wheel  bar- 
rows &c.  to  get  aboard  at  the  long  Wharf,  and  firing  Guns  at  Setting 
Sail.  I  thank  God,  I  heard  not,  saw  not  any  thing  of  it  :  but  was 
quiet  at  the  New  North.  I  did  it  also  to  Countenance  a  young  small 
Church,  and  to  shew  that  I  was  pleas'd  with  them  for  having  the 
Lord's  Supper  once  in  four  Weeks,  and  upon  one  of  the  Sabbaths  that 
was  vacant.2     Had  a  very,  comfortable  Day.     (Sewall.) 

1  Mr.    Webb    graduated  at   Harvard  one,  and  his  church  was  greatly  increased 

College  in  1708.     He  married,  April  13,  at  the  time  of  the  religious  awakening  in 

17 1 5,     Frances,     daughter    of    Edward  1740-43. 

Bromfield  ;   she   was    a  member  of   the  2  [The  following  relates  to  the  Second 

South  Church,  and  died  in  1721.  Church  :  — 

Mr.  Webb's  ministry  was  a  successful  "It   was   at    this   period  [March    15, 


THE   THIRD   SAMUEL   SEW  ALL.  373 

May  8  1715.  I  preach'd  P.M.  from  1  Cor.  7.  14.  —  But  now  are 
they  holy.  From  this  text  I  endeavour'd  to  prove  that  the  Infants  of 
Believers  are  federally  Holy,  in  covenant  with  God,  and  the  Sub- 
jects of  Christ's  visible  Kingdom.  Grace  Morgan  entred  in  Covenant 
and  was  admitted  to  Baptism.  I  then  baptized  my  little  Son  •  named 
him  Samuel.  O  Lord  doe  thou  baptize  Him  with  the  Holy  Ghost  and 
with  fire  !  Take  possession  of  Him  by  thy  Spirit  and  grace,  and  make 
Him  an  Heir  to  all  the  blessings  of  the  New  Covenant.  O  Lord  be 
thou  my  God  and  the  God  of  mine  forever !  Let  this  Child  live  and 
glorify  God,  and  help  me  to  doe  my  Duty  towards  him.     (J.  Sewall.) 

The  honored  grandfather  was  not  able  to  be  present  at  this 
interesting  service.  "The  wet  weather,"  he  says,  "and  my 
Indisposition,  caused  me  to  stay  at  home ;  that  I  had  not  the 
Satisfaction  to  be  present  at  the  Baptisme."  The  child  of  this 
pious  ancestry  became  a  member  of  the  South  Church,  and 
served  as  deacon  under  his  reverend  father. 

July  14.  Son  preaches  [the  Lecture]  out  of  Isa.  11.  His  Rest  shall 
be  glorious.  Mr.  Stobo  and  several  other  Carolina  Ministers  were 
Auditors,  p.  m.  I  visited  Dr.  C.  Mather  and  his  new  Wife  at  the 
house  that  was  Mr.  Kellond's.1 

July  17.  My  son  and  Mr.  Webb  Exchange.  Mr.  Pemberton  not 
abroad  in  the  Forenoon.     Baptizes  Mr.  Clark's  Son  John,  p.  m. 

July  31.  Lord's  Day.  My  Son  baptizes  Nathanael  Bethune,  James 
Salter  and  Anne. 

Aug.  2.  Fast  at  Mr.  Colman's  about  Calling  another  Minister. 
Mr.  Wadsworth  began  with  Prayer ;  Mr.  Colman  preach'd  from 
Ephes.  4.  8.  11.  Excellently:  Censur'd  him  that  had  reproach'd  the 
Ministers  as  if  they  were  Gog  and  Magog ;  said  would  conclude  as 
Zech.  3.  2.  The  Lord  rebuke  thee  Satan  —  Mr.  Bridge  pray'd  and 
gave  the  Blessing. 

p.  m.  Mr.  Pemberton  pray'd,  Dr.  Cotton  Mather  preach'd  from 
Isa.  5.  6.  latter  clause,  I  will  command  the  clouds  &c.  Excellently ; 
censur'd  him  that  had  reproach'd  the  Ministry,  calling  the  Proposals 
Modalities  of  little  consequence,  and  made  in  the  Keys ;  call'd  it  a 
Satanick  insult,  twice  over,   and  it  found   a  Kind   Reception.     Dr. 

1741,]  that  an  evening  lecture  before  the  1  [Dr.  Cotton  Mather  married  as  his 

communion  was  established ;  and  at  the  third  wife  Lydia,  daughter  of  the  Rev. 

same  time  the  season  of  the  communion  Samuel  Lee,  for  many  years  of  Bristol, 

was  changed  from  every  fourth  week  to  and  widow  of  John  George,    a  worthy 

the  first  Sabbath  of  every  month.     After  merchant  of  Boston,  who  died  in  17 14. 

two  months,  however,  the  vote  was  re-  She  joined  the  South  Church  by  letter 

considered,  and  the  old  term  of  rotation  from    Bristol,    March    1,    1695-6.      Mr. 

restored,  which  continues  unchanged  to  George  became  a  member  a  few  months 

the   present   time."     Ware's    Two   Dis-  later,   and    afterward   was    one    of    the 

courses,  1821,  p.  29.]  founders  of  Brattle  Street  Church.] 


374  HISTORY  OF   THE   OLD   SOUTH  CHURCH. 

Increase  Mather  concluded,  Sung  the  3d  part  of  the  68th  Ps.  Gibson 
set  the  Low  Dutch  Tune,  Dr.  Incr.  Mather  gave  the  Blessing.  All 
excellently  ;  only  I  could  wish  the  extremity  of  the  censure  had  been 
forborn  —  Lest  we  be  devoured  one  of  another.     (Sewall.) 

Sept  1.  After  Lecture  the  Ministers  met  together  at  Mr.  Pember- 
ton's.  At  this  Meeting,  there  was  a  warm  debate  about  Mr.  Wise's 
Book  (which  was  written  in  answer  to  the  Proposals  drawn  up  and 
Voted  by  several  Ministers  in  the  year  [1705]  and  contains  a  very 
high  Charge)  And  Mr.  Ebenezer  White  and  Mr.  Samuel  Moodeywere 
admonish'd  and  reprov'd  for  the  Letter  which  they  wrote  to  Encourage 
the  Printing  that  Book.  Dr.  Cotton  Mather  and  Mr.  Pemberton 
manag'd  the  Charge  with  Considerable  Severity.  Mr.  Moodey  stood 
up  and  said,  as  near  as  I  can  remember,  that  He  pleaded  not  guilty 
and  knew  or  would  know  whom  He  should  be  tried  by.  Mr.  White 
seem'd  to  justify  Himself,  and  spoke  with  a  pretty  deal  of  freedom. 
The  matter  ended  uncomfortably,  saving  that  Mr.  Stoddard  concluded 
with  an  excellent  Prayer.  Lord  save  us,  Heal  our  divisions,  unite 
our  hearts  to  fear  thy  Name,  Show  thy  Servants  wherein  they  have 
exceeded,  and  let  not  a  Spirit  of  Contention  prevail  among  us.  Suffer 
not  the  Common  Enemy  to  take  advantage  either  from  that  Book,  or 
the  disputes  which  it  hath  occasion'd.  O  Thou  God  of  Peace,  dwell 
among  us,  teach  and  direct  and  influence  thy  Servants,  in  the  Ministry  ; 
Bless  thy  Churches,  let  them  have  rest  and  be  edifyed ;  Encrease  the 
power  of  Godliness  among  them,  and  let  thy  Worship  always  be  main- 
tain'd  in  the  purity  of  it.     (J.  Sewall.) 

The  occasion  of  the  severe  censures  which  both  Judge  Sewall 
and  his  son  mention  with  regret  was  the  appearance  of  a  second 
edition  of  John  Wise's  scorching  satire  upon  the  Proposals  of 
1705,  The  Churches'  Quarrel  Espoused,  to  which  was  prefixed  a 
commendatory  letter  from  Mr.  Moodey  and  Mr.  White.1     Mr. 

1  Glocester,  March  25,  1715.  asleep,  nor  the  camp  of  Christ  surprized 

Reve?-end  Sir  and  taken,  before  they  had  warning. 

We  have  had  the  favor  and  satisfac-  We  are  Reverend  Sir 

tion  of  reading,  and  according   to  our  Full  of  dutiful  respect  and  gratitude, 

measure    considering    the    transcendent  Your  Sons  and  Servants, 

logic,  as  well  as  grammar  and  rhetoric,  Samuel  Moodey 

of   your   Reply   to    the    Proposals;    by  John  White. 

which  our  eyes  are  opened  to  see  much  Several  years  later,  another  edition  of 

more  than  ever  before  we  saw,  of  the  this  work  was  published,  with  this  note : 

value   and  glory  of   our  invaded   privi-  "  The    following    Reverend   Gentlemen 

leges,  and  are   of   opinion   that  if  your  recommended    the    foregoing     as    well 

consent  may  be  obtained  to  a  new  edi-  worthy  the  perusal  of  the  public.     Peter 

tion,  it  may  be  of  wonderful  service  to  Thacher,  Joseph  Sewall,  Thomas  Prince, 

our  churches,  if  God  shall  please  to  go  John  Webb,  William  Cooper,  Thomas 

forth  with  it.     However,  it  will  be  a  tes-  Foxcroft. 

timony  that  all  our  watchmen  were  not  "Boston,  January  25,  1733-4." 


JOHN  WISE'S  SECOND  BOOK.  375 

Wise  followed  up  his  attack  with  another  publication,  entitled 
A  Vindication  of  the  Government  of  New  England  Churches, 
"  a  production,"  says  Dr.  Joseph  S.  Clark,  "  as  remarkable  for 
terse  logic  as  the  other  is  for  keen  satire.  It  is  unquestionably 
the  clearest  and  most  convincing  demonstration  of  the  Congre- 
gational polity  ever  put  forth  in  the  same  number  of  pages.  It 
would  have  left  its  mark  on  any  age  that  could  produce  it.  But 
in  that  age,  and  among  a  people  whose  susceptibilities  of  im- 
pression were  -quickened  by  late  encroachments  on  popular 
freedom  in  the  state,  and  still  later  on  the  liberties  of  the 
churches,  it  was  like  setting  a  seal  to  melted  wax.  Especially 
forcible  is  his  argument  'drawn  from  the  light  of  nature.'  Dig- 
ging down  to  the  bottom,  and  laying  bare  the  foundation  stones, 
he  shows  that  all  human  government  is,  and  must  be,  origi- 
nally derived  from  the  people.  .  .  .  Ranging  all  governments 
under  three  general  heads  —  the  monarchy,  the  oligarchy,  the 
democracy  — and  subjecting  them  each  to  a  scrutiny  in  the 
light  of  nature,  he  discovers  that  the  last  named  is  incomparably 
the  best  suited  to  the  end  for  which  human  government  is  insti- 
tuted ;  and  looking  at  the  Prelatic,  the  Presbyterian,  and  the 
Congregational,  as  the  then  corresponding  forms  of  ecclesiastical 
rule,  he  finds  the  same  grounds  of  preference  for  the  latter."1 

Only  to  superficial  observation  is  there  no  marked  difference 
between  the  Congregational  and  the  Presbyterian  polity.  We 
have  nothing  to  say  here  upon  the  relative  merits  of  the  two 
systems,  but  we  must  insist  that  confusion  and  contradiction 
are  the  almost  inevitable  result,  whenever  the  attempt  is  made 
to  blend  them.  Presbyterianism  administered  under  its  own 
constitution  and  laws  is  one  thing;  Presbyterian  rules  and  re- 
strictions imported  into  the  Congregational  system  are  alto- 
gether another  thing.  When  such  importation  has  taken  place, 
it  has  generally  been  for  the  purpose  of  abridging  the  liberties 
of  the  local  churches.  The  Presbyterian  members  of  the  West- 
minster Assembly  brought  "  an  extraordinary  outside  pressure  " 
to  bear  upon  the  New  England  divines  when  they  were  fram- 
ing the  Cambridge  Platform,  leading  to  the  introduction  of 
certain  features  into  that  great  historical  statement  which  are 
out  of  harmony  with  its  essential  character.2     These  discordant 

1  Hist.  Sketch   of  the   Cong.    Chhs.    in  England,  and  privately  circulated ;  pam- 

Mass.,  p.  119.  phlets  were  published,  speeches    made, 

Hist.  Sketch,  pp.  41,  42.     Dr.  Clark  and  entreaties  uttered.     The  wonder  is, 

says:    "Letters   were    sent    over    from  that   in   adjusting   the  platform  to   the 


376 


HISTORY  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 


provisions  were  the  basis  of  the  Proposals  of  1705  ;  and  they 
have  been  made  the  excuse  of  those  in  every  generation  since 
that  time,  who  have  desired  to  bring  the  churches  of  Massachu- 
setts and  their  ministers  under  centralized  authority. 

We  have  few  incidents  from  any  source  for  the  years  171 5 
and  1716.1  Mr.  Bridge,  colleague  pastor  of  the  First  Church, 
died  September  26,  1715.  "With  him,"  Judge  Sewall  said, 
"much  primitive  Christianity  is  gone;  the  Old  Church,  the 
Town,  the  Province  have  a  great  loss.     He  was   particularly 


times  then  passing  the  framers  had  not 
got  into  it  more  discrepancies  than  they 
have.  But  so  explicitly  have  they  defined 
the  matter,  form,  and  power  of  a  Con- 
gregational church,  and  guarded  its  in- 
dependence against  internal  misrule  and 
external  control,  that  whatever  we  may 
find  there  in  seeming  disagreement  with 
these  fundamental  principles  must  be 
interpreted  consistently  with  them,  —  as 
was  long  ago  intimated  by  President 
Stiles  in  his  Election  Sermon,  and  by 
John  Wise  in  his  Churches'  Quarrel 
Espoused." 

1  We  reproduce  another  letter  to  the 
overseers  of  seats,  to  illustrate  further 
the  nature  of  the  duties,  often  difficult 
and  delicate,  which  devolved  on  these 
officials. 

Gentn 

Understanding  that  you  are  appointed 
by  the  South  Church  to  order  the  Seat- 
ing of  people  who  belong  there  and  to 
redress  greivances  occasioned  by  Peoples 
Seating  them  Selves  on  others  Rights,  I 
acquaint  you  with  the  State  of  my  Case 
(and  apply  my  Selfe  to  you  for  redress) 
which  is  as  follows  vizt 

My  Father  you  all  know  was  a  Con- 
stant hearer  and  Contributor  at  the 
South  Church  and  purchas'd  halfe  of  a 
Pew  there,  the  other  halfe  of  which  be- 
long'd  to  Coll  Poole,  You  may  also  re- 
member there  was  an  ally  between  that 
and  Mrs.  Gillams  as  a  passage  to  Major 
Walleys  Pew,  which  passage  Coll  Minot 
got  leave  of  the  Church  to  take  into  my 
fathers  Pew  but  not  without  agreeing 
with  him  therefor  on  these  Conditions 
vizt  that  if  he  or  any  of  his  family  at 
any  time  found  any  illconveniency  occa- 


sioned by  another  family's  joyning  with 
his,  he  the  said  Minot  promissed  to  alter 
it  and  make  it  as  it  was  before,  Mr. 
Minot  sells  this  part  of  the  Pew  to  Mr. 
Barber  the  Taylor  and  the  illconven- 
iencys  wee  find  are  these,  Said  Barber 
has  built  a  bench  which  when  Seated  on 
takes  up  the  whole  part  which  belongs 
to  them,  but  instead  of  being  contented 
with  their  own  part  takes  up  the  whole 
breadth  of  a  Chair  in  our  part  Soe  that 
wee  are  Crouded  out  of  our  Rights,  My 
Brother  has  once  or  twice  put  up  a  Par- 
tition of  about  Six  Inches  high  only 
to  keep  them  within  their  own  bounds 
which  they  have  as  often  pull'd  down 

My  request  to  you  is  that  you  will  be 
pleas'd  to  take  this  matter  into  your 
Consideration  and  either  order  them  to 
make  the  Partition  as  it  was  formerly 
or  order  me  the  part  they  now  have  I 
paying  them  what  money  it  cost  them 
or  let  us  have  a  Seat  where  elce  in  the 
Church  you  shall  think  propper,  Two 
of  my  Brothers  have  absented  them- 
selves for  these  many  years  from  the 
Church  on  the  account  of  their  being 
crouded  out  of  their  Seats  and  my  Sisters 
are  forced  to  goe  to  other  Churches  or 
Sett  in  the  Allys,  I  begg  the  favour  of 
you  (at  your  own  time)  that  you'l  be 
pleas'd  to  give  me  your  resolutions  in 
this  affaire  and  you'l  oblige 
Gentn 

Your  most  humble  servt 

John  Alford 

Boston,  24th  Augt  171 5 

John  Alford,  son  of  Benjamin  and 
Mary  (Richards)  Alford,  was  baptized  at 
the  Third  Church,  July  5,  1685. 


THE  NEW  SOUTH  CHURCH.  t>77 

dear  to  me."  *  On  the  6th  of  October,  Samuel  Adams,  Henry 
Hill,  and  others  received  permission  "  to  build  a  Meetinghouse 
with  Timber,  and  cover  it  with  Shingles  on  Church-Green,"  on 
what  is  now  Summer  Street.  All  the  meeting-houses  were 
crowded,  and  there  was  a  movement  of  population  to  what  was 
then  considered  the  extreme  south  part  of  the  town.  It  was 
necessary,  therefore,  to  build  the  New  South,  which  was  com- 
pleted in  January,  1717.2  On  the  19th  of  October,  171 5,  a 
church  was  formed  in  Rumney  Marsh  (Chelsea),  and  the  Rev. 
Thomas  Cheever,  formerly  of  Maiden,  was  settled  as  its  pastor. 

Lord's  Day,  Jan.  15.  17 16.  An  Extraordinary  Cold  Storm  of  Wind 
and  Snow.  Blows  much  worse  on  coming  home  at  Noon,  and  so 
holds  on.  Bread  was  frozen  at  the  Lord's  Table:  Mr.  Pemberton 
administered.  Came  not  out  to  the  Afternoon  Exercise.  Though 
twas  so  Cold,  yet  John  Tuckerman  was  baptized.  At  Six-a-clock  my 
ink  freezes  so  that  I  can  hardly  write  by  a  good  fire  in  my  Wive's 
Chamber.  Yet  was  very  Comfortable  at  Meeting.  Laus  Deo. 
(Sewall.) 

On  the  23d  of  May,  Mr.  William  Cooper  was  ordained  col- 
league pastor  at  Brattle  Street.  He  had  graduated  at  Cam- 
bridge four  years  before,  and  brought  with  him  a  high  reputation 
for  scholarship  and  piety.  At  the  ordination  service,  the  ser- 
mon was  preached  by  Mr.  Colman,  and  not  by  Mr.  Cooper 
himself,  which  was  a  departure  from  the  usual  custom.  Between 
the  sermon  and  the  ordaining  prayer,  Mr.  Cooper  read  a  paper, 
in  which  he  answered  four  questions  propounded  by  Mr.  Col- 
man, relating  to  Christian  doctrine  and  the  work  of  the  ministry. 

1  Samuel  Sewall  and  Edward  Brom-  men,  October  5,  17 15,  it  is  said:  "The 
field  wrote  to  Mr.  Bridge,  when  it  was  Selectmen  pursuant  to  the  grant  of  the 
proposed  to  call  him  to  the  First  Church,  Town  have  Now  Staked  out  the  Land 
April  22,  1703  : —  on  Church  Green  for  the  setting  a  New 

"  We  hope  if  it  please  God  to  incline  Meeting  House  on."     In  the  petition  for 

your  heart  to  visit  these  parts,  It  will  be  "  a  grant   of   that   piece  of  land  called 

a  happy  Expedient  for  the  satisfactory  Church  Green,"  it  was  said :   "  By  the 

and   agreeable   Repairing   some   one  of  situation  and  name  of  said  land  it  was 

our  many  Breaches :  for  which  we  shall  no  doubt  intended  by  our  forefathers  for 

have  cause  to  bless  the  Sun   of  Righte-  that  purpose."      It  is  quite  possible  that 

ousness,  Rising  Westward   on  us,  with  this  was  the  piece  of  land  allotted  by  the 

Healing  under  his  Wings."  town  to  the  Third  Church  in  1669,  and 

Mr.   Bridge    was    installed    May    10,  that  it  took  its  name,  as  above,  from  that 

I7°S-  circumstance.      See  ante,  pp.    128,    129, 

2  "  A  piece  of  land  commonly  called  142,  143. 

Church  Green  "  was  granted  by  the  town  October  16,  17 16.  "  View'd  the  New 
to  the  new  church,  September  20,  17 15.  South  Church.  Gave  the  Workmen  5s." 
In  the  record  of  a  meeting  of  the  select-     (Sewall.) 


378  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD   SOUTH  CHURCH. 

In  our  day,  the  pastor-elect  does  not  preach  his  own  ordination 
sermon,  but  usage  gives  to  him  the  selection  of  the  preacher, 
which  shows  the  survival  of  the  old  custom  in  its  spirit  although 
not  in  form.  Mr.  Cooper  afterward  married  Judith,  youngest 
child  of  Judge  Sewall. 

In  the  autumn  of  1716  the  town  of  Boston  was  saddened  by 
the  news  of  the  loss  of  the  Amity,  —  one  of  the  London  packets, 
on  her  way  down  the  English  Channel, — with  her  passengers 
and  all  her  crew  except  the  second  mate. 

Nov.  24.  Chadder  arrives  and  brings  the  dolefull  News  of  Capt. 
Thomas  lost  in  a  storm  off  Dungeness,  and  in  him  Prince,  Jeffrey. 

(Sewall.) 

It  was  supposed  at  first  that  Mr.  Thomas  Prince,  a  classmate 
at  Cambridge  of  Mr.  Joseph  Sewall  and  a  young  minister  of 
much  promise,  was  among  the  lost.  He  had  written  to  his 
friends  here  that  he  was  proposing  to  embark  in  this  vessel, 
with  "a  dear  and  pious  friend,  Mr.  David  Jeffries  ;"  but  "sick- 
ness and  other  incidents "  frustrated  this  plan,  and  he  was 
spared,  as  it  proved,  for  a  long  and  faithful  ministry  at  the  Old 
South,  and  for  other  eminent  services  as  a  scholar  and  historian. 
His  friend,  Mr.  David  Jeffries,  was  just  entering  upon  a  career 
of  honor  and  usefulness.  He  graduated  at  Cambridge  in  1708, 
a  year  after  Mr.  Sewall  and  Mr.  Prince,  so  that  they  were  all  in 
college  together  for  three  years ;  and  he  became  a  member  of 
the  South  Church  in  171 1.1  He  left  an  only  son,  David,  who, 
nearly  half  a  century  later,  became  a  deacon  in  the  church 
before  whose  pulpit  both  his  father  and  himself  had  been  bap- 
tized, and  with  which  both  had  entered  into  covenant  in  early 
manhood. 

Dec.  30.  Only  my  Son  abroad  in  the  Forenoon.  Only  Mr.  Pem- 
berton  with  us  p.  m.  preaches  a  notable  funeral  Sermon  from  the 
Promise  to  Josiah  of  dying  in  peace  :  Only  Mr.  Belcher  and  I  in  our 
Fore-seat.  Son  preaches  for  Mr.  Colman  p.  m.,  his  wife  being  dan- 
gerously sick.     (Sewall.) 

1  David  Jeffries  united  with  the  Cam-  belonged  to  the  same  class.     Mr.  Jeffries 

bridge    church,    December  22,   1706,  in  brought  a  letter  to  the  South  Church  in 

company  with   five    of    his    classmates  171 1.     He  was  the   son   of   David,  the 

(class    of    1708) :    (the    Rev.)    Ebenezer  emigrant,  for  references   to   whom   see 

Thayer,    Recompense    Wadsworth,  (the  ante,  pp.  355,  360. 

Rev.)  Eleazar  Williams,  (the  Rev.)  John  His    widow,    Katharine,    daughter   of 

Webb,  and  (the  Rev.)  John  Tufts,  —  six  John    Eyre,    afterward    married    Oliver 

out  of  a  class  of  thirteen.     (The  Rev.)  Noyes.      Her    sister     Bethiah    married 

Samuel  Phillips,  afterward  of  Andover,  John,  son  of  the  Hon.  John  Walley. 


MR.   PEMBERTON' S  LAST  SERMON. 


379 


On  the  8th  of  January,  171 7,  the  New  South  meeting-house 
was  opened  with  appropriate  services,  and  the  Third  or  South 
Church  thus  became  the  Old  South.1  Mr.  Wadsworth  preached 
in  the  morning,  and  Dr.  Cotton  Mather,  in  the  afternoon.  Mr. 
Pemberton,  Mr.  Sewall,  and  Mr.  Colman  also  took  part  in  the 
services. 

Mr.  Pemberton  preached  to  his  people  on  Sunday,  the  20th  of 
January,  and  this  proved  to  be  his  last  sermon.  His  text  was 
Matt.  xxii.  5  :  "  But  they 
made  light  of  it,  and  went 
their  ways,  one  to  his  farm, 
another  to  his  merchandise." 
He  had  never  been  a  strong 
man,  and  for  several  years  he 
had  been  suffering  much  bod- 
ily pain ;  but  he  had  strug- 
gled manfully  against  dis- 
ease, and  he  did  his  work 
well  to  the  last.  His  col- 
league said  :  "  I  look  upon  it 
to  be  truly  wonderful,  that 
under  such  frequent  returns 
of  distressing  maladies,  he 
was  strengthened  and  spirited 
in  so  great  a  measure  to  perform  his  ministerial  labours  in  the 
house  of  God."  Perhaps  to  the  state  of  his  health  should  be 
attributed,  in  part  at  least,  that  irritability  of  temper  which  he 
manifested  when  affairs  in  the  churches  and  in  the  political 
world  did  not  move  according  to  his  mind,  and  which  appears 
to  have  been  his  only  failing  as  a  public  man. 

Feb.  8.  Mr.  Pemberton  is  very  sick  ;  I  visit  him  in  his  little  Bed- 
room next  the  Study. 

Feb.  10.  Mr.  Pemberton  pray'd  for  as  there  being  hopes  of  's  being 
better.     Mr.  Sam  Fisk  preaches  in  the  afternoon. 

Feb.  11.  A  number  of  the  Church  meet  at  Mr.  Sewall's  [the  old 
parsonage]  and  pray  for  Mr.  Pemberton.  Mr.  Wadsworth,  Dr.  Cotton 
Mather,  Mr.  Colman,  Mr.  Webb,  Mr.  Cooper,  Mr.  Sewall,  in  the  West- 
Room. 

Feb.  13.  Susan  [Thayer]  brings  word  that  Mr.  Pemberton  had  a 
good  night,  was  much  better.     Yet  afternoon  am  sent  for  to  him  as 

1  This  name  came  into  use  very  gradu-  rectly,  was  in  1723.  For  half  a  century, 
ally.  The  first  time  it  was  used  in  the  or  longer,  the  church  was  known  famil- 
Town  Records,  if  we  have  observed  cor-     iarly  in  the  town  as  Dr.  Sewall's. 


gfartfLAr&i-JUn- 


380  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

approaching  his  end.  When  came  was  finishing  his  Will.  Then  I 
went  in  to  Him  :  He  call'd  me  to  sit  down  by  him,  held  me  by  the 
hand  and  spake  pertinently  to  me,  though  had  some  difficulty  to  hear 
him.  Mr.  Sewall  pray'd  fervently,  and  quickly  after  he  expired,  Bol- 
stered up  in  his  Bed,  about  f  past  3.  afternoon  in  the  best  Chamber. 
The  Lord  sanctify  it  to  me,  and  to  all.  My  Son  writ  a  letter  to  Dr. 
Cotton  Mather  to  preach  [the  Lecture]  for  him,  and  before  'twas 
superscribed,  he  came  in,  which  took  as  a  Token  for  good.  I  spake 
to  Mr.  [Ezekiel]  Lewis,  and  he  approved  of  it. 

Feb.  14.  Dr.  C.  Mather  preaches  and  prays  excellently.  Come 
my  people  enter  into  thy  Chambers  —  Isa.  26. 

Feb.  15.  The  Revd.  Mr.  William  Brattle  died  last  night  at  mid- 
night. He  was  a  Father  to  the  Students  of  Harvard  College,  and  a 
Physician,  My  Fast  Friend.  I  wish  it  be  not  portentous  That  Two 
Such  great  Men  should  fall  in  one  week.     Deus  avertat  omen. 

Feb.  16.  Is  a  great  Storm  of  Snow  and  Sleet,  so  that  the  Burying 
of  Mr.  Pemberton  is  put  off  to  Monday,  and  Notice  sent  accordingly. 

Feb.  17.  Serene,  Mr.  Wadsworth  preaches  at  the  South  Excellently, 
from  2  Pet.  1.  15. 

Feb.  18.  Great  Storm  of  Snow ;  yet  good  going  under  foot.  Mr. 
Pemberton  is  buried  between  4  and  5.  in  Mr.  Willard's  Tomb.  Bear- 
ers, Mr.  John  Leverett,  president,  Dr.  Cotton  Mather;  Mr.  Wads- 
worth,  Colman  ;  Mr.  Sewall,  Webb ;  Dr.  Increase  Mather,  Majr.  Genl 
Winthrop.  Col.  Hutchinson  not  there,  by  which  means  it  fell  to  me 
to  wait  on  his  Excellency  :  Twas  good  going,  a  broad  path  being  made. 

Feb.  21.  Extraordinary  Storm  of  Snow;  yet  many  men  at  Lecture 
to  hear  Mr.  Colman  preach  the  Funeral  Sermon  of  Mr.  Pemberton 
and  Mr.  Brattle,  from  John  ix.  4.  ["  1  must  work  the  works  of  him 
that  sent  me,  while  it  is  day."]  Compar'd  Mr.  Pemberton  to  Elijah, 
Mr.  Brattle  to  Moses.  After  Lecture  the  storm  increases  much, 
grows  more  vehement.     (Sewall.) 

Mr.  Colman  said :  — 

There  was  a  Great  likeness  in  these  Servants  of  God :  I  mean  not 
in  Face  and  Feature,  nor  in  natural  Temper  or  Conversation,  nor  in 
their  way  of  Preaching ;  but  they  were  alike  men  of  great  Parts  and 
Learning,  alike  Phylosophers  and  Divines,  Masters  of  the  best  Liter- 
ature, and  very  thorow  and  General  Scholars  ;  they  had  read  Books 
and  Men,  and  were  good  Judges  of  both,  for  they  had  an  uncommon 
strength  of  mind,  and  searched  every  thing  to  the  bottom,  as  far  as 
the  Ordinary  Attainments  among  Men,  may  allow  us  to  say  so.  They 
were  very  Judicious  Men,  and  plac'd  neither  Learning  nor  Religion  in 
unprofitable  Speculations,  or  Superficial  Notions,  or  in  Science  falsely 
so  called ;  but  in  Solid  and  Substantial  Truth,  to  furnish  themselves 
with  that  which  betters  the  Mind  and  serves  the  World. 


MR.   P EMBERTON'S  DEATH.  381 

Speaking  particularly  of  Mr.  Pemberton,  the  preacher  con- 
tinued :  — 

He  imitated  his  great  Lord  and  Master,  who  spake  as  one  having 
authority.  His  Warm  or  Passionate  Temper  (which  was  sometimes 
his  great  Infirmity  and  Burthen)  serv'd  here  to  set  the  greater  Edge, 
and  give  a  further  Energy  to  his  Admirable  Discourses,  which  were 
always  Animated  with  a  fervent  Zeal  for  the  Glory  of  God  and  the 
Salvation  of  Man.  His  Sermons  appear'd  to  Others  always  to  cost 
him  great  Pains  and  much  Study  ;  They  were  Practical,  Pathetical 
and  very  Moving ;  Illuminating,  Affecting,  Convincing.  Our  Expec- 
tations were  always  Great  when  he  stood  up,  and  how  often  has  he 
exceeded  'em,  never  deceived  'em  :  Like  the  Sun  he  ran  his  Course 
strongly  and  steddily,  giving  light  and  heat. 

The  preacher  made  a  passing  reference  to  the  controversies 
which  prevailed  during  the  greater  part  of  Mr.  Pemberton's 
ministry:  — 

My  Deceased  Brother  has  sometimes  told  me  how  much  his  Spirit 
has  been  wounded,  and  His  Hands  weakned  in  the  Master's  Work, 
by  the  unjust  Surmizes  and  Censures  which  have  been  bestow'd  upon 
some  of  his  most  Faithful  Endeavours  to  serve  these  Churches.  I 
also  have  Suffer'd  with  him  in  things  wherein  I  have  the  utmost  Satis- 
faction of  his  Integrity  and  my  own. 

Mr.  Sewall  paid  an  affectionate  tribute  to  his  departed  col- 
league in  a  sermon  on  2  Cor.  iv.  7  :  "  But  we  have  this  treasure 
in  earthen  vessels,  that  the  excellency  of  the  power  may  be  of 
God,  and  not  of  us." 1  We  quote  a  sentence  from  it  which 
embalms  one  of  Mr.  Pemberton's  own  expressions:  "It  is  a 
comfort  and  refreshment  to  us  that  this  bright  lamp  of  the 
sanctuary  went  out  at  last  in  a  sweet  perfume ;  that  I  may  bor- 
row the  phrase  used  by  him  in  his  excellent  discourse  on  this 
subject  above  a  year  ago." 

Another  snow-storm  followed  those  above  mentioned,  which 
is  characteristically  described  by  Dr.  Cotton  Mather :  — 

On  the  24th  day  of  the  month  comes  Pelion  upon  Ossa  ;  another 

1  This  sermon  was   printed,  with    an  memory,    and    was     an    hard    student, 

Address  to  the  Reader  by  Dr.  Increase  whence  it  necessarily  follows  that  having 

Mather,  which  is  suggestive  when  it  is  (as  he  had)  a  considerable  time  to  furnish 

remembered  what  the   relations  of  the  himself  with  variety  of  learning,  his  ac- 

president  and  the  tutor  at   Cambridge  complishments  must  be   eminent.     But 

were,   less    than    twenty   years    before,  that  which  made  him   chiefly  desirable, 

Says  the  ex-president :  "  I  had  peculiar  was  his  piety.     His  gifts  were  sanctified 

reason   to   know  him,  when   he   was   a  with  grace,  and  the  fear  of  God." 

student  at  the  college.     I  then  observed  Mr.  Pemberton  had  just  completed  his 

that  he  had  a  pregnant  wit,  and  strong  forty-fifth  year. 


382 


HISTORY  OF   THE    OLD   SOUTH   CHURCH. 


snow  came  on  which  almost  buried  the  memory  of  the  former,  with  a 
storm  so  famous  that  Heaven  laid  an  interdict  on  the  religious  assem- 
blies throughout  the  country,  on  this  Lord's  day,  the  like  whereunto 
had  never  been  seen  before.  The  Indians  near  an  hundred  years  old 
affirm  that  their  fathers  never  told  them  of  anything  that  equalled  it. 
Vast  numbers  of  Cattel  were  destroyed  in  this  calamity. 

Feb.  24.  1  Violent  Storm  of  Snow,  which  makes  our  Meeting  very 
thin  especially  as  to  Women.  Mr.  Cotton  of  Newtown  here.  Hardly 
any  of  the  Ministers  at  Mr.  Brattle's  Funeral  are  got  home.  'Tis 
fear'd  many  Congregations  fail'd.     There  was  none  at  the  New-South. 

Feb.  28.  Storm.  Dr.  Cotton  Mather  preaches  excellent  [the  Lec- 
ture] from  Psal.  147.  He  sendeth  his  word  and  melteth  them.  Ap- 
ply'd  it  also  to  the  Conversion  of  the  Jews. 

March  3.  1.  Fair  good  wether  p.  m.  Robert  Calef  is  baptized  ; 
and  Mr.  Abiel  Wally,  John  James,  Mrs.  Margaret  Wally,  and  Susan 
Thayr  are  admitted.  Mr.  Holyoke  dined  with  us,  who  is  still  kept 
here  by  the  snow  that  makes  the  ways  unpassable.     (Sewall.) 


pfiftssi 


^W    JW>*.  S<./[,-\        1**^ 


CHAPTER  VIII. 


1717-1730. 


THE    BEGINNING    OF    A    LONG    CO-PASTORATE. 

THE  young  pastor  who  now  had  sole  charge  of  this  impor- 
tant church  was  less  than  thirty  years  of  age.  Although 
the  three  colleague  pastorates  thus  far  had  covered  less  than 
one  fourth  of  the  period  of  the  church's  existence,  it  had  be- 
come the  settled  policy  to  have  two  ministers,  and  it  so  contin- 
ued until  the  days  of  the  Revolution.  At  the  proper  time, 
therefore,  a  colleague  would  be  given  to  Mr.  Sewall,  and  fortu- 
nately there  were  to  be  fewer  embarrassments  and  less  delay 
in  making  a  choice  than  there  had  been  in  the  last  two  in- 
stances. 

The  next  entries  we  shall  quote  from  Judge  Se wall's  diary 


384  HISTORY  OF   THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

refer  very  indefinitely  to  some  irregularity  of  which  we  have  no 
other  knowledge.  Nathaniel  Oliver,  son  of  Peter  Oliver,  left 
the  South  Church,  with  his  wife  (Elizabeth  Brattle),  when  the 
Brattle  Street  Church  was  formed,  and  died  in  1704.  The  name 
of  his  son  Nathaniel  does  not  appear  on  the  register  of  member- 
ship of  the  South  Church,  but  this  was  so  imperfectly  kept 
during  Mr.  Pemberton's  ministry  that  it  cannot  be  depended 
upon  for  completeness. 

March  2.  Capt.  Oliver  comes  to  me,  and  declares  his  Unwilling- 
ness to  make  his  Confession  before  the  Congregation  ;  his  friends  ad- 
vise him.     I  said,  you  did  run  well,  who  hindered  you  ? 

March  31.  Now  about  'tis  propounded  to  the  Church  whether 
Capt  Nathanl  Oliver's  Confession  should  be  before  the  Church,  or 
before  the  Congregation  :  I  opposed  the  former  as  not  agreeing  with 
the  universal  Practice  :  'Twas  brought  on  by  our  late  Pastor  with  the 
design  that  it  should  be  before  the  Congregation.  Not  fit  that  the 
penitent  should  prescribe  before  what  Auditory  his  Confession  should 
be.  Some  said  there  was  little  difference  :  I  said  twas  the  more  gra- 
vaminous  that  Capt.  Oliver  should  insist  on  it.  f  think  it  was  the 
Congregation's  due,  all  being  Offended  :  when  a  person  is  admitted, 
the  Congregation  are  acquainted  with  it.  'Twas  carried  for  Capt  Oli- 
ver, and  he  was  restor'd,  but  I  did  not  vote  in  it.  When  he  spake  to 
me,  I  said,  you  did  run  well,  who  hindered  you  ?  He  mention'd  the 
advice  of  some  Friends.  I  suppose  Col.  Paige.  When  Mr.  Williams 
spake  to  me,  I  said  let  him  as  a  Captain  take  courage  and  make  it  be- 
fore the  Congregation.     (Sewall.) 

The  Congregational  churches  of  the  town  decided  to  observe 
a  day  of  fasting  together,  with  reference,  probably,  to  their  own 
special  needs,  rather  than  to  the  general  wants  of  the  commu- 
nity. Two  of  them,  the  First  and  Third,  were  without  colleague 
pastors.  There  was  to  be  a  public  fast,  by  appointment  of  the 
Governor  and  Council,  on  the  4th  of  April. 

March  10.  Lord's  Supper  at  the  South.  Comfortable  Weather- 
Son  propounds  the  Turning  the  Lecture  into  a  Fast.  Sundry  of  our 
Fathers  in  the  Ministry  think  it  proper  ;  which  I  mention  that  I  may 
have  your  Concurrence  with  them  in  the  seasonable  Solemnity. 

March  14.  Fast,  Mr.  Webb  begins  with  Prayer,  Mr.  Colman 
preaches  ;  Text,  Feed  me  with  Food  Convenient  —  Prov.  30.  Prays. 
P.  m.  Mr.  Sewall  Prays.  Mr.  Wadsworth  preaches  :  Text  107.  ult., 
whoso  is  wise  —  Prays;  Sung.  Great  Congregation.  Fn.  and  Aftn. 
Dr.  Incr.,  Cot.  Mather,  Mr.  Cooper  not  there,  by  reason  of  Indisposi- 
tion.    Governour  was  present  in  the  Forenoon  only.     (Sewall.) 


THE  REV.    THOMAS  PRINCE.  385 

On  Sunday,  the  21st  of  July,  the  London  packet  Martha  and 
Hannah  arrived,  bringing  among  its  passengers  Mr.  Thomas 
Prince.  He  had  been  travelling  and  living  abroad  for  several 
years,  and  during  a  part  of  this  time  had  been  preaching  in 
England.  He  was  already  beginning  to  be  famous  as  a  preach- 
er and  scholar,  for  when  it  was  announced  that  the  vessel  in 
which  he  was  expected  as  a  passenger  was  in  the  harbor,  more 
than  five  hundred  people  went  to  the  Long  Wharf,  between  the 
services,  to  greet  him  as  he  landed.  He  remained  on  board, 
however,  until  the  afternoon,  when  the  captain's  pinnace  brought 
him  ashore,  and  he  walked  quietly  through  the  deserted  streets 
to  the  South  meeting-house.  The  Rev.  Nicholas  Sever  was 
preaching.  Mr.  Sewall,  who  was  in  the  pulpit,  saw  his  classmate 
come  in,  and  would  have  made  some  public  reference  to  his 
arrival  at  the  close  of  the  service,  but  Mr.  Prince  modestly 
"  made  haste  into  the  porch,"  and  escaped  observation.  He  had 
been  absent  eight  years,  during  which  time  he  had  ripened  into 
manhood,  and  he  wore  a  wig,  so  that  his  old  friends  did  not  easily 
recognize  him.  On  the  following  Thursday,  at  the  Lecture, 
which  was  preached  by  Mr.  Sewall,  Mr.  Prince  put  up  a  note, 
returning  thanks  for  his  preservation  during  his  long  absence 
and  in  his  many  journeyings.  His  "first  sermon  in  New  Eng- 
land "  was  preached  July  28th,  at  the  Old  North  ;  and  he  ap- 
peared soon  after  in  the  South  pulpit.  On  the  5th  of  Septem- 
ber he  gave  the  Lecture  in  Mr.  Sewall's  turn,  and  it  was  printed, 
with  the  following  title  :  "  A  Thanksgiving  Sermon  Deliver'd 
at  the  Lecture  in  Boston,  N.  E.  on  Thursday,  September  5.  1717. 
Upon  Occasion  of  the  Author's  safe  Arrival  thro'  many  great 
Hazards  and  Deliverances,  Especially  on  the  Seas,  in  above 
Eight  Years  Absence  from  his  Dear  and  Native  Country." 
From  the  preface,  by  Increase  Mather,  we  copy  the  following 
sentences  :  — 

It  was  well  done  of  him  upon  his  safe  Arrival  here,  to  give  God  the 
glory  of  this  Remarkable  Salvation,  and  to  do  it  in  the  hearing  of  a 
Multitudinous  Auditory,  many  belonging  to  the  Adjacent  Towns  being 
present  at  the  Lecture  when  this  Sermon  was  preached.  ...  I  cannot 
but  rejoice  to  see  that  the  Author  Preacheth  Christ.  .  .  .  Many  late 
preachers  have  little  or  nothing  of  Christ  in  any  of  their  Sermons 
(shall  I  call  them)  or  Harangues.  .  .  .  The  worthy  Author  of  the  Ex- 
cellent Sermon  which  is  Emitted  herewith,  had  his  Birth  and  Educa- 
tion in  New  England.  It  is  no  dishonour  to  the  Country  that  there 
have  been  such  Natives  in  it. 


386  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

Thomas  Prince  was  born  at  Sandwich,  Massachusetts,  May 
15,  1687,  and  was  the  son  of  Samuel  Prince  by  his  second  wife, 
Mercy,  daughter  of  Governor  Samuel  Hinckley.  His  father, 
the  son  of  John  Prince,  of  Watertown  and  Hingham,  and  grand- 
son of  the  Rev.  John  Prince,  rector  of  East  Shefford,  Berkshire, 
England,  had  been  a  mariner  and  afterward  a  merchant,  and 
already  had  a  large  family  by  his  first  marriage.  "  We  can  well 
imagine,  however,  that  this  first-born  child  of  his  young  wife 
was  a  most  welcome  addition  to  his  household  circle,  and  as  his 
property  increased  with  the  growing  demands  upon  it,  our  future 
divine  was  well  placed  at  his  entrance  into  life.  His  father 
was,  he  tells  us,  religious  from  his  youth,  much  esteemed  for  his 
abilities  and  gifts,  and  especially  for  his  powers  of  argument ; 
while  his  zealous  love  for  the  principles  and  liberties  of  New 
England  no  doubt  led  him  early  to  instill  into  the  mind  of  his 
son  those  principles  of  piety  and  that  respect  for  the  freedom 
of  conscience  so  conspicuous  in  his  subsequent  life." 

He  entered  Harvard  College  in  1703,  under  the  presidency  of 
Mr.  Willard,  and,  as  his  classmate,  Sewall,  afterward  said,  "  he 
made  a  laudable  Proficiency  in  the  liberal  Arts  ;  and  that  which 
set  a  crown  upon  all,  was,  that  he  feared  God,  from  his  Youth, 
and  early  appeared  a  Lover  of  pure  Religion,  as  well  as  good  Lit- 
erature. I  apprehend,  I  may  truly  say,  that  from  his  Youth, 
and  in  riper  Age,  as  an  Overseer  of  the  College,  he  was  a  Bless- 
ing and  Ornament  to  that  Seminary  of  Learning." 

The  two  years  after  his  graduation  were  probably  devoted  to 
theological  study,  but  we  have  no  record  of  them.  On  the  29th 
of  March,  1709,  he  started  on  his  foreign  travels.  He  went  as  a 
passenger  in  the  Thomas  and  Elizabeth,  one  of  a  fleet  consist- 
ing of  eight  ships,  two  brigantines,  and  two  sloops,  all  under 
convoy  of  the  America,  of  twenty-four  guns  ;  for  this  was  dur- 
ing the  ten  years'  war  between  England  and  France.  The  first 
destination  of  his  vessel  was  Barbadoes,  and  here  she  remained 
nearly  five  months.  Mr.  Prince  went  ashore  frequently,  preached 
several  times,  and  collected  much  and  varied  information,  which 
he  treasured  up  in  his  diary.  On  the  4th  of  September  the 
Thomas  and  Elizabeth,  in  company  with  a  fleet  of  about  fifty 
vessels,  sailed  for  London,  at  which  port  she  arrived  on  the  17th 
of  November.  Mr.  Prince  spent  two  months  visiting  friends, 
seeing  the  sights  of  the  metropolis,  listening  to  the  most  famous 
preachers,  and  preaching  occasionally  himself  ;  and  then  he  was 
attacked  by  small-pox,  which  confined  him  to  his  room  for  several 


MR.   PRINCE'S  TRAVELS.  387 

weeks.  As  soon  as  he  had  well  recovered  he  rejoined  his  vessel, 
and  on  the  17th  of  March,  1710,  sailed  in  her  from  Gravesend 
for  Madeira.  They  anchored  in  the  road  of  Funchal  April  27, 
and  six  days  later,  having  taken  on  board  a  cargo  of  wines, 
proceeded  to  Barbadoes,  and  arrived  there  May  27.  The  vessel 
exchanged  her  cargo  of  wines  for  another  of  sugar,  and  sailed 
again  for  London  August  3,  in  company  with  a  large  number  of 
ships  as  before,  for  mutual  protection  against  privateers.  She 
reached  the  Thames  in  October,  and  Mr.  Prince,  landing  on  the 
17th  of  that  month,  took  lodgings,  and  renewed  his  explorations 
of  the  great  city.  He  attended  lectures  at  Gresham  College, 
on  law,  medicine,  and  theology.  In  January  the  good  ship  in 
which  he  had  crossed  the  Atlantic  three  times  was  burnt  at 
Deptford.  "  Thus  ended,"  he  wrote,  "  the  Thomas  and  Eliza- 
beth, that  began  to  vie  for  Fame  and  Renown,  with  all  the  ships 
built  in  New  England,  or  that  have  traded  to  the  West  Indies." 
She  probably  belonged  to  some  member  of  his  family. 

Mr.  Prince  was  at  Yarmouth  in  February,  171 1,  at  Norwich 
in  July,  and  in  London  again  in  September.  Early  in  the  year 
he  had  suffered  from  an  attack  of  measles.  During  the  year 
171 2,  and  until  August,  1713,  he  was  at  Coombs,  in  Suffolk, 
and  remained  there  until  June,  17 14.  He  then  went  to  Rotter- 
dam and  spent  a  month,  after  which  he  returned  to  Coombs  and 
lived  for  two  years,  but  declined  to  be  settled  over  the  church 
there.  "  The  Flock  to  whom  he  ministered,  manifested  their 
earnest  Desire  of  his  Continuance  and  Settlement  with  them  ; 
but  no  Importunity  could  overcome  his  longing  Desire  after  his 
native  Country,  and  Father's  House."  He  was  providentially 
prevented  by  sickness  and  other  circumstances  from  taking 
passage  for  New  England  in  the  Amity  in  the  autumn  of  1716, 
and  spent  another  winter  in  and  about  London  ;  he  embarked 
for  home  in  May,  and  after  a  passage  of  between  nine  and  ten 
weeks  landed,  as  we  have  seen,  upon  his  native  shores.1 

Towards  the  end  of  this  summer  Mr.  Sewall's  parishioners 
showed  their  appreciation  of  his  faithful  service  as  their  minis- 
ter by  a  subscription  among  themselves  of  nearly  three  hundred 
pounds,  for  the  purchase  of  "  an  annuity  towards  the  better  sup- 
port of  his  wife  and  family."  His  salary  at  this  time  was  sixty 
shillings  a  week. 

1  We  have  condensed  the  above  ac-  possession  of  the  Mass.  Hist.  Society,  in 
count  of  Mr.  Prince  from  an  article,  the  North  American  Review  for  October, 
based  upon  a  volume  of  his  diary  in  the     1S60,  vol.  xci.  pp.  354-363. 


388  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

Boston  in  New  England  23d  August  17 17 
Wee  whose  names  are  Underwritten  Having  had  large  Experience 
of  the  Learned  and  Painfull  Labours  of  the  Revd  Mr.  Joseph  Sewall 
Our  Honoured  Pastor  in  the  work  of  the  Ministry,  Are  desirous  to 
Shew  our  Thankfullness  for  so  great  a  Benefit ;  And  do  therefore  prom- 
ise to  give  the  Severall  summs  written  after  our  Names,  in  order  to 
the  Procuring  an  Annuity  towards  the  better  Support  of  his  Wife 
and  Family.  And  Edward  Bromfield  Col.  Saml  Checkley,  Danl  Oli- 
ver, Capt  Habijah  Savage  Esqrs  and  Mr.  Ezekiel  Lewis  and  Mr.  Wm 
Clarke  are  requested  to  Collect  the  money  for  the  Ends  aforesaid.1 

Sept.  1.  Went  to  the  Solemn  Assembly  p.  m.  the  rather  that  I 
might  hear  Mr.  Josiah  Oakes,   who  preach'd  very  well,  from    Psal. 

73-  25- 

Sept.  15.  Went  to  the  solemn  Assembly  p.  m.  A  Fast  was  agreed 
on  to  humble  ourselves  for  the  breach  made  in  the  South  church  by 
the  death  of  Mr.  Pemberton  ;  and  to  Seek  unto  God  by  prayer  for  a 
Sutable  and  seasonable  Supply. 

Sept  22.  Went  to  the  Lord's  Supper  :  heard  Mr.  Prince  in  the 
Afternoon  from  the  same  Text  he  preach'd  on  this  day  four  weeks. 

Sept  25.  Fast  at  the  South  Church  :  Mr.  Webb  begun  with  Prayer, 
Mr.  Sewall  preach'd  from  Jer.  3.  15.  Give  you  pastors.  Mr.  Cooper 
pray'd  and  gave  the  Blessing.  P.  m.  Mr.  Colman  prayed,  Dr.  Cotton 
Mather  preach'd  from  John  6.  11.  And  Jesus  took  the  Loaves  and 
distributed  to  the  Disciples,  and  the  Disciples  to  them  that  were  set 
down.  Mr.  Wadsworth  pray'd.  23d  Psalm  sung,  D.  Mr.  Sewall 
Blessed.     Twas  a  good  day. 

Sept.  29.  The  church  is  staid,  the  calling  a  Church  Meeting  is  pro- 
pounded to  Confer  about  getting  supply  in  the  work  of  the  Ministry. 
Majr  Genl  and  Mr.  Williams  oppose  it !  'Tis  voted.  Then  the  Time 
was  debated ;  Monday  morning  and  Friday  were  proposed ;  which 
was  oppos'd  ;  Both  were  voted  [on]  but  neither  Carried  it.  At  last 
Tuesday  come  Sennight  at  3  p.  m.  is  voted.  Voted  twice  before  could 
tell  whether  'twas  a  vote  or  no.     (Sewall.) 

1  [There  were  three  subscription   pa-  John  Nicholls,  1.    Seth  Smith,  1.    Nath. 

pers,  only  one  of  which  has  come  down  Cunningham,    1.10/.      Jabez    Salter,    1. 

to  us,  and  this  bears  the  following  names  Thos.   Hitchborn,  — .     Wm.  Young,  1. 

and  amounts  : —  Thos.  Kimball,  10/.     Francis  Archball, 

Andrew  Belcher,  £15.  Anthony  Stod-  1.10/.    Abiel  Walley,  3.    William  Allin, 

dard,  5.    Saml.  Phillips,  8.     John  Camp-  2.     Geo.  Bethune,  3.     Nichs.   Davis,   2. 

bell,  4.    John  Alford,  4.   John  Walley,  4.  John    Leech,    10/.     Saml.  Checkley,  3. 

W.  Foye,  4.    Thos.  Savage,  4.     Edward  Habijah    Savage,     5.     Total    ,£91.15.0. 

Winslow,  2.10/.  Daniel  Henchman,  1.5/.  The  totals   from    the    other  lists  are 

Saml.    Gerrish,   2.     Jonathan  Simpson,  brought  forward  on  the  paper  before  us, 

1. 10/.     Samuel    Bass,  i.io/.      Thomas  £So  and  £115.5.0,  making  the  total  of 

Debuke,  1.10/.     Gillam   Phillips,   1.10/.  the  subscription,   so   far    as   we    know, 

John  Gerrish,  2.10/.    Joseph  Maylom,  1.  £287.0.0.     There  was  a  similar  subscrip- 

Thos.  Marshall,  1.10/.     Elisha  Story,  1.  tion  for  Mr.  Willard  in  1693.] 


DEATH   OF  MRS.    SEW  ALL.  389 

Of  the  meeting  held  on  the  8th  of  October  we  have  no  rec- 
ord, but  Mr.  Prince  was  engaged  for  two  months  to  supply  the 
pulpit  with  Mr.  Sewall. 

Judge  Sewall's  wife,  Hannah,  and  the  mother  of  his  fourteen 
children,  died  on  Saturday,  October  19,  at  the  age  of  sixty. 
She  was  a  modest,  patient,  and  unobtrusive  woman  ;  self-dis- 
trustful, perhaps,  for  although  she  owned  the  covenant  with 
many  of  her  young  friends  in  1680,  two  years  after  her  marriage, 
she  did  not  come  into  full  membership  until  1688.  Her  family 
cares  and  the  state  of  her  health  kept  her  in  retirement ;  that 
she  was  exemplary  in  her  sphere,  we  have  not  only  the  testi- 
mony of  her  husband,  but  the  witness  of  her  children's  character. 
Their  training  must  have  depended  largely  upon  her,  for  their 
father  had  many  public  duties  and  was  much  from  home.1  On 
the  day  after  her  death,  this  father  attended  divine  service  as 
usual,  morning  and  afternoon,  and  recorded  pathetically,  "  My 
Son  has  much  adoe  to  read  the  Note  I  put  up,  being  over- 
whelm'd  with  tears." 

Nine  days  later,  Judge  Sewall  was  bereft  of  his  son-in-law, 
Mr.  Grove  Hirst,  a  merchant  of  high  standing,  and  a  faithful 
member  of  Brattle  Street  Church.2  His  daughter,  Mrs.  Eliza- 
beth Hirst,  had  died  the  year  before,  and  a  young  family  of 
orphan  children  was  now  left  to  his  care.  Three  of  them,  Han- 
nah, Elizabeth,  and  Jane,3  became  members  of  the  Old  South  in 
1726. 

Mrs.  Sewall  was  buried  on  Wednesday,  October  23  ;  Mr. 
Hirst,  on  Wednesday,  October  30.  On  Wednesday,  November 
6,  Andrew  Belcher  was  buried.  He  was  the  most  opulent  mer- 
chant in  the  town,  a  member  of  the  council  and  commissary 
of  the  forces.  He  had  been  an  active  member  of  the  South 
Church  for  twenty  years.  On  the  same  day,  another  leading 
member,  also  a  councillor,  died, — Wait  Still  Winthrop,  chief 
justice  and  major-general,  "for  parentage,  piety,  prudence, 
philosophy,  love  to  New  England  ways  and  people,  very  emi- 
nent." 4     Both  Mr.  Winthrop  and  Mr.  Belcher  were  bearers  at 

1  Mr.  Joseph  Sewall  says  in  his  diary  and  Jane  the  Rev.  Addington  Davenport, 
that  "  under  all  infirmities  of  body  and  An  older  sister,  Mary,  married  William 
spirit  [she]  was  a  diligent  reader."  Pepperrell  in  1722. 

2  See  Mr.  Colman's  Funeral  Sermon.  4  The  editors  of  Sewall's  Diary  say 
William  Hirst,  father  of  Grove  Hirst,  truly  that  no  finer  tribute  than  this  could 
died  four  days  after  his  son.  be  paid.     Mr.  Winthrop,  although   chief 

3  Hannah  married  Nathaniel  Balston,  justice,  was  more  frequently  called  the 
Elizabeth    the   Rev.   Charles    Chauncy,  major-general.     A  military  title  was  evi- 


390 


HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH   CHURCH. 


Mrs.  Sewall's  funeral.1  Judge  Sewall  heard,  November  21,  of 
the  death  of  William  Tilly,  "  a  great  loss  to  the  South  Church 
and  to  the  town,"  and,  November  30,  of  that  of  Samuel  Bridge, 
whom  also  we  suppose  to  have  been  a  member  of  the  church 
or  congregation,  as  he  left  a  small  sum  of  money  to  the  poor  of 
the  church.  "  The  good  Lord  stay  his  hand  !  "  says  Sewall  in 
his  diary. 

Mr.  Thomas  Foxcroft2  was  ordained  as  colleague  at  the 
Old,  or  First  Church,  on  Wednesday,  November  20.  Mr. 
Joseph  Sewall  joined  in  laying  on  hands.  Dr.  Increase  Mather 
gave  the  right  hand  of  fellowship,  and  said  that  he  had  per- 
formed this  service  three  times  at  the  South  Church,  and  this 
was  the  third  time  it  had  fallen  to  him  at  the  First  Church. 

Lord's  Day  Dec  8.  Mr.  Secretary  [Josiah  Willard]  puts  up  a  Note 
for  Thanksgiving  for  his  safe  Arrival  [from  England].  Madam  Win- 
throp  for  the  Recovery  of  her  only  Son. 

P.  m.  Mr.  Jonathan  Belcher  comes  to  the  Assembly  and  very  pa- 
thetically acknowledges  [we  suppose,  in  a  note]  God's  distinguishing 
Mercy  towards  him.3  At  night  the  Church  is  stayed,  and  Mr.  Thomas 
Prince's  two  Moneths  being  compleat ;    Friday  the   20th  current  is 

Mr.  Belcher,  then  governor  of  New 
Jersey,  thus  wrote  to  Mr.  Prince,  of  his 
father's  deathbed :  — 

"  My  Father  was  as  great  a  Genius  as 
his  Country  could  boast  of,  but  wanted 
an  Education  to  Improve  and  polish  it. 
Governor  Dudley  (who  was  a  good 
judge)  used  to  say  that  Mr.  Commissary 
Belcher  would  make  a  good  Minister  of 
State  to  any  Prince  in  Europe,  Especially 
in  the  Article  of  Finance.  His  late  Fare- 
well and  Blessing  of  me  show'd  his 
strong  thoughts  and  great  modesty.  Its 
fresh  in  my  memory  and  will  be  till  the 
Frost  of  Age  seals  up  that  Faculty ;  he 
called  me  to  his  Bed-side,  took  me  by 
the  hand  and  said  —  Son  you  may  expect 
me  to  bless  you  in  a  better  manner  and 
style  than  I  am  able  to  do,  for  God  did 
not  put  it  into  your  grandfather's  power 
to  give  me  the  Education  he  Inabled  me 
to  give  you,  but  remember  my  Last 
Words  to  you  are  —  May  the  Blessing  of 
the  God  of  Abraham  and  the  God  of  Isaac 
and  the  God  of  Jacob  rest  tipon  you  and 
yottr  seed  for  Ever.  Amen.  Farewell. 
Neither  the  Patriarchs  nor  Apostles 
could  have  done  it  better."] 


dently  thought  more  of  than  a  judicial 
one.  Judge  Sewall  was  known  to  his 
townsmen  as  Captain  Sewall,  and  Mr. 
Walley,  who  was  also  on  the  bench,  was 
usually  called  Major  Walley.  The  mili- 
tary title  took  precedence  even  of  the 
favorite  prefix,  deacon  ;  for  example  : 
Captain  Frary,  Captain  Williams,  Colo- 
nel Checkley. 

1  Another  bearer,  Col.  Elisha  Hutch- 
inson, a  councillor,  was  buried  Decem- 
ber 16.  "  Now,"  says  Sewall,  "  I  have 
been  a  Bearer  to  three  of  my  Wive's 
Bearers  in  less  than  two  Moneths  time." 

2  Thomas  Foxcroft  was  a  son  of  Fran- 
cis Foxcroft,  a  prominent  man  in  King's 
Chapel,  who  designed  his  son  for  the 
ministry  of  the  Church  of  England. 
After  his  graduation  in  17 14,  Thomas 
taught  school  in  Roxbury,  where,  becom- 
ing intimate  with  the  Rev.  Nehemiah 
Walter,  he  was  convinced  by  him  "  of 
the  truth  and  excellence  of  the  Puritan 
faith,  which  he  adopted,"  and  gave  his 
life  to  the  Congregational  ministry.  He 
married  Anna,  daughter  of  John  Coney, 
the  goldsmith. 

3  [More  than   thirty  years    afterward, 


^to-maj  Jrlmc^ 


MR.   PRINCE   CALLED.  39 1 

appointed  for  the  Church  to  Meet  to  Consider  what  further  Steps  are 
to  be  taken. 

Dec.  20.  Church  Meeting.  After  debate  voted  by  Papers,  whether 
would  now  proceed  to  the  Choice  of  a  Pastor;  40.  Yeas,  27  Nos. 
Then  voted  for  a  Pastor,  and  Mr.  Thomas  Prince  had  48.  Mr.  Saml. 
Fiske,  12.  Appointed  a  Committee  to  wait  on  Mr.  Prince  and  acquaint 
him  with  the  Churches  Call,  and  their  Desire  of  his  Acceptance  ;  Dea- 
cons, Gentlemen  of  the  Fore-Seat,  Justices,  Mr.  Nathanl  Williams 
[Committee]. 

Lord's  Day,  Dec.  22.  The  Congregation  is  Acquainted  herewith 
and  the  Committee  told  them,  and  mention  is  made  of  some  Nomi- 
nated for  the  Congregation,  if  they  aprov'd  of  them. 

Dec.  23.  Committee  met  at  Mr.  Sewall's.  From  thence  went  to 
Mr.  Prince  about  6.  p.  m.  There  were  of  the  Congregation,  Mr.  David 
Jeffries,  Col.  Thomas  Savage,  Capt.  Gerrish,  Mr.  Wm  Foy,  that  I 
remember.  We  Thank'd  him  for  his  Labours  with  us  in  the  Ministry 
these  Two  Moneths.  The  Church  had  sent  us  to  acquaint  him  of 
their  Choice  of  him  last  Friday  to  the  Pastoral  Charge,  and  to  desire 
his  Acceptance.  Disabled  himself,  twould  require  Time,  would  not 
be  hurried.  Told  him  his  Answer  was  not  expected  presently,  would 
not  precipitat  him.  He  desired  our  Prayers  were  his.  At  parting 
said,  that  as  his  preaching  with  us  had  been  Acceptable,  Edifying,  we 
desired  the  Continuance  of  it,  and  so  might  have  the  best  opportunity 
to  pray  mutually  for  the  Direction  of  God.     (Sewall.) 

Less  than  six  months  had  passed  since  Mr.  Prince  landed 
quietly  at  Long  Wharf  and  worshipped  unrecognized  at  the 
South  Church,  and  now  he  had  received  an  invitation,  which  in 
due  time  he  would  accept,  to  settle  there  as  one  of  the  pastors. 
In  the  mean  time  he  had  preached  in  several  pulpits,  and  more 
than  one  church  was  ready  to  receive  him  as  its  minister.  He 
was  called,  almost  immediately  after  his  arrival,  by  the  Hing- 
ham  church,  whose  venerable  meeting-house,  "  the  Old  Ship," 
still  remains  ; 1  the  church  at  Bristol  also  gave  him  an  unani- 
mous call.  We  can  see  many  reasons  why  the  South  Church 
should  have  the  preference  with  him  over  any  other,  and  it  is 
not  unlikely  that  he  returned  to  New  England  just  when  he  did 
at  the  instance  of  Mr.  Joseph  Sewall,  and  with  some  view  to 

1  In  the   Introduction  to  his    ordina-  same  Conjunction — must  needs  aston- 

tion  sermon,  addressed  to  the  people  of  ish  my  mind.  ...  I  had  denyed  the  So- 

the  Old  South,  he  said :  —  licitations  of  Two  in  England  before,  of 

"The  sudden  Invitation  of  so  desirable  Battesford  and  Coombs  in   Suffolk,  and 

and  considerable  a  Church  and  Town  as  afterwards  of  a  larger  Society,  that  alter- 

Hingham,  within  Eight  and  Forty  Hours  nately  meets  at  Winden  and  Clavering 

of  my  landing  and  their  Call  in  a  little  on  the  Borders  of  Cambridgeshire   and 

Time  after,  together  with  Yours  at  the  Essex." 


392  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

what  afterward  took  place.  He  manifested  no  haste,  however, 
in  giving  his  decision.  Perhaps  the  circumstance  that  one  fifth 
of  the  votes  thrown  at  the  meeting  convened  to  act  upon  the 
calling  of  a  colleague  pastor  were  for  some  else,  and  that  sev- 
eral who  were  present  did  not  vote  at  all,  led  him  to  hesitate  a 
little. 

Lord's  Day  Febr.  9.  17 18.  As  my  Son  went  out  at  Noon  after  the 
Lord's  Supper,  he  invited  me  to  Dine  with  him,  which  I  did  ;  He  told 
me  Mr.  Prince  resolv'd  to  give  his  Answer  that  day ;  Mr.  Prince  de- 
sired me  to  read  it  over,  which  I  did ;  but  alter'd  very  little,  though  I 
had  Commission.  Twas  read  after  Sermon  before  Singing.  Mr.  Sewall 
said,  he  hop'd  God  had  in  Mercy  inclin'd  his  Servant  to  give  this  An- 
swer, that  it  would  be  in  way  of  a  Blessing ;  we  must  earnestly  pray, 
and  do  our  Duty  that  it  might  be  so. 

Lord's  Day,  Feb.  23.  Mr.  Foxcroft  preaches.  I  set  York  Tune,  and 
the  Congregation  went  out  of  it  into  St  David's  in  the  very  second 
going  over.  They  did  the  same  three  weeks  before.  This  is  the  sec- 
ond Sign.  I  think  they  began  in  the  last  Line  of  the  first  going  over. 
This  seems  to  me  an  intimation  and  call  forme  to  resign  the  Praecentor's 
Place  to  a  better  Voice.  I  have  through  the  divine  Long-suffering 
and  Favour  done  it  for  twenty-four  years,  and  now  God  by  his  Provi- 
dence seems  to  call  me  off;  my  voice  being  enfeebled.  I  spake  to 
Mr.  White  earnestly  to  set  it  in  the  Afternoon  ;  but  he  declin'd  it. 
After  the  Exercises,  I  went  to  Mr.  Sewall 's,  Thank'd  Mr.  Prince  for 
his  very  good  Discourse  :  and  laid  this  matter  before  them,  told  them 
how  long  I  had  set  the  Tune  ;  Mr.  Prince  said,  Do  it  six  years  longer. 
I  persisted  and  said  that  Mr.  White  or  Franklin  might  do  it  very  well. 
The  Return  of  the  Gallery  where  Mr.  Franklin  sat  was  a  place  very 
convenient  for  it. 

Feb.  27.  I  told  Mr.  White  Next  Sabbath  was  in  a  Spring  Moneth, 
he  must  then  set  the  Tune.  I  set  now  Litchfield  Tune  to  a  good 
Key.     [This  must  have  been  at  the  Thursday  Lecture.] 

Feb.  28.  I  told  Mr.  Nathanl  Williams  My  voice  was  much  Enfee- 
bled ;  He  said  twas  apparently  so.     I  bid  him  tell  Mr.  White  of  it. 

March  2.  I  told  Mr.  White  the  elders  desired  him,  he  must  Set  the 
Tune,  he  disabled  himself,  as  if  he  had  a  Cold.  But  when  the  Psalm 
was  appointed,  I  forbore  to  do  it,  and  rose  up  and  turn'd  to  him,  and 
he  set  York  Tune  to  a  very  good  Key.  I  thank'd  him  for  restoring 
York  Tune  to  its  Station  with  so  much  Authority  and  Honor.  I  was 
glad  ;  I  saw  twas  Convenient  that  I  had  resign'd,  being  for  the  bene- 
fit of  the  Congregation.     (Sewall.) 

Mr.  John  White,  who  led  the  singing  as  the  successor  of 
Judge  Sewall  in  the  precentorship,  "  and  did  it  very  sweetly," 
is  one  of  those  whose  names  it  disappoints  us  not  to  find  in  the 


A   NEW  PRECENTOR.  393 

register,  for  he  was  undoubtedly  a  member  of  the  South  Church. 
He  graduated  at  Harvard  College  in  1685,  at  the  age  of  six- 
teen. He  was  chaplain  to  Sir  William  Phips,  when  he  was  gov- 
ernor of  the  province,  "  to  whom  and  all  persons  of  figure  in  the 
town,  he  then  endear'd  himself,  by  a  shining  Ingenuity,  Wisdom, 
Humility  and  Piety,  the  crown  of  all."  After  Sir  William's  death, 
Mr.  White  was  for  three  years  a  representative  for  the  town  of 
Boston,  and  then  for  twenty  years  he  was  annually  chosen 
clerk  of  the  House  of  Representatives.  Upon  the  death  of  Mr. 
Thomas  Brattle  in  17 14  he  was  made  treasurer  of  Harvard 
College,  and  so  continued  through  life.  He  was  also  one  of  the 
corporation,  and  was  "  a  father  to  that  society,  not  only  in  a  faith- 
ful care  of  's  estate,  but  also  in  a  wise  and  prudent  government 
of  it."  1 

March  23.  Next  Friday  is  agreed  on  for  a  Church  Meeting  to  ad- 
just matters  relating  to  the  Ordination.  Wednesday  was  mention'd  ; 
but  Mr.  Bromfield  said  he  supposed  Mr.  Denison's  Funeral  would  be 
on  that  day.2 

March  28  Church  Meeting  at  the  South  to  set  a  time  for  the 
Ordination  of  Mr.  Prince.  But  Mr.  [Edward]  Winslow,  Emory3  — 
oppos'd  it  as  too  soon ;  so  many  did  not  Vote  for  having  it  in  the 
Spring,  that  nothing  was  done.  Voted  Madam  Pemberton  40.^  and 
she  has  had  near  10.^  in  wood.  Propounded  the  chusing  two  Dea- 
cons the  next  Church  meeting. 

March  30.  Dr.  Increase  Mather  preaches  excellently  at  the  South 
p.  m.     Mr.  Sewall  preach'd  for  him  a.  m. 

April  6.  Dr.  Cotton  Mather  preaches  for  Mr.  Prince  a.  m.  very 
well,  and  Communicats. 

April  9.     Son  holds  the  Catechizing. 

April  13.  Great  Lightening  with  Thunder,  Forenoon  and  After- 
noon ;  But  through  the  goodness  of  God,  the  Claps  were  not  very 
sharp.  Mr.  Prince  p.  m.  order'd  part  of  the  29th  Psalm  to  be  sung. 
["  The  God  of  glory  thundereth."] 

July  6.  Cous.  [the  Rev.  Joshua]  Moodey  preaches  at  the  South 
a.  m.     Mr.  Sol.  Stoddard  p.  m.     Both  Excellently. 

August  26.  Church  Meeting  South.  Agree  to  have  Mr.  Prince 
ordain'd  the  first  of  October  next.     (Sewall.) 

The  church  records  give  us  an  amplification  of  the  last  para- 

1  Mr.  White  died  December  11,  1721,  2  [William  Denison,  of  Roxbury,  a  son 

in  the  fifty-third  year  of  his  age.     For  of  Major-General  Denison,   Harv.  Coll. 

an  estimate  of  his  character,  see  Boston  16S1,  died  March  22,  1717-18.] 

News-Letter,  quoted  by    the  editors  of  3  [The  name  of   Emory  does  not  ap- 

the  Sewall  Papers,  vol.  hi.  pp.  296,  297.  pear  on  the  list  of  members. J 


394  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

graph,  and  the  vote,  a  few  months  before,  in  favor  of  Mrs.  Pem- 
berton. 

At  a  church  meeting  March  28,  17 18. 

Voted  —  That  an  Allowance  of  fourty  Pounds  be  made  to  Mrs. 
Mary  Pemberton  out  of  the  church  stock,  in  consideration  of  her 
being  the  Relict  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Ebenezer  Pemberton,  our  late  worthy 
pastor.  Joseph  Sewall. 

At  a  chh.  meeting  Augt  26.  1718. 

Voted  —  That  Wednesday,  the  first  of  next  October  be  the  Day  for 
the  Ordination  of  Mr.  Thomas  Prince. 

Voted  —  That  these  Churches  be  sent  to ;  viz  :  The  Old  Church, 
The  North  Church,  The  Church  in  Brattle  Street,  and,  The  New-north 
Church  of  this  Town  ;  The  Church  in  Charlestown,  the  Church  in 
Cambridge,  The  first  Church  in  Roxbury  ■  and  that  these  churches  be 
desir'd  to  Assist  at  the  Ordination  by  their  Elders  and  Messengers. 

Voted  —  That  the  Revd.  Dr.  Increase  Mather  be  desired  to  Give 
the  Charge. 

Voted  —  That  the  Revd.  Dr.  C.  Mather  Mr.  Wadsworth,  and  Mr. 
Coleman  be  joyn'd  with  Dr.  I.  Mather  and  our  Pastor  in  Laying  on  of 
Hands.  Joseph  Sewall. 

It  is  evident  that  in  making  arrangements  for  the  ordination 
services,  the  church  determined  everything  except  as  to  who 
should  give  the  right  hand  of  fellowship.  This  being  the  act 
of  the  churches  which  should  accept  the  invitation,  it  was 
proper,  of  course,  that  their  elders  and  messengers  should  select 
the  person  to  represent  them  in  it.  The  terms  of  the  last  vote 
indicate  that  the  church  chose  Dr.  Increase  Mather  to  preside 
or  to  officiate  as  moderator.  The  pastor-elect  preached  the  ser- 
mon, as  a  matter  of  course. 

Mr.  Prince  was  received  into  the  church  on  Sunday,  Septem- 
ber 28. 

Mr.  Prince's  Letter  of  Dismission  was  read  from  the  church  of 
Cambridge  where  he  was  admitted  January  1705.  Mr.  Sewall  said: 
"  Brethren  your  choice  of  Mr.  Prince  to  the  pastoral  office  among  you, 
prevents  my  asking  your  consent  to  his  Admission,"  and  then  gave 
him  the  Covenant.1     (Joseph  Sewall.) 

Oct.  1.  Ordination  of  Mr.  Thomas  Prince.  Mr.  Wadsworth  began 
with  Prayer,  very  well,  about  \  past  ten.  Mr.  Prince  preached  from 
Hebr.  13. -17.  ["Obey  them  that  have  the  rule  over  you,  and  submit 
yourselves  :  for  they  watch  for  your  souls,   as  they  that  must   give 

1  [Se wall's  Commonplace  Book,  MS.  in  the  Prince  Library  belonging  to  the  Old 
South  Church.] 


MR.   PRINCE'S  ORDINATION.  395 

account ;  that  they  may  do  it  with  joy,  and  not  with  grief  ;  for  that  is 
unprofitable  for  you."  *]  Mr.  Sewall  pray'd.  Dr.  Incr.  Mather  ask'd 
if  any  had  to  object :  ask'd  the  Church  Vote  who  were  in  the  Gallery 
fronting  the  Pulpit.  Ask'd  Mr.  Prince's  Acceptance  of  the  Call.  Dr. 
Increase  Mather,  Dr.  Cotton  Mather,  Mr.  Wadsworth,  Colman,  Sewall 
lay  their  Hands  on  his  head.  Dr.  Incr.  Mather  Prays  :  Gives  the 
Charge,  Prays  agen.  Dr.  Cotton  Mather  gives  the  Right  Hand  of 
Fellowship.  Dr.  Incr.  Mather,  when  he  declared  whom  the  elders 
and  Messengers  had  appointed  to  do  it,  [said]  that  it  was  a  good  Prac- 
tice. Sung  Psal.  68.  17-20.  ["The  chariots  of  God  are  twenty  thou- 
sand," etc.]  Mr.  Prince  gave  the  Blessing.  Govr.  Dudley  and  his 
Lady  came  in  about  the  beginning  of  Sermon.  Entertainment  was  at 
Mr.  Sewall's,  which  was  very  plentifull  and  splendid.2     (Sewall.) 

More  than  forty  years  were  to  pass  before  there  would  be 
another  ordination  at  the  Old  South,  and  they  were  to  be  years 
of  great  religious  prosperity.  Mr.  Prince  had  been  supplying 
the  pulpit  with  more  or  less  regularity  ever  since  his  return 
from  England,  so  that  the  transition  to  the  full  pastoral  relation 
was  an  easy  and  natural  one.  He  preached  his  first  sermon  after 
his  ordination,  Sunday  afternoon,  October  12,  from  Psalm  lxxi. 
14-17:  "But  I  will  hope  continually,  and  will  yet  praise  thee 
more  and  more.  My  mouth  shall  show  forth  thy  righteousness 
and  thy  salvation  all  the  day ;  for  I  know  not  the  numbers 
thereof.  I  will  go  in  the  strength  of  the  Lord  God  :  I  will 
make  mention  of  thy  righteousness,  even  of  thine  only.  O  God, 
thou  hast  taught  me  from  my  youth  :  and  hitherto  have  I  de- 
clared thy  wondrous  works."  On  Sunday,  October  19,  he  ad- 
ministered the  ordinance  of  baptism  for  the  first  time. 

The  Rev.  Samuel  Fisk,  who  was  the  first  choice  of  a  minority 
of  the  members  of  the  South  Church,  had  previously  received  a 
call  to  the  New  South,  but  had  declined  it.  He  was  afterward 
settled  at  Salem.  The  new  church  in  Summer  Street  now  came 
to  its  older  namesake  for  a  minister,  in  the  person  of  Mr.  Samuel 
Checkley,  son  of  Deacon  Samuel  Checkley,  and  grandson  of 
Joshua  Scottow.  Mr.  Checkley  graduated  at  Harvard  College 
in  171 5  ;  he  served  as  minister  of  the  New  South  for  fifty  years, 
and  was  a  very  excellent  man.  His  daughter,  Elizabeth,  mar- 
ried Samuel  Adams,  the  patriot,  who  wrote  of  her  in  the  family 
Bible,  at  the  time  of  her  death  in  1757  :  "  She  ran  her  Christian 
race  with  a  remarkable  steadiness  and  finished  it  in  triumph." 

1  [Of  this  ordination  sermon  the  Rev.  2  [The  charge  on  the   deacons'  books 

Charles  Chauncy  said  that  no  ordinary  for  wine  used  on  this  occasion  was  £$. 
man  could  have  written  it.]  17.  3.] 


396  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

April  15.  Mr.  Samuel  Checkley  was  Ordain'd  ;  Five  Churches  in 
Town,  and  Cambridge  were  sent  to.  Dr.  Increase  Mather  gave  the 
Members  of  the  church  the  Covenant,  and  then  Ordain'd  ;  Dr.  Cotton 
Mather  gave  the  Right  Hand  of  Fellowship.  Mr.  Wadsworth  began 
with  Prayer,  Mr.  Checkley  preached,  Mr.  Colman  prayed.  After  the 
Ordination  the  first  and  last  Staves  of  122.  Psalm  were  Sung.  Mr. 
Boon  set  Windsor  Tune,  and  read  it  well.  Dr.  Incr.  Mather,  Dr.  C. 
Mather,  Mr.  Wadsworth,  Colman,  and  Sewall,  laid  on  Hands.    (Sewall.) 

This  was  the  sixth  Congregational  church  in  the  town  ;  it 
began  with  forty-four  members,  of  whom  Samuel  Adams, 
Thomas  Peck,  John  Clough,  and  perhaps  others  came  from  the 
Old  South. 

April  17.  South  Church  Meeting  p.m.  Choose  two  Deacons; 
Mr.  Barthol.  Green,  Mr.  Danl  Henchman.  Voters  41.  Mr.  Green 
had  37.  Mr.  Henchman  19.  Mr.  Franklin  10.  I  was  afraid  we 
should  have  been  hindered  by  Lethered's  Arrival,  5.  weeks  passage ; 
but  it  prov'd  otherwise.  Laus  Deo.  Mr.  Sewall  began,  and  Mr.  Prince 
concluded  with  Prayer.     (Sewall.) 

Mr.  Green  was  the  principal  printer  of  the  town  and  country 
for  forty  years.  He  married,  as  his  second  wife,  in  17 10,  Jane 
Tappan,  a  niece  of  Judge  Sewall.  It  was  said  of  him  at  the 
time  of  his  death  in  1732  :  "  He  was  a  person  generally  known 
and  esteemed  among  us,  as  a  very  humble  and  exemplary  Chris- 
tian, one  who  had  much  of  that  primitive  Christianity  in  him, 
which  has  always  been  the  distinguishing  glory  of  New  Eng- 
land." Mr.  Henchman  was  a  grandson  of  Daniel  Henchman, 
one  of  the  early  members  of  the  church.  He  was  the  enter- 
prising bookseller  who  caused  the  first  edition  in  America  of 
the  English  Bible  to  be  printed.  His  daughter  Lydia  married 
Thomas  Hancock,  and  gave  the  land  in  Court  Street  on  which 
the  parsonage  of  Brattle  Street  Church  stood  for  many  years.1 

On  the  evening  of  Thanksgiving  Day,  October  29,  Judge 
Sewall  was  married  to  Abigail,  widow  of  William  Tilly.  On  the 
following  evening,  Mr.  Prince  was  married  at  the  house  of  Mr. 
Daniel  Oliver,  to  Deborah  Denny,  who  had  been  a  member  of 
his  congregation  at  Coombs,   in  England,  and  who,  with  her 

1  Daniel  Henchman's  name  does  not  made  at  this  date,  but  the  omission  in 

appear  at  all  on  the  register  of  member-  the  case  of  Mr.  Henchman  does  not  seem 

ship  ;  and  Bartholomew  Green's  appears  to   have    been    noticed.      Bartholomew 

under  date  of  June  21,  1719,  two  months  Green,  Jr.,   was   baptized  September  1, 

after  his  election  to  the  office  of  deacon.  1700,  and  owned  the  covenant  January 

We   suppose  that   the   omission  of  the  2,  1725.    Lydia  Henchman  was  baptized 

latter  name  was  discovered  and  the  entry  October  10,  17 14. 


MR.  PRINCE'S  MARRIAGE.  397 

brother  and  some  friends,  had  sailed  with  him  in  the  same  ship 
on  his  return  to  New  England.1  She  was  about  twenty-one 
years  of  age  at  the  time  of  her  marriage,  and  ten  years  younger 
than  her  husband.  In  anticipation  of  this  marriage  the  church 
had  recently  taken  action,  asking  Mrs.  Pemberton  to  vacate  the 
new  parsonage,  and  placing  it  at  the  disposal  of  Mr.  Sewall,  and 
assigning  the  old  one  to  Mr.  Prince.  From  this  time  forward, 
the  church  records  are  more  full,  for  which  we  are  indebted  to 
Mr.  Sewall,  who  seems  to  have  had  the  methodical  habits  of  his 
father. 

At  a  chh.  meeting  Octr.  2.  17 19. 

Voted  —  That  our  Pastor  Joseph  Sewall  be  desired  to  Remove  into 
the  new  Ministerial  House,  as  soon  as  he  conveniently  may,  and  shall 
see  meet  so  to  doe. 

Voted  —  That  the  Gentlemen  of  the  Fore  Seats  with  the  Deacons, 
be  a  Committee  to  Notify  Mrs.  Pemberton  of  the  above  mention'd 
Vote,  and  to  desire  her  to  Comply  with  it  as  soon  as  she  can  with 
convenience. 

Voted  —  That  the  Deacons,  or  any  two  of  them  be  empowered  to 
receive  the  Legacy  given  this  church,  by  the  Honorable  Andrew 
Belcher  Esqr  deceased,  for  the  use  of  the  Church,  and  give  a  Dis- 
charge to  the  Executor  accordingly. 

Voted  —  That  the  Summof  forty  Pounds  be  given  out  of  the  Church 
Stock,  to  Mrs.  Mary  Pemberton,  in  consideration  of  her  being  the 
Relict  of  the  Rev'd  Mr.  Ebenezer  Pemberton,  our  late  Pastor ;  And 
that  this  summ  be  Presented  to  her  by  the  above  mention'd  Com- 
mittee. 

Voted  —  That  the  Summ  of  twenty  Pounds  be  given  by  the  Deacons 
to  Mrs.  Eunice  Willard  out  of  the  Church  Stock,  in  consideration  of 
her  being  the  Relict  of  the  Revd.  Mr.  Samuel  Willard,  formerly  our 
Pastor. 

Voted  —  That  three  Pounds,  five  Shillings  pr.  Week,  be  allow'd  and 
by  the  Deacons  paid,  to  Mr.  Joseph  Sewall,  our  Reverend  Pastor. 

1  The   Martha  and    Hannah  brought  Mr.  Prince,  and  according  to  Dr.  Sewall 

as  cabin  passengers,  besides  Mr.  Prince,  they  were  influenced  to  migrate  to  this 

Stephen   Barford   and  William  Argent,  country  by  a  desire  to  remain  under  his 

from  Cambridgeshire ;  James  Southgate,  ministry.     Elizabeth  Southgate,  a  mem- 

his  wife  and   three   daughters,  Richard  ber  of  one  of  these  families,  joined  the 

Southgate,  his  wife,  two  sons,  and  three  South   Church  April   2,  1721.      Samuel 

daughters,  Dorcas  and  Margaret  South-  Denny  went  to  Maine,  and  became  Judge 

gate,  Rebecca    Harvey,  Samuel    Denny  of  the  Court  of  Common  Pleas  in  Lin- 

and  Deborah  Denny,  all,  as  we  suppose,  coin  County.     His  brother  Daniel  after- 

from    Suffolk.      There   were    also    four  ward  settled  in  Leicester,  Mass.,  where 

steerage    passengers    and    twelve   men-  some  of  the  Southgates  had  gone  to  live, 

servants.     The  Southgates  and  Dennys  Judge  Sewall  speaks  of  visiting  a  Mr. 

seem  to  have  been  peculiarly  attached  to  Southgate  at  Leicester  in  1718. 


39$  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

Voted  —  That  three  Pounds,  five  Shillings  pr.  Week,  be  allow'd  and 
paid  to  Mr.  Thomas  Prince,  our  Revd  Pastor  from  the  time  of  his 
marriage  ;  And  that  he  be  desir'd  by  the  Committee  afore  mention'd, 
to  remove  into  one  of  the  ministerial  houses  of  this  Church,  as  soon 
as  may  be.1 

Voted  —  That  the  Honble  Jonathan  Belcher  Esqr.  be  joyn'd  with 
the  Seaters. 

Voted  —  That  a  Committee  be  annually  chosen  to  Audit  the  Dea- 
cons' accounts  ;  And  that  they  annually  make  a  Report  to  the  church. 

Voted  —  That  the  Honble  Thomas  Fitch,  Jonathan  Belcher,  and 
Daniel  Oliver  Esqrs.  be  appointed  a  Committee  for  Auditing  the  Dea- 
cons' accounts  for  the  ensuing  year. 

Voted 

i.  It  is  just  and  reasonable  that  such  Persons  as  enjoy  the  Privi- 
lege of  the  Pews  and  best  Seats  in  the  Meeting  House,  doe  contribute 
agreeably  to  Support  the  Worship  of  God  there. 

2.  That  such  as  claim  or  pretend  to  any  right  in  such  Pews  or 
Seats,  and  doe  not  constantly  or  usually  attend  on  the  Worship  of 
God  there,  or  doe  neglect  their  duty  in  Contributing  as  aforesaid,  may 
not  expect  the  continuance  of  such  a  Privilege :  but  ought  to  give  way 
to  such  as  doe  constantly  attend,  and  support  the  Worship  of  God 
there. 

3.  That  when  any  persons  are  remov'd  from  their  Pews  or  Seats, 
and  others  placed  therein,  they  are  to  be  reimbursed  their  first  cost  or 
charge,  according  to  our  former  Settlement. 

4.  That  the  Overseers  or  Seaters  (who  have  power  to  dispose  and 
regulate  these  affairs),  are  desired  and  directed,  to  pursue  these  and 
the  former  Votes  of  the  Church  relating  to  these  Affairs,  and  it  is  ex- 
pected that  all  Persons  concern'd,  do  conform  thereunto,  for  the  good 
and  peace  of  the  Church.2  Joseph  Sewall 

Thomas  Prince. 

1  [A   scrap   of    paper   has   been    pre-  day,    study   till  \o\,  then   Dress 

served,  and  now  belongs  to  Mr.  David  and  at  11  to  Lecture. 

Pulsifer,  which  shows  us  how  Mr.  Prince  5.  Dine  at  1. 

divided  his  time,  day  by  day  :  —  6.  at  2  Dress  and  go  abroad  till  candle- 

"  1719  Oct.  30.    I  marry.  Light.    Except  Wednesday,  after 

Nov.  10     we  begin  to  keep  House.  Dinner,    Do     something     about 

My  Proposed  Order.  House  ;    Saturday,  after  Dinner, 

1.  At  5  a  Get  up  and  go  into  my  Study  visit  at  Dr.  Sewall's  till  i\  and 

2.  Pray  and  read  in  the  orig.  Bible  till  then  Home  to  study. 

6  and  then  call  up  the  Family.  7.  at  candle  Light    and    Study  to  9^. 

3.  At   6\    Go  to  Family  Prayers  and  at  gi  go  to  Family  Prayers  and 

only  the    Porringer  of  Chocolat  so  to  Bed 

for  Breakfast  till  7  N  B.     I  eat  no  supper."] 

4.  At  7  go  into  my  study  till  I2-J-  and         2  [There  was  a  sharp  controversy  be- 

then  do  something  about  House      tween  Sampson  Sheaffe  and  the  widow 
till  1,  to  Dinner;  except  on  Thurs-     of   Robert  Gibbs,  about  the  ownership 


THE   OVERSEERS   OF  SEATS. 


399 


Whether  this  last  vote,  in  four  sections,  refers  to  the  action 
taken  by  the  church  in  1685, l  or  to  anything  later  and  un- 
recorded, we  not  know.  It  is  evident,  however,  that  under  the 
ministrations  of  the  two  young  men,  whose  joint  pastorate  was 
to  constitute  perhaps  the  most  brilliant  epoch  in  the  history  of 
the  church,  the  congregation  had  already  increased  to  such 
an  extent  that  every  sitting  counted,  and  in  justice  to  those 
who  desired  accommodation   it  became  necessary  that  perma- 

of  a  pew  which  had  been  fitted  up  for  as  Lawfully  as  any  was  bought  in  the 
Richard  Wharton  in  1686,  and  which  was  Church  and  that  He  Had  the  Consent 
one  of  the  most  eligible  in  the  meeting-     of  Mr  Willard,  the  Deacons  and  others 


house.  The  following  document,  some- 
thing like  a  brief,  lias  been  preserved ;  it 
was  submitted  to  the  overseers  of  seats 
in  the  spring  of  17 19,  and  was  prepared, 
as  we  suppose,  by  Jacob  Sheaffe :  — 

"  An  Account  of  Sundry  Persons  that 
is  ready  to  give  Evidence  Concerning  Mr 
Sheafs  Right  to  his  pew,  in  Controversy 
with  Mrs  Gibbs. 

"  1.  Madam  Winthrop  Widdow  Saith 
She  Knows  the  pew  to  be  Mr  Sheafs 
Right. 

"  2  Mr  Benja :  Emmons  Saith  the 
Same. 

"3  Mr  Jno  Kilby  Shopkeepers  Wife 
Saith  that  Mr  Robert  Gibbs  Deceased  in 
his  Life  time  hath  often  told  her  that  it 
was  his  Uncill  Mr  Sheafs  Pew  and  that 
he  Sat  there  only  during  his  Pleasure. 

"4  Mrs  Mary  Alden  widdow  saith  She 
was  pressent  at  Mr  Nathaniel  Williams's 
when  Mrs  Sheafe  gave  Mrs  Gibbs  Leave 
to  Sett  in  Said  Pew. 

"  5  Mrs  Cook  Sayes  She  has  often  Satt 
at  Said  Pew  Dore  in  the  Heat  of  Sum- 
mer and  that  Mrs  Gibbs  hath  often 
handed  her  out  of  said  Pew  a  Stool  to 
sett  on,  and  would  often  say  to  her  she 
made  bould  to  hand  her  a  Stool,  but  it 
was  her  Aunts  Pew  and  Stools. 

"6  Deacon  Draper  Sayes  he  Remem- 
bers the  fitting  up  said  Pew  for  Mr 
Wharton. 

"  7  Mrs  Sherrer  Sayes  She  Heard  her 
Father  Wharton  bid  the  Carpenters  (that 
fitted  up  Said  Pew)  when  they  Came  for 
a  Lock  for  it)  that  they  must  go  to  Mr 
Sheafe  for  a  Lock,  for  it  was  his  Pew. 

"8  Mr  Sampson  Sheafe  has  often  ten- 
dered to  You  to  give  his  Oath  to  his 
Right  to  said  Pew,  and  that  he  bought  it 


Immediately  concerned  in  that  Affaire. 

"9  That  the  Plai'ne  Record  ta-k-en 
about  Thirty  four  Years  Past  by  Judge 
Sewall  Esqr  one  [own]  Hand  writing 
(which  was  Long  before  any  of  the 
Gibbs'es  ever  had  Leave  to  Sett  in  said 
Pew)  Plainly  Show's  it  to  be  Mr  Sheafs 
Pew. 

"  So  Gentlemen,  I  think  Every  Circum- 
stance with  the  Plaine  Record  And  Mr 
Sampson  Sheafs  Carrector  and  Reputa- 
tion (who  Tenders  to  give  his  Oath  to 
his  Right  to  said  Pew)  considered  will  I 
hope  be  a  plain  and  Sufficient  Evidence 
to  Shew  the  Pew  to  be  his,  and  that  you 
will  Accordingly  use  Some  Speedy 
Methods  that  He  and  his  Wife  and 
children  may  sett  Quietly  and  Peaceably 
therein  for  the  future." 

Other  loose  papers  have  been  pre- 
served, with  notes  of  the  proceedings  at 
the  overseers'  meetings,  at  this  time. 
On  one  of  them  we  find,  "A  List  of  such 
as  want  Seats,  Mr.  George  Bethune,  Mr. 
Oxenbridge  Thatcher,  Mr.  John  Walley, 
Brasier,  Mr.  Nicholas  Davis,  Mr.  Francis 
Willoughby."  On  another  :  "  To  be  In- 
vited to  sit  in  the  Front  Gallery,  Mr. 
Francis  Willoughby,  Capt.  John  Gerrish, 
Mr.  Saml  Gerrish,  with  Mr.  Borland, 
Mr.  Bethune,  Mr.  Ox.  Thatcher,  Mr. 
Wigglesworth,  Capt.  Nichs,  Davis."] 

1  See  ante,  pp.  253,  254.  It  is  evi- 
dent from  the  record  that  the  church 
recognized  an  ownership  in  pews  as  prop- 
erty, with  certain  limitations  obviously 
necessary  to  the  perpetuity  and  best 
prosperity  of  the  church  itself.  The 
rules  of  the  Old  South  society  to-day,  in 
this  regard,  vary  little  from  those  adopted 
two  hundred  years  ago. 


400  HISTORY  OF   THE   OLD   SOUTH  CHURCH. 

nent  absentees  should  make  way  for  them.  But  even  this  re- 
quirement only  met  the  emergency  for  the  time ;  and  in  the 
course  of  a  year  or  two  it  was  proposed  to  enlarge  the  meeting- 
house, and  the  valuation  of  the  pews  was  very  considerably  ad- 
vanced. 

Mrs.  Willard,  whom  the  church  generously  remembered  twelve 
years  after  the  death  of  her  husband,  died  January  14,  1720.1 
On  the  27th  of  the  same  month,  the  Rev.  Peter  Thacher,  of 
Weymouth,  a  grandson  of  the  first  minister  of  the  South 
Church,  was  installed  as  colleague  pastor  with  the  Rev.  John 
Webb,  at  the  New  North  Church.  There  was  very  decided 
opposition  to  this  settlement  on  the  part  of  many  in  the  church, 
the  only  avowed  reason  being  that  it  was  not  right  for  a  wealth- 
ier congregation  to  entice  away  a  minister  from  a  poorer  one. 
"Weymouth,"  they  said,  "in  God's  sight,  is  as  precious  as  Bos- 
ton ;  and  the  souls  there,  of  as  great  worth  as  the  souls  here. 
And  to  the  common  objection,  that  it  is  a  pity  that  Mr.  Thacher, 
being  so  bright  a  light,  should  smoke  out  his  days  in  so  much 
obscurity,  we  answer,  first,  bright  lights  shine  brightest  in  the 
darkest  places  ;  and,  secondly,  bright  lights  are  the  obscurer  for 
burning  in  a  room  where  there  are  more,  and  as  bright." 

"  No  other  adequate  motive,"  says  Dr.  Chandler  Robbins, 
"  can  be  assigned  for  their  opposition  or  their  subsequent  doings. 
Mr.  Thacher  himself  was  in  all  respects  such  a  minister  as  would 
be  likely  to  please  their  taste,  to  gratify  their  pride,  and  to  build 
up  the  church.  There  was  nothing  objectionable  in  Mr.  Webb, 
to  excite  their  aversion.  Nor  do  I  find  in  any  quarter  so  much 
as  a  hint  that  there  were  any  latent  causes  of  division  previ- 
ously existing  between  the  members  of  the  society  themselves." 
Taking  the  church  and  congregation  together,  the  two  parties 
were  nearly  equal  ;  and  for  this  reason  alone  it  might  have  been 
better  if  the  friends  of  Mr.  Thacher,  in  the  interest  of  peace 
and  fellowship,  had  withdrawn  his  name,  or  at  least  had  post- 
poned final  action  for  a  time.  The  vote  of  the  church,  after  a 
day  spent  in  fasting  and  prayer,  was  thirty-four  out  of  forty- 
four  for  Mr.  Thacher.  A  week  later,  when  the  congregation 
came  together  to  vote,  six  church  members  and  thirty-nine 
others  of  the  congregation  protested,  and  immediately  with- 
drew, taking  their  written  protest  with  them.     Forty-six  persons 

1  "Jan.  18  1719-20  Madam  Willard  Prince.  Govr  had  a  scarf,  Col.  Taylor 
was  buried.  Bearers,  Dr.  Cotton  Mather,  went  with  him,  I  and  Col.  Townsend 
Wadsworth  ;  Colman,  Williams ;  Sewall,     &c."     (Sewall.) 


THE  NEW  NORTH  CHURCH.  401 

remained,  all  of  whom  voted  for  Mr.  Thacher.  A  few  days 
before  the  time  fixed  for  the  installation  services,  the  "  aggrieved 
brethren,"  by  the  advice  of  the  Boston  ministers,  proposed  that 
the  difficulty  should  be  referred  to  a  mutually  called  council. 
The  church  declined  this  proposal,  on  the  twofold  ground  that 
it  came  too  late,  and  that  it  came  in  a  wrong  way.  "  It  seems 
strange,"  says  Dr.  Robbins  further,  "  that  the  New  North 
Church  and  its  pastor  should  have  persisted  in  their  purpose  of 
settling  Mr.  Thacher  against  the  wishes  of  so  large  a  portion  of 
the  congregation,  against  the  unanimous  advice  of  the  clergy 
of  the  town,  against  the  general  sense  of  the  religious  commu- 
nity, and  at  the  risk  of  their  own  dismemberment.  There  can 
be  no  reasonable  doubt  that,  by  a  more  moderate  and  pacific 
course  on  their  part,  the  difficulty  might  have  been  healed,  and 
those  subsequent  disturbances  prevented  which  are  a  perpetual 
disgrace  to  all  who  were  concerned  in  them.  The  counsel  of 
such  men  as  the  two  Mathers,  Benjamin  Wadsworth,  Joseph 
Sewall,  Thomas  Prince,  and  William  Cooper  —  all  of  them 
names  justly  celebrated  in  the  churches  of  Boston  —  was  pre- 
cisely such  as  the  spirit  of  Christianity  would  have  dictated." 
The  substance  of  this  counsel,  addressed  to  the  disaffected 
brethren,  but  intended  for  all,  was  :  "  A  patient  waiting  may 
cool  and  calm  spirits  that  are  discomposed  and  heated.  Time, 
by  the  help  of  God,  may  give  more  light  to  us,  to  you,  to  Mr. 
Thacher,  Mr.  Webb,  and  the  New  North,  in  the  present  affair, 
than  we  have  hitherto  had."  But  the  majority  proceeded  to  the 
installation,  as  undoubtedly  they  had  the  right  to  do.  Whether 
it  was  expedient  for  them  thus  to  act  is  another  question. 

It  seem  only  Mr.  Thacher  of  Milton  and  Mr.  Chiever  of  Rumney- 
Marsh  acted  in  the  Installment  of  Mr.  Thacher.  For  though  Mr.  Fisk 
[of  Salem]  was  here  with  his  Delegats  ;  two  of  them,  Mr.  Lynde  and 
Mr.  Osgood  (three  came  not ;  Col.  Browne,  Daniel  Epes  esqr.,  Mr. 
Timothy  Lindal)  yet  the  church  had  limited  them  so  that  they  saw  not 
cause  to  Act.  And  Mr.  Thacher  is  his  Unkle.  It  seems  there  was  a 
long  and  shamefull  Tumultuous  disturbance  in  the  Meeting-house. 
Mr.  Thacher  of  Milton  pray'd ;  Mr.  Thacher  of  Weymouth  preach'd 
from  Psal.  57.  2.  I  will  cry  —  After  the  church  had  voted  him  the 
Pastor,  and  Mr.  Thacher  had  accepted ;  Mr.  Chiever  declar'd  him  to 
be  the  Pastor  of  that  church  :  No  Psalm  was  sung.  Col.  Taylor, 
Townsend,  Fitch,  Secretary  [Willard]  were  there.  Mr.  Leverett  [Pres- 
ident] acted  not  because  Mr.  Appleton  the  Pastor  [of  Cambridge]  was 
not  present.     And  none  from  Charlestown.     (Sewall.) 


402  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

The  "  shamefull  tumultuous  disturbance  "  mentioned  above 
was  made  by  the  disaffected  members  of  the  church,  and  not  by 
any  of  the  elders  and  messengers  of  the  churches  invited  to 
participate  in  the  service  of  installation.  These  latter,  with  the 
exception  of  Mr.  Thacher,  of  Milton,  and  Mr.  Cheever,  of  Rura- 
ney  Marsh,  absented  themselves  from  services  in  which  they 
could  not  conscientiously  and  cordially  participate.  The  settle- 
ment of  the  colleague  pastor,  therefore,  can  hardly  be  called  a 
settlement  by  council ;  it  was,  in  effect,  a  settlement  by  the 
church  itself,  and  as  such,  afterward,  it  was  accepted  and  justi- 
fied. The  controversy  brought  out  a  large  number  of  pamphlets 
and  printed  documents,  among  the  rest  one  by  Increase  Mather 
on  "  the  usefulness  and  necessity  of  councils,  in  order  to  pre- 
serving peace  and  truth  in  the  churches."  On  the  other  side,  a 
"  declaration  "  was  published  by  Mr.  Webb  and  Mr.  Thacher,  in 
which  it  was  asserted  that  "  it  is  an  essential  right  belonging  to 
particular  churches  to  enjoy  a  free  liberty,  within  themselves, 
duly  and  regularly  to  inquire  "  into  their  own  affairs,  "and  to 
judge  upon  them  as  becometh  creatures  endued  with  reason 
and  conscience,  who  are  ever  to  be  supposed  more  nearly  con- 
cerned for  their  own  spiritual  interests,  than  others  can  be  sup- 
posed to  be  for  them;  "  at  any  rate,  "they  ought  to  have  the 
privilege  reserved  unto  them  of  regularly  determining  when  and 
in  what  cases  to  call  in  the  help  of  their  brethren." 

That  consistent  Congregationalist,  Dr.  Clark,  from  whom  we 
have  quoted  several  times  in  these  pages,  thus  refers  to  these 
proceedings  in  his  Historical  Sketch  :  — 

The  fact  that  the  writers  on  both  sides  appeal  to  the  Cambridge 
Platform,  as  they  do  with  great  earnestness,  in  support  of  their  conflict- 
ing views,  is  evidence  of  at  least  an  apparent  discrepancy  between  its 
different  parts,  which  we  have  before  had  occasion  to  notice.  But 
the  fact  that  the  New  North  Church  was  sustained  in  its  proceedings 
by  a  strong  public  sentiment,  under  which  the  disaffected  party  were 
constrained  to  withdraw  and  form  a  separate  church  (the  New  Brick), 
also  shows  that  in  those  days  the  key-note  of  Congregationalism  — 
its  leading  idea,  to  which  all  other  ideas  embraced  in  the  system  were 
to  be  held  subordinate  and  subservient  —  was  the  right  of  a  church  to 
manage  its  own  affairs  :  that  whatever  power  the  Cambridge  Platform 
confers  on  synods  and  councils  cannot  be  truly  interpreted,  nor  law- 
fully exercised,  to  the  prejudice  of  this  right ;  "  that,  according  to  the 
constitution  of  these  churches,"  to  quote  the  words  of  Messrs.  Webb 
and  Thacher,  "  neither  the  declaration  of  ministers  nor  of  councils  to 
any  particular  church  is  to  be  received  by  it  as  /aw  only  to  be  under- 


PRIMITIVE   CONGREGATIONALISM.  403 

stood  and  so  obeyed,  but  as  counsel  to  be  advised  on,  weighed,  and 
determined  upon  according  to  the  word  of  God,  by  the  body  of  Chris- 
tians to  whom  it  is  made  ;  though  we  freely  confess  the  affair  ought 
to  be  managed  with  the  greatest  honour  and  respect  to  those  that  give 
their  advice  in  a  solemn  way  and  manner,  as  well  as  with  a  due  regard 
totheir  own  both  Christian  liberty  and  holy  edification."  In  short, 
the  issue  to  which  this  controversy  came  most  clearly  shows  that  as 
late  as  1720  it  was  a  prevailing  sentiment  in  Massachusetts  that  each 
particular  church  is  the  seat  and  source  of  whatever  ecclesiastical 
power  belongs  to  Congregationalists ;  and  that  synods,  councils,  con- 
sociations, and  whatever  ciher  machinery  may  be  found  convenient 
and  helpful  in  the  working  of  our  system,  or  deemed  essential  to  the 
"  well-being  of  the  churches,"  are  to  be  so  used  as  in  no  wise  to  inter- 
fere with  the  free  exercise  of  this  power. 

Whatever  different  views  we  may  have  of  the  expediency  of  settling 
a  pastor  under  the  forbidding  circumstances  which  beset  the  New 
North  Church  in  settling  Mr.  Thacher,  it  must  be  confessed  that,  as 
defenders  of  a  great  principle  lying  at  the  foundation  of  our  church 
polity,  they  were  clearly  in  the  right  and  did  a  good  service ;  and  it 
was  by  losing  sight  of  primitive  Congregationalism,  and  looking  solely 
at  modern  usage  as  an  exponent  of  Congregational  law,  that  Mr. 
Ware,  in  his  notice  of  their  proceedings,  could  have  reached  the  con- 
clusion that  "  they  were  clearly  in  the  wrong" —  which  Mr.  Robbins, 
in  his  valuable  History  of  the  Second  Church,  has  inadvertently 
admitted.1 

May  25.  Election,  the  Revd  Mr.  Stone  Preach'd  from  Rom.  13.  3. 
For  Rulers  are  not  a  terror  to  good  works,  but  to  the  evil.  Lord  ever 
grant  thy  people  such  to  rule  over  them.  The  Ministers  met  at  my 
House.2 

May  26.  They  Met  again  this  Morning.  Voted  that  a  Sermon 
shou'd  be  preached  annually  to  the   Ministers  on   the   Day  following 

1  [Clark's  Hist.  Sketch,  pp.   134,  135.  that    place." — History    of    the    Second 

Dr.  Robbins's  remark,  quoting  the  Rev.  Church,  p.  307.     See  also  pp.  170-177.] 

Henry  Ware,  Jr.,  is  as  follows :    "  Mr.  2  [The  church  bore  at  least  a  portion 

Ware's  opinion  seems  to  me    perfectly  of  the  expense  of  entertaining  the  clergy 

correct,  viz. :  '  that  the  New  North  peo-  at   the   parsonage   on   these    occasions, 

pie  wrote  with  most  moderation,  though  The  following  charges  appear  in  one  of 

they  were  clearly  in  the  wrong ;  while  the  the  deacons'  books :  — 

advocates  of  the  New  Brick,  though  on  1723    May  29     Cash  for  Wine 

the  right  side,  lost  all  command  of  their  for  the  Ministers  .     .     .  1.  7.  10 

temper.'"  1724   May 26   MoneyforWine 

Dr.  Robbins  adds  :  "  The  result  of  Mr.  for  the  Ministers    .     .     .   1.  8.    o 

Thacher's    connection    with    the    New  !7^5    May  24    Wine  taken  out 

North  was  certainly  in  the  end  favorable  of  Stock  for  the  Ministers    12.    o 

to  the  interests  of  that  church,  and  justi-  1726     May  23     Canary  for  the 

fied  the  good  opinion,  formed  by  those  Ministers  . 1.12.  o] 

who   supported  him,  of   his  fitness   for 


404  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

the  Election.  Dr.  Increase  Mather  was  Chosen  to  that  Service  for 
the  next  Year.  The  Revd  Mr.  Solomon  Stoddard  was  also  Chosen  in 
case  the  Doctor  shou'd  fail :  And  Dr.  C.  Mather  to  supply  his  place 
upon  Supposition  that  He  should  be  Prevented  by  the  Providence  of 
God.  Dr.  C.  Mather  Pray'd  Yesterday  :  Mr.  John  Williams  to  Day. 
It  was  propos'd,  and  I  think  generally  agreed  that  Days  of  Fasting 
and  Prayer  shou'd  be  kept  by  our  Churches  successively  to  Ask  the 
plentifull  Effusion  of  the  Spirit  on  the  rising  Generation.  (Joseph 
Sewall.) 

During  the  night  of  the  26th  and  27th  of  May  Judge  Sewall 
lost  his  wife,  Abigail,  to  whom  he  had  been  married  only  seven 
months. 

May  29.  God  having  in  his  holy  Sovereignty  put  my  Wife  out  of 
the  Fore-Seat,  I  apprehended  I  had  Cause  to  be  asham'd  of  my  Sin, 
and  to  loath  my  self  for  it ;  and  retired  into  my  Pue.  Mr.  Williams  of 
Derefield  preach'd  in  the  morning  from  Rom.  5.  Christ  died  for  Sin- 
ners. Mr.  Sewall  administered  the  Lord's  Supper.  I  put  up  a  Note 
to  this  purpose  ;  Samuel  Sewall,  depriv'd  of  his  dear  Wife  by  a  very 
sudden  and  awfull  Stroke,  desires  Prayers  that  God  would  sanctify 
the  same  to  himself,  and  Children  and  family.  Writ  and  sent  three  ; 
to  the  South,  Old,  and  Mr.  Colman's.  Mr.  Prince  preaches  p.  m. 
Matt.  25.     At  midnight  behold  a  Cry  was  made.     (Sewall.) 

Deacon  James  Hill  died  Sunday  morning,  February  26,  1721, 
aged  eighty-two  ;  his  wife  died  the  day  before,  aged  eighty-three. 
She  was  a  sister  of  the  first  Daniel  Henchman.  They  were 
buried  together  on  the  following  Thursday,  after  the  Lecture. 

March  5.  Lord's  Day.  Serene,  and  good  but  very  cold,  yet  had  a 
comfortable  opportunity  to  celebrate  the  Lord's  Supper.  Mr.  Prince, 
p.  m,  preach'd  a  Funeral  Sermon  from  Psal  90.  10.  ["The  days  of 
our  years  are  threescore  years  and  ten,"  etc.]  Gave  Capt.  Hill  a 
good  Character.     (Sewall.) 

The  church  now  proposed  action  in  reference  to  the  enlarge- 
ment of  its  meeting-house. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  South  Chh.  in  Boston.     Apr.  21.  1721. 

Voted  —  That  the  Meeting  House  be  enlarged  16  feet  on  the  North 
side  to  make  suitable  Accommodations  for  such  as  want  them  for  their 
Families,  and  that  the  whole  be  arch'd  and  ciel'd,  provided  a  suita- 
ble and  sufficient  number  of  Persons  appear  to  encourage  it ;  and  the 
necessary  Charge  of  repairing  the  meeting  house,  be  not  increased 
thereby. 

Voted  —  That  the  Committee  for  seating  the  Meeting  House  and 
Capt.  Winslow  be  appointed  to  take  the  oversight  and  management  of 
this  affair,  and  prosecute  it  with  all  convenient  expedition. 


THREE  NEW  PEWS. 


405 


Voted — That  Anthony  Stoddard  Esqr  be  added  to  the  Seaters. 

Voted  —  That  the  former  stated  Price  of  10^  for  a  Pew  be  annull'd 
and  superseded,  and  that  for  the  future,  where  any  alienation  may  be 
made  of  a  whole,  or  part  of  a  Pew,  or  any  person  entitled  to  one,  the 
Overseers  for  the  time  being  are  to  govern  the  matter  according  to 
their  discretion,  not  exceeding  Thirty  five  Pounds  for  any  one.  And 
that  if  at  any  time,  any  Person  purchase  or  offer  to  take  possession 
of  any  Pew  in  the  Meeting  House  without  the  consent  of  the  Over- 
seers, They  may  disposess  them  and  entitle  any  other  suitable  Person 
thereto. 

Voted,  —  That  Half  the  Space  at  the  Entrance  of  the  East  Door, 
and  the  Men's  Short  Seats  by  the  Pulpit  Stairs,  be  made  into  Pews 
provided  the  Overseers  shall  judge  it  expedient.1 

Voted  —  That  the  two  hind  Short  Seats  of  the  Women,  be  made 
into  a  Pew,  provided  such  persons  as  are  placed  there,  be  conveniently 
Seated,  and  the  Overseers  shall  judge  it  expedient. 

Voted  —  That  Thanks  be  given  to  the  Committee  for  Auditing  the 
Deacon's  accounts,  and  that  they  be  desired  to  stand  for  another 
Year.  Joseph  Sewall 

Thomas  Prince. 

1  [Aprill  15th  1724  At  a  Meeting  of 
the  Overseers  at  the  house  of  Uaniell 
Oliver,  Esqr  Present  Samuell  Checkley 
Esqr  Daniel  Oliver  Esqr  Habijah  Savage 
Esqr  Mr.  Ezekiell  Lewis  and  Anthony 
Stoddard 

There  being  Three  New  Pews  now 
built  by  Order  of  the  Overseers  Pursu- 
ant to  a  Liberty  Given  them  by  a  Vote  of 
the  Church  Aprill  21  1721 

Voted  That  the  New  Pew  at  the  foot 
of  the  Stairs  leading  up  to  the  Pulpit  be 
sett  at  thirty  Pounds. 

Voted  that  the  New  Pew  at  the  East 
Door  be  sett  at  twenty  five  pounds. 

Voted  that  the  New  Pew  at  the  End  of 
the  Women's  Short  Seats  be  sett  at 
thirty  five  Pounds. 

Voted  that  an  Offer  be  Made  to  Coll : 
Thos  Fitch  Esqr  of  the  New  Pew  by  the 
Pulpit  Stairs 

.  Voted  that  an  Offer  be  made  to  Capt 
John  Ellery  and  Capt  John  Osborn  Of 
the  New  Pew  at  the  East  Door  to  be 
possessed  between  them 

Voted  that  an  Offer  be  made  to  Mr. 
Chris :  Kilby,  Mr.  Benj :  Sympson,  Mr. 
Samll  Rand  and  Mr.  Jer :  Belnap  of  the 
New  Pew  at  the  End  of  the  Women's 
Short  seats. 


Voted  that  Deacon  Daniell  Henchman 
be  Entituled  to  half  of  the  Pew  between 
Mr.  Gibs's  and  Mr.  Bowes's  (the  other 
half  belonging  to  Mr.  Ellison's  Family) 
he  paying  five  pounds  for  the  same. 

May  20th  1724  At  a  Meeting  of  the 
Overseers  at  the  house  of  David  Jeffries 
Esqr.  Present :  Coll :  Checkley,  David 
Jeffries,  Daniel  Oliver  Antho  Stoddard 
Hab  :  Savage  Esqr  and  Eze.  Lewis  — 

Voted  that  the  Wife  of  Mr.  Nathan 
Lewis  be  placed  in  her  Mother's  Seat  in 
the  short  seat  next  to  Coll :  Checkleys 
Pew  — 

Voted  that  the  Wife  of  Mr.  Chrisr 
Kilby  be  Seated  in  the  Pew  belonging  to 
the  heirs  or  Children  of  mr.  Nicholas 
Bowes  deed  : 

Novbr  28.  1724  At  A  Meeting  of  the 
Overseers  at  Coll.  Checkleys  present 
Danl  Oliver,  Coll:  Checkley  Antho 
Stoddard,  Habijah  Savage  Esqrs  and 
Eze  :  Lewis  — 

Voted  that  Liberty  is  granted  to  Capt. 
John  Ellery  and  Capt  John  Osborne  to 
purchase  the  Pew  that  was  Majr  General 
Winthrops  [he  died  in  17 17]  in  Equall 
halves.] 


406  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

Anthony  Stoddard,  who  was  added  to  the  overseers  of  seats 
by  one  of  the  foregoing  votes,  and  whose  name  will  meet  us 
frequently  in  this  history,  was  one  of  those  who  were  not  enrolled 
as  they  should  have  been  on  the  list  of  members.  He  was 
grandson  of  Anthony  Stoddard,  whose  name  appears  so  often 
in  our  earlier  chapters,  and  son  of  Simeon.  He  graduated  at 
Harvard  College  in  1697. 

The  Election  Sermon  this  year  was  preached  by  Mr.  Moodey, 
of  York;  and  on  Thursday,  June  1,  Dr.  Increase  Mather 
preached  a  sermon  to  the  ministers,  at  Mr.  Joseph  Sewall's 
house.  This,  we  suppose,  was  the  first  of  the  "convention  ser- 
mons "  in  Boston,  which  with  few  interruptions  have  been 
preached  year  by  year  until  the  present  time.  Dr.  Mather's 
text  was  Rev.  i.  20 :  "  The  seven  stars  are  the  angels  of  the 
seven  churches."  "  Lord  grant,"  wrote  Mr.  Sewall,  "  that  thy 
ministers  may  more  and  more  resemble  angels,  for  their  wisdom 
and  holiness,  zeal  and  activity  in  thy  service  ;  and  stars  for  their 
light  and  influence." 

June  8.  This  Lecture  Day  was  observed  as  a  Day  of  fasting  and 
Prayer  at  the  Old-meeting-house  in  consideration  of  the  Fear  and  Dis- 
tress we  are  in  from  the  Smallpox.  Mr.  Colman  Preached  from  Mark 
6,  54-56  —  they  laid  sick  in  streets  —  as  many  as  touched  him  &c. 
Mr.  Webb  began,  Mr.  Foxcroft  concluded  with  Prayer.  P.  M.  Dr. 
C.  Mather  preached  from  Amos  4.  12,  Prepare  to  meet  thy  God.  Mr. 
Prince  began  and  concluded  with  Prayer.     (J.  Sewall.) 

A  Thanksgiving  Day  having  been  appointed  by  the  civil 
authorities,  the  question  came  up  whether  there  should  be  two 
sermons  as  heretofore  had  been  the  custom  in  the  town,  or  only 
one.  Judge  Sewall,  who  was  always  earnest  for  the  maintenance 
of  the  old  customs,  was  for  two  sermons,  but  he  was  overruled. 

Oct.  15.  After  the  Evening  Exercise,  Mr.  Prince  Read  the  Order  for 
the  Thanksgiving  ;  and  then  offer'd  it  to  Consideration,  that  there 
might  be  but  One  Sermon.  I  spake  against  it.  Said  I  had  seen  one 
such  a  one  ;  and  I  did  not  desire  to  see  another.  Twas  the  privilege 
we  in  Boston  had,  that  might  have  two,  which  our  Brethren  in  the 
Country  could  not  have,  because  of  their  remote  Living.  No  body 
seconded  me  ;  and  I  desisted. 

Oct.  20.  In  the  Council  Chamber  I  discours'd  Col  [Penn]  Town- 
send  about  having  but  one  Sermon  on  the  Thanksgiving  day.  He 
was  of  Opinion  twas  best  to  have  two,  but  for  the  distress  of  the 
Small  Pox :  and  could  not  get  him  to  move  a  jot  towards  having  Two. 

Oct  26.     Thanksgiving ;  But  one  Sermon  in  most  Congregations, 


THE  SMALL-POX.  407 

by  reason  of  the  Distress  of  the  Small  Pox.  Began  at  eleven  a-clock. 
Note.  I  think  so  great  an  Alteration  should  not  have  been  made ; 
without  the  Knowledge  and  Agreement  of  the  Councillours  and  other 
Justices  in  Town,  met  together  for  that  purpose.     (Sewall.) 

During  this  visitation  of  the  small-pox  there  were  seven  hun- 
dred and  sixty-one  deaths  in  Boston,  in  September,  October, 
and  November,  and  its  ravages  extended  to  all  the  neighboring 
towns.  Among  its  victims  was  the  Rev.  Joseph  Stevens,  of 
Charlestown,  whom  some  desired  to  settle  at  the  South  Church 
when  Mr.  Joseph  Sewall  received  the  call.  His  only  daughter 
and  his  wife's  sister  died  of  the  same  disease  at  the  same  time, 
and  all  were  buried  in  one  grave.  He  was  less  than  forty  years 
of  age,  and  he  had  been  pastor  at  Charlestown  only  eight  years. 
It  was  said  of  him  :  "  In  the  pulpit  he  was  to  us  a  very  lovely 
song ;  and  in  his  life  an  amiable  example  of  the  doctrines  he 
sweetly  recommended."  The  scourge  came  even  closer  than 
this  to  the  South  Church.  On  the  nth  of  December  Mr.  John 
White,  the  treasurer  of  Harvard  College,  died  ;  four  years  be- 
fore, he  succeeded  Judge  Sewall  in  the  precentorship.  A  few 
days  earlier  an  humbler  member,  Susan  Thayer,  had  been  called 
home,  and  was  buried  on  Friday,  December  1st,  "just  after  the 
Sacramental  Lecture."  Judge  Sewall's  testimony  to  her  worth 
was :  "  She  had  serv'd  me  and  my  family  faithfully  fifteen 
years,  and  now  I  hope  she  is  gon  to  Heavenly  Rest."  He  and 
his  son-in-law,  the  Rev.  William  Cooper,  followed  her  to  her 
grave.  The  prevailing  disease  entered  Mr.  Joseph  Sewall's 
family,  but  not  in  its  worst  symptoms. 

Feb  25,  1722  Was  affected  to  hear  the  Confession  of  the  Woman 
and  her  Restoration  ;  and  to  see  Capt.  [John]  Osburn  and  five  women 
admitted.1     (Sewall.) 

We  do  not  know  the  name  of  this  woman  who  confessed  her 
sin  and  was  restored  to  her  former  standing  in  the  church. 

On  the  29th  of  March  Judge  Sewall  was  married  for  the  third 
time,  namely,  to  Mary,  widow  of  Robert  Gibbs,  and  daughter  of 
Jonathan  Shrimpton  by  his  wife  Mary,  daughter  of  Peter  Oliver. 
Her  sister  Sarah  married  John  Clark,  the  speaker.  The  Rev. 
Nathaniel  Williams,  master  of  the  Latin  School,  was  her  half- 
brother.  Most  of  her  family  connections  were  members  of  the 
South  Church.  Mr.  Daniel  Oliver,  one  of  the  overseers  of 
seats,  was  her  uncle.  Her  social  position,  as  wife  of  the  chief 
justice,  now  entitled  her  to  a  place  in  the  fore  seat  for  women. 

1  [Abigail  Lewis,  Rachel  Gilbert,  Sarah  Kneeland,  Rachel  Kneeland,  Katharine 
Galpin.} 


408 


HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 


Lord's  day  April  i.     Sat  with  my  wife  in  her  Pue. 

April,  8.     introduc'd  her  into  my  Pue,  and  sat  with  her  there. 

April  15.  Conducted  my  wife  to  the  Fore-Seat ;  having  been  invited 
by  David  Jeffries  esqr,  Danl  Oliver  esqr,  and  Mr.  Ezekiel  Lewis,  March, 
31.  as  overseers.     (Sewall.) 

May  1.  1722  A  Council  of  about  14  Churches  (of  which  our's  was 
one)  met  at  Watertown,  Condemn'd  the  Proceedings  of  Mr.  Sturgeon 
and  his  Party.  I  got  home  safe  about  3  a'clock  A.  M.  with  Col. 
Fitch.  O  Lord  give  Peace  with  truth  and  holiness  to  that  divided 
Town.1 

May  31.  [Election  Week.]  Dr.  C.  Mather  preach'd  at  my  house 
from  Rev.  2.2.  Help  thy  Ministers  to  labour  in  thy  Service  as  being 
sensible  that  the  Head  of  the  Church  knows  their  labor  and  Patience. 
(J.  Sewall.) 

Probably  the  addition  and  alterations  authorized  by  the  vote 
of  April  21,  1 72 1,  were  not  made.  There  is  no  record  one  way 
or  the  other,  but  certain  repairs  were  now  necessary,  and,  not 
long  after,  it  was  proposed  to  build  a  new  house  of  worship. 

1  [For  the  history  of  a  long-standing 
controversy  in  Watertown  in  reference 
to  the  location  of  a  new  meeting-house, 
see  An  Historical  Sketch  of  Watertown, 
by  Dr.  Convers  Francis,  pp.  59-63.  The 
governor  and  council  were  appealed  to 
in  1692,  and  a  committee,  of  which  Wil- 
liam Stoughton  and  Samuel  Sewall  were 
members,  considered  and  reported  upon 
the  questions  in  dispute.  In  a  "  return  " 
of  the  council  it  was  said  :  "  There  has 


been  of  a  long  time,  even  ever  since  the 
days  of  your  blessed  pastor  Phillips,  an 
earnest  contending  about  the  place  of 
meeting  for  the  public  worship  of  God." 
In  1696,  the  heated  state  of  feeling  be- 
ing unabated,  and  leading  to  occasional 
disorders,  the  town  determined  that  a 
day  of  humiliation  should  be  observed, 
and  Mr.  Willard  and  Mr.  Cotton  Mather 
were  invited  to  fix  the  time  and  conduct 
the  services.  The  farmers  in  the  precinct 
which  was  afterward  incorporated  as 
Weston  arranged  for  separate  religious 
services  for  themselves.  In  May,  1697, 
the  Rev.  Samuel  Angier  was  settled  over 
the  old  church,  and  began  to  preach  in 
the  new  meeting-house.  Five  months 
later,  a  church  was  gathered  at  the  east 
end  of  the  town,  and  the  Rev.  Henry 
Gibbs  was  ordained  as  its  pastor.  Diffi- 
culties arose  respecting  the  support  of 


the  two  ministers,  both  of  whom  were 
paid  from  the  common  treasury.  A  defi- 
nite division  between  the  eastern  and 
western  parts  of  the  town  was  at  length 
found  necessary,  and  in  1720  the  General 
Court  appointed  a  committee  to  run  a 
dividing  line  between  them.  Mr.  Angier 
died  in  17 19,  and  Mr.  Sturgeon  was  one 
of  his  successors.  Dr.  Francis  says  : 
"The  society,  it  is  probable,  finding 
themselves  too  feeble  to  exist  separately, 
were  gradually  dispersed,  and  joined 
themselves  to  the  other  two  parishes. 
Their  meeting-house,  being  abandoned, 
was,  we  may  presume,  in  the  course  of  a 
few  years  demolished.  It  appears,  how- 
ever, that  for  some  time  they  acted  as  a 
distinct  church  and  society,  and  that 
their  proceedings  were  thought  to  be 
irregular  and  censurable.  That  this  was 
the  fact  I  infer  from  a  vote  recorded  by 
Mr.  Gibbs's  successor  [the  Rev.  Seth 
Storer]  concerning  a  Mr.  Daniel  Whit- 
ney, in  which  it  is  mentioned  as  an  of- 
fence, that  he  '  owned  the  covenant 
among  and  submitted  himself  to  the 
watch  and  discipline  of  those  who  acted 
as  a  third  church  in  Watertown,  and  that 
he  had  a  child  baptized  by  Mr.  Robert 
Sturgeon  after  the  result  of  the  council 
of  churches  met  at  Watertown  on  May 
1st.  1722.' "] 


DAYS    OF  FASTING    WITH  PRAYER.  409 

At  a  meeting  of  the  South  Church  in  Boston  Augt  21  1722 
Voted  ; 

1.  That  Thanks  be  given  to  the  Committee  for  Auditing  the  Deacons' 
Accounts,  and  that  they  be  desired  to  stand  for  another  year. 

2.  That  Mr.  Daniel  Oliver,  Mr.  Edward  Winslow,  and  Mr.  Timothy 
Prout  be  a  Committee  to  consult  with  Mr.  Thomas  Foster,  and  con- 
sider what  is  needfull  to  be  done  for  the  Reparation  of  the  Meeting 
House,  and  the  Charge  ;  and  that  they  make  a  Report  to  the  Church 
and  Congregation  next  Tuesday  at  3ck  p.  m. 

Pursuant  to  a  Vote  pass'd  at  a  Meeting  of  the  South  Church,  Augt. 
21.  1722, 

The  Church  and  Congregation  met  Augt.  28. 

And  having  heard  the  Report  of  the  Committee,  Voted  ; 

1.  That  Thirty  or  Forty  Pounds  only,  or  so  much  as  shall  be  need- 
full  to  make  the  Roof  tight,  be  for  the  present  Expended  towards  re- 
pairing the  Meeting  House. 

2.  That  Mr.  Daniel  Oliver,  Mr.  Edward  Winslow  and  Mr.  Timothy 
Prout  be  a  Committee  to  Manage  the  Affair  above  voted  with  all  con- 
venient Expedition.  Joseph  Sewall 

Thomas  Prince. 

A  fast  was  observed  at  the  Old  North  on  Tuesday,  the  25th 
of  September,  "  to  pray  for  the  pouring  out  of  God's  Spirit  in 
New  England,  especially  the  rising  generation."  Dr.  Mather 
referred  during  the  services  to  the  recent  "apostasy"  in  Con- 
necticut, and  to  the  remark  of  the  Rev.  Timothy  Cutler  and 
others,  who  had  gone  over  to  the  Anglican  communion,  "  that 
there  was  no  minister  in  New  England."  There  was  a  similar 
observance  at  the  South  Church  a  few  weeks  later. 

Sept  25.  It  having  been  agreed  by  the  Ministers  to  Propose  it  to 
their  Churches  to  keep  Days  of  Fasting  with  Prayr  successively, 
This  Day  a  Fast  was  Kept  at  the  Old-North.  A.  M.  Mr.  Wadsworth 
began,  Mr.  Walter  concluded  with  Prayr.  P.  M.  Mr.  Colman  began, 
and  Dr.  Increase  Mather  concluded.  Dr.  Cotton  Mather  preach'd 
both  parts  of  the  Day  from  Matt.  9.  18.  —  My  daughter  is  even  now 
dead:  but  come,  and  lay  thine  Hand.  —  N.  B.  The  Design — is  to 
Ask  of  God  the  Effusion  of  his  Spirit  especially  on  the  rising  Gen- 
eration.    (J.  Sewall.) 

Nov.  4.  1722. 

The  church  was  stayed,  and  Voted,  that  the  13th  of  this  instant 
should  be  observed  by  us  as  a  day  of  Prayer  with  Fasting,  to  ask  of 
God  the  effusion  of  his  Holy  Spirit,  particularly  on  the  rising  gen- 
eration. Joseph  Sewall 

Thomas  Prince. 


41 0  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

Novr.  13.  This  Day  was  observ'd  by  the  South-Church  as  a  Day  of 
Fasting  with  Pray'r.  Mr.  Cooper  began  with  Prayr  A.  M.  Mr. 
Prince  Preach'd  from  Ps.  90.  16.  Let  thy  work  appear  to  thy  servants 
&c.  Mr.  Webb  began  P.  M.  I  preached  from  Luke  11.  13.  —  How 
much  more  shall  your  Heavenly  Father  give  the  Holy  Spirit.  Mr. 
Prince  and  I  made  the  last  Prayrs.  I  humbly  Bless  God  for  the 
Assistance  granted  his  Servants,  and  that  his  people  were  so  far 
spirited  to  Give  their  Attendance.  We  were  under  fears  considering 
the  time  ;  the  Thanksgiving  but  the  week  before  &c.  But  God  favour'd 
us,  I  think,  beyond  our  expectation.1     (J.  Sewall.) 

Lord's  day  Dec.  9.  I  was  much  refresh'd  by  reading  in  course  1 
Kings,  10.  the  high  value  the  Queen  of  Sheba  put  on  Solomon,  and 
behold  a  greater  than  Solomon  is  this  day  exhibited  in  the  Lord's 
Supper  which  Mr.  Prince  administered:  Text  1  Cor.  11.  29.  The 
Rain  was  so  great,  that  Col.  Partridge  [of  Portsmouth],  and  I  and  my 
Wife  din'd  with  my  Son  [at  the  new  parsonage].  His  Text  [p.  m.]  was 
2  Sam.  6.  20.     Of  Family  Prayer;  very  well. 

Dec  30.  Lords  Day,  Notes  are  put  up  in  many  Congregations  to 
this  effect.  His  Excellency,  Governour  Shute,  bound  to  Sea,  desires 
prayers.     (Sewall.) 

The  governor  sailed  from  Nantasket  Roads  a  day  or  two  later. 
He  had  been  governor  since  1716.2  He  was  succeeded  tem- 
porarily by  William  Dummer,  third  of  the  name,  as  acting 
governor. 

The  New  Brick  Church  was  formed  by  a  secession  from  the 
New  North,  at  the  time  of  Mr.  Thacher's  settlement  as  col- 
league with  Mr.  Webb.  When  its  meeting-house  in  Hanover 
Street  was  completed  and  opened  for  divine  worship,  sermons 
were  preached  by  Dr.  Cotton  Mather  and  Mr.  Wadsworth.  The 
text  chosen  by  the  latter  was  suggested  as  that  of  Dr.  Increase 
Mather's  convention  sermon  in   1721  had  been,  by  the  number 

1  [The  other  associated  churches  held  Judge  Sewall  that  he  was  of  the  Church 
similar  services  in  turn,    in    accordance      of  England. 

with    the   recommendation    of   the  min-  The     New    England     Courant     pro- 

isters.]  pounded      the       following :       "  Quere. 

2  Samuel  Shute  was  a  colonel  in  the  Whether  (pursuant  to  the  charter)  the 
army,  and  a  brother  of  John  Shute,  after-  ministers  of  this  province  ought  now  to 
ward  Lord  Barrington,  in  the  peerage  of  pray  for  Samuel  Shute  Esq.  as  our  im- 
Ireland.  The  maternal  grandfather  of  mediate  Governor,  and,  at  the  same  time, 
these  brothers  was  the  celebrated  Presby-  pray  for  the  Lieutenant  Governor  as 
terian  minister,  the  Rev.  Joseph  Caryl.  commander-in-chief?    Or,  Whether  their 

Governor  Shute  had  been  a  non-con-  praying  for  his  success  in  his  voyage,  if 

formist ;    but  just  before  his  departure,  he  designs  to  hurt  the  province,  (as  some 

in  the  course  of  a  discussion  upon  the  suppose)  be  not  in  effect  to  pray  for  our 

observance  of  Christmas  Day,  he  told  destruction  ? " 


DEATH   OF  INCREASE  MATHER.  411 

of  Congregational  churches  then  existing  in  the  town:  "These 
things  saith  he  that  holdeth  the  seven  stars  in  his  right  hand, 
who  walketh  in  the  midst  of  the  golden  candlesticks."  The 
Rev.  William  Waldron  was  ordained  as  its  first  minister,  May 
23,  1722.1  Mr.  Sewall  offered  prayer,  Dr.  Cotton  Mather 
preached,  Dr.  Increase  Mather  gave  the  charge,  and  Mr.  Wads- 
worth  the  right  hand  of  fellowship.  Late  in  the  year  1723 
Judge  Sewall  spent  a  Sabbath  with  this  church,  in  token  of  his 
Christian  sympathy. 

Dr.  Increase  Mather  died  on  Friday,  the  23d  of  August,  after 
a  ministry  at  the  Old  North  or  Second  Church  of  sixty  years.2 
He  had  filled  a  large  place  in  the  political  as  well  as  the  eccle- 
siastical affairs  of  the  province,  and  made  his  mark  upon  his 
generation.  On  Sunday,  September  1,  Mr.  Colman,  whose 
coming  to  Boston  at  the  beginning  of  the  century  Dr.  Mather 
had  opposed  with  characteristic  intensity  of  feeling,  preached  to 
the  bereaved  congregation  from  Isaiah  iii.  1,2:  "  For,  behold, 
the  Lord,  the  Lord  of  hosts,  doth  take  away  from  Jerusalem, 
and  from  Judah,  the  stay  and  the  staff,  the  whole  stay  of  bread, 
and  the  whole  stay  of  water,  the  mighty  man,  and  the  man  of 
war,  the  judge,  and  the  prophet,  and  the  prudent,  and  the 
ancient."     Mr.  Colman  said  :  — 

I  count  not  myself  worthy  nor  able  to  speak  of  so  great  and  good  a 
man,  nor  to  you  upon  this  occasion.  Yet  if  I  should  altogether  be 
silent  it  might  be  justly  censurable,  and  if  I  presume  to  speak  my 
words  will  fall  below  his  praises  which  are  in  all  the  churches.  Mod- 
esty forbids  me  to  attempt  his  character,  but  reverence  commands  me 
to  pay  some  tribute  to  his  memory,  and  love  constrains  me  to  mourn 
with  you  in  your  bereavement. 

Sept.  10,  11.  1723.  Mr.  Henchman  and  I  set  out  together  for 
South  Braintree,  where  the  Elders  and  Messengers  from  Nine  Churches 
met,  had  a  publick  hearing  of  the  Matters  which  are  occasion  of  Differ- 
ence among  them.  The  result  of  the  Council  was  read  in  the  meeting 
house,  nth,  p.  m.  and  then  Mr.  Walter  the  Moderator  concluded  with 

1  See  Jeremiah  Bumstead's  diary,   in  was    succeeded    by    the    Rev.    William 

the   N.   Eng.    Hist,   and  Gen.   Register,  Welsteed.     In   1779  the  New  Brick  was 

1861.     Dr.  Ware  and  Dr.  Robbins  give  united  with  the  Second  or  North  Church. 

May  22  as  the  date  of  ordination ;   Mr.  2  He  was  buried   on  the   29th.     The 

Bumstead  says  May  23,  and  as  this  was  bearers  were  Governor  Dummer,  Judge 

on  a  Wednesday,  we  assume  that  he  is  Sewall,  President  Leverett,  Mr.  Thacher, 

right.  Mr.  Wadsworth,  Mr.  Colman.     "There 

Mr.  Waldron  died  suddenly,  Septem-  was  a  vast  number  of  spectatours."     (J. 

ber  11,  1727,  in  his  thirty-first  year.    He  Sewall.) 


412  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

Prayer.  We  got  safe  home  a  little  after  sun-set.  Laus  Deo.  O  Lord 
restore  Peace  and  Truth  and  Holiness  to  that  divided  Flock.1 
(J.  Sewall.) 

Lord's  Day,  Dec  i.  I  went  to  the  New  North  Brick,  Mr.  Sheriff 
Winslow  accompanying  me,  and  kept  the  Sabbath  with  Mr.  Waldron, 
who  preach'd  Excellently  from  John,  6,  66,  67,  68,  69.  verses  ;  adapted 
his  Discourse  to  the  Temptations  of  our  Day.  In  concluding  the 
Sacramental  Solemnity,  the  two  last  staves  of  the  Fourth  Psalm,  and 
the  12th  and  13th  verses  of  Rev.  5th  were  sung.  Dined  at  Deacon 
[Solomon]  Townsend's  (Mrs.  Waldron  being  with  her  travelling  Mother 
at  the  Vinyard),  where  Mr.  Bromfield  and  I  dined,  when  we  visited 
Mr.  Webb  upon  the  like  occasion  many  years  agoe.  Major  Moodey 
and  Madam  Winslow  dined  with  us.  Mr.  Sheriff  Winslow  went 
home.  In  the  afternoon  Mr.  Waldron  baptised  Thomas.  Brother 
[the  Rev.  Nathaniel]  Williams  preached  from  Rev.  2.  21.  And  I  gave 
her  Space  to  repent  —  and  she  repented  not.  The  Lord  help  me  to 
hear  and  obey  the  pungent  exhortations  to  Repentance ;  and  that  the 
power  of  Godliness  may  be,  and  appear  in  me.  Being  dry  under  foot 
and  serene  weather,  I  had  very  Comfortable  going  and  returning.  I 
humbly  bless  God  that  I  have  had  the  Opportunity  to  show  this 
Respect  to  Seven  of  the  Churches  of  Boston  :  and  earnestly  pray  that 
he  would  pardon  my  unworthiness  to  bear  This  Testimony  for  Him  ; 
and  of  his  boundless  Benignity,  He  would  condescend  to  know  me, 
and  to  be  known  of  me  ! 

Lord's  Day,  April  5.  1724.  The  Ways  are  dry,  and  the  Weather 
moderat,  so  that  I  comfortably  goe  to  the  solemn  Assembly  Forenoon 
and  Afternoon  :  Hear  my  Son  preaching  from  the  first  Commandment ; 
and  Mr.  Prince  from  Prov.  8.  17.,  both  exhorting  to  the  Love  of  God; 
may  I  be  enabled  to  hear  through  the  Long  Suffering  and  Goodness 
of  God  !     (Sewall.) 

1  [From   the   New  England  Conrant,  by  Rule  alternately,  for  the  Satisfaction 

then  issued   in   the  name  of   Benjamin  of  both  parties." 

Franklin,  his  brother  James,  in  conse-  "  Boston,  Decemb.  9.  We  have  advice 

quence  of  his  freedom  in  criticising  public  from  the  South  Part  of  Bran  trey,  that  on 

men  and  measures,  having  been  called  to  Sunday  the  First  Instant,  Mr.  Niles  the 

account  by  the  General  Court :  —  Minister  of   that   Place,  performed  the 

"Boston,  Sept.  16.  Last  week  a  Duties  of  the  Day  at  his  Dwelling  House, 
Council  of  Churches  was  held  at  the  among  those  of  his  Congregation  who 
South  Part  of  Brantrey,  to  regulate  the  are  opposers  of  Regular  Singing.  The 
Disorders  occasioned  by  Regular  Sing-  Regular  Singers  met  together  at  the 
ing  in  that  place,  Mr.  Nile,  the  minister  Meeting  House,  and  sent  for  Mr.  Niles, 
having  suspended  seven  or  eight  of  the  who  refused  to  come  unless  they  would 
Church  for  persisting  in  their  Singing  first  promise  not  to  sing  Regularly; 
by  Rule,  contrary  (as  he  apprehended)  whereupon  they  concluded  to  edify  them- 
to  the  result  of  a  former  Council ;  but  selves  by  the  Assistance  of  one  of  the 
by  this  Council  the  suspended  Brethren  Deacons,  who  at  their  Desire  prayed 
are  restored  to  Communion,  their  Sus-  with  them,  read  a  sermon  &c."  —  Buck- 
pension  declared  unjust,  and  the  Con-  ingham's  Specimens  of  Newspaper  Liter- 
gregation  ordered  to  sing  by  Rote  and  ature,  vol.  i.  p.  86.] 


DEATH  OF  PRESIDENT  LEVERETT.  413 

April  14.  The  Council  sat  again  at  South-Braintry.  An  accommo- 
dation was  proposed,  and  was  so  far  effective,  that  the  suspended 
brethren  made  some  general  acknowledgment  and  were  restored. 
Something  was  also  spoken  (I  am  inform'd)  in  behalf  of  the  other  side 
towards  an  acknowledgment ;  but  it  did  not  seem  to  satisfy  the  sus- 
pended brethren  (N.  B.  Mr.  Oliver  and  I  came  away  before  these 
things  were  done  in  publick.)  O  Lord  Pardon  the  Sin,  and  heal  the 
Distemper  whereby  the  minds  of  that  people  are  alienated  from  each 
other.     (J.  Sewall.) 

The  Rev.  John  Leverett,  the  president  of  Harvard  College, 
was  found  dead  in  his  bed  on  Sunday  morning,  May  3,  and  he 
was  buried  with  every  mark  of  respect  three  days  later.  He 
had  held  the  office  sixteen  years,  and  had  governed  the  students 
"with  great  sweetness  and  candor,  tempered  with  convenient 
severity."  Judge  Sewall  writes,  under  date  of  August  12 : 
"  Scipio  brings  word  this  morning  from  Mr.  Gerrish  that  my 
Son  is  Chosen  President."  This  is  the  only  reference  to  the 
subject  in  his  diary.  The  South  Church  had  relinquished  its 
claim  on  Dr.  Leonard  Hoar,  on  his  arrival  from  England,  more 
than  fifty  years  before,  in  order  that  he  might  serve  the  college 
as  its  president ;  and  it  had  allowed  Mr.  Willard  to  act  as  presi- 
dent during  the  last  six  years  of  his  life.  It  was  now  asked  to 
make  a  much  more  serious  sacrifice  than  in  either  previous  in- 
stance, and  it  felt  obliged  to  decline.  It  had  two  pastors,  ad- 
mirably adapted  to  the  work  which  had  been  committed  to  them, 
laboring  harmoniously  together  and  with  success ;  and  the 
members  of  the  church  no  doubt  thought  that  it  would  be  more 
easy  to  find  another  man  fitted  for  the  presidency  of  the  college 
than  to  fill  the  place,  in  their  pulpit,  of  either  Mr.  Sewall  or  Mr. 
Prince.1  The  board  of  overseers  sent  a  committee  to  confer 
with  the  church,  and  we  have  a  brief  account  of  the  interview 
and  of  the  result  so  far  as  the  church  was  concerned,  in  the 
handwriting  of  Mr.  Prince  :  — 

At  a  meeting  of  this  church,  Sept.  30.  1724. 

After  looking  to  God  for  his  gracious  presence  —  (As  is  usual  at  all 
the  meetings) 

1  Mr.  Sewall  says  in  his  diary,  August  but   few   wou'd    Consent    to    it.      Lord 

29:    "Several  of    the    Brethren   of   the  make  my  way  clear ;  shew  me,  thy  people, 

Church  were  with  me  last  night  and  to  what  thou  wouldst  have  us  to  doe,  and 

day,  who  express  their  Unwillingness  to  incline  us  to  that  which  is  pleasing  in  thy 

part  with  me,  and  some  of  them  pretty  sight.  ...  I  humbly  thank  thee  that  thou 

strongly  express'd    their    Apprehension  hast  given  me  such  a  room  in  the  hearts 

that  it  would  not  well   consist  with  the  of  thy  people,  who  are  dear  to  me :  and 

peace  and  welfare  of  the  Flock,  and  that  humble  me  to  the  dust." 


4H  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD   SOUTH  CHURCH. 

Voted 

That  according  to  the  desires  of  the  Overseers  of  the  College,  their 
Committee  be  now  admitted  to  present  their  desires  to  this  church, 
with  respect  to  Mr.  Sewall,  our  Pastor,  without  our  entering  into  any 
debate  on  the  affair  depending,  while  they  are  present. 

After  the  said  committee's  admittance  and  Recess,  the  Question 
was  put ;  whether  the  church  saw  sufficient  reason  to  consent  to  the 
desires  of  the  Overseers  of  the  College,  in  the  removal  of  their  Revd 
Pastor  Mr.  Sewall  from  them? 

To  which  I  could  see  but  one  Hand  affirmative. 

And  then  the  following  Vote  was  put,  and  pass'd  with  a  very  gen- 
eral concurrence,  there  being  about  Sixty  Brethren  — 

The  Hon'd  and  Revd  Overseers  of  the  College  having  appointed  a 
Committee  to  ask,  and  move  for  our  consent  to  our  Revd  Pastor  Mr. 
Sewall's  Removall  from  us  to  the  College  ;  the  Church  being  met 
together  on  that  affair,  and  having  humbly  asked  Council  and  Direc- 
tion of  God,  and  fully  heard  and  seriously  considered  what  was  offered 
by  said  Committee  came  to  the  following  Determination  ■  and 

Voted  —  That  they  can't  apprehend  it  to  be  their  duty,  but  think  it 
will  very  much  disserve  the  interest  of  Religion  among  them,  and  will 
tend  very  much  to  disturb  their  peace  and  comfort  to  part  with  their 
said  Revd.  Pastor,  and  therefore  can  by  no  means  comply  with  said 
motion  ;  but  earnestly  desire  He  would  as  soon  as  may  be  give  his 
Answer  accordingly.  Thomas  Prince. 

We  have  thought  sometimes  that  jealousy  might  be  called 
"the  last  infirmity  of  noble"  ministerial  "mind."  The  follow- 
ing extract  from  the  diary  of  a  disappointed  aspirant  to  the 
presidency,  Dr.  Cotton  Mather,  is  an  illustration  in  point :  — 

I  am  informed  that  yesterday  the  six  men  who  call  themselves 
the  Corporation  of  the  College  met,  and  contrary  to  the  epidemical 
expectation  of  the  country,  chose  a  modest  young  man,  of  whose  piety 
(and  little  else)  every  one  gives  a  laudable  character.  I  always  fore- 
told these  two  things  of  the  Corporation ;  first,  if  it  were  possible  for 
them  to  steer  clear  of  me,  they  will  do  so  ;  secondly,  that  if  it  were 
possible  for  them  to  act  foolishly,  they  will  do  so. 

Mr.  Sewall  was  fortunate,  under  the  circumstances,  in  that 
the  possession  of  personal  piety  was  conceded  to  him  by  his 
brother  minister  and  rival.  The  members  of  the  corporation 
who  supported  his  election  were  Henry  Flint,  Benjamin  Wads- 
worth,  Benjamin  Colman,  and  Nathaniel  Appleton.  They 
doubtless  knew  what  they  were  doing,  and  acted  under  a  full 
sense  of  responsibility.     We  may  assume,  therefore,  that  Mr. 


MR.   SEW  ALL   CALLED    TO    THE   COLLEGE.  415 

Sevvall,  if  he  was  not  exceptionally  learned,  had  certain  definite 
qualifications,  both  natural  and  acquired,  for  a  successful  college 
president.1  To  the  great  satisfaction  of  the  Third  Church,  he 
declined  the  invitation;2  and  on  the  18th  of  November  the 
Rev.  Benjamin  Colman,  of  the  Brattle  Street  Church,  was 
chosen  instead.3  He,  too,  declined  ;  and  in  the  summer  of  1725 
the  Rev.  Benjamin  Wadsworth,  of  the  First  Church,  was  elected 
and  installed. 

The  diary  of  Samuel  Sewall,  Jr.,  contains  the  following :  — 

August  nth.  1724.  Brother  Sewall  chose  President  of  Harvard 
Colledge  by  the  Corporation..  Aug.  26th.  Confirmed  his  choise  by  the 
Overseers  of  the  Colledge.  They  chose  a  Committee  to  acquaint  him 
with  it  and  to  desire  his  acceptance  of  it  viz.  Col.  Byfield,  Col.  Adam 
Winthrop  and  Mr.  Wadsworth.  Brother  gave  them  a  denyal  which 
they  would  not  take  up  with  when  reported  to  the  Overseers.  But 
added  Two  more,  Mr.  John  Danforth  and  Mr.  Benjn.  Colman.  Sep- 
tember 30th.  The  Old  South  Church  had  a  Meeting  which  was  a 
very  full  one.  The  Committee,  each  of  them,  made  a  Speech  to  the 
Church  and  then  withdrew.  Afterwards  the  Church  proceeded  to  a 
vote  and  all  except  Brother  [in  law  Samuel]  Gerrish  voted  his  con- 
tinuance with  them. '    After  He  gave  his  full  answer. 

Mr.  Colman  was  one  of  the  committee  which  appeared  be- 
fore the  church,  and  pleaded  for  its  consent  to  the  acceptance 
by  Mr.  Sewall  of  the  presidency.  In  his  Life,  by  Mr.  Turell, 
there  is  a  reference  to  his  speech  on  the  occasion,  but  a  mistake 
is  made  in  intimating,  as  the  author  seems  to  do,  that  Mr.  Col- 
man was  called  to  the  position  before,  instead  of  after,  Mr. 
Sewall  was  chosen  to  it :  — 

Although  Dr.  Colman  excused  himself  from  this  high  Honour  and 
Trust,  yet  no  one  shewed  a  greater  Solicitude,  nor  took  more  pains, 
to  have  the  College  well  supplyed,  —  His  moving  Speech  to  the  Old 

1  President   Quincy  says   that  by  the  sessed  ;  and  his  church,  by  refusing  their 

election  of   Mr.  Sewall   the  corporation  assent   to   his   removal    to    the    college, 

sought  to  conciliate  the  predominating  expressed  the  wishes  and  affections  of 

religious  influences  of  the  province,  and  their  pastor  not  less  than  their  own."  — 

adds:  "Sewall,  though  not  deficient  in  History,  vol.  i.  p.  331. 

other   qualifications   for  the  president's  2  Mr.  Sewall  was  chosen  a  Fellow  of 

chair,  was  not  distinguished  for  possess-  the  college  in  1728,  and  served  until  1765. 

ing   them.     The    office    was   not   suited  3  On  the  election  of  Mr.  Colman,  Dr. 

either   to    his    character   or   his    views.  Mather  wrote  in  his  diary:  "The  Cor- 

Amiable,   faithful,  and   affectionate,   he  poration   of    the   miserable  College  do 

was  peculiarly  adapted  to  the  office  of  again,  (on  a  fresh  opportunity)  treat  me 

teacher  and  pastor.     He  had  the  good  with  their  accustomed  indignity."     See 

sense  to  realize  the  advantages  he  pos-  Quincy's  History,  vol.  i.  pp.  331-339- 


41 6  HISTORY  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

South  Church  in  Boston,  September  the  30th,  1724,  to  part  with  their 
Reverend  and  Honoured  Pastor,  Dr.  Joseph  Sewall,  for  that  Service, 
which  lies  before  me,  is  a  Demonstration  of  it.1 

What  Mr.  Sewall's  attitude  was  in  this  matter  we  learn  from 
the  memorial  sermon  preached  in  his  pulpit  on  the  Lord's  Day 
after  his  death,  forty-five  years  later  :  — 

In  consideration  of  the  many  good  qualities  in  which  he  excelled, 
he  was,  so  long  ago  as  the  year  1724,  upon  the  death  of  President 
Leverett,  chosen,  in  his  room,  to  take  the  head-ship  of  Harvard  Col- 
lege, in  Cambridge.  Upon  the  news  of  this,  which,  as  his  own  words 
are,  was  "  surprising  "  to  him,  I  find  him  making  that  pious  reflection, 
"  O  Lord !  what  am  I,  a  sinful  worm,  that  there  should  be  any  tho't 
of  me  for  so  considerable  a  trust !  "  This  choice  of  him  to  so  impor- 
tant a  service,  lay  with  great  weight  upon  his  mind,  partly  from  his 
own  modest  diffidence,  but  principally  from  the  ardor  of  his  affection 
toward  you  of  this  Church  and  congregation.  He  often  carried  the 
case  to  God  in  humble  earnest  prayer,  and  more  than  once  set  apart 
a  day  for  solemn  application  to  him  who  dwelleth  on  high  for  direction 
in  an  affair  of  such  consequence.  On  one  of  these  days,  he  writes 
thus ;  "  I  besought  the  Lord  to  give  all  needed  direction  to  the  over- 
seers, the  flock  I  stand  related  to,  and  to  my  self.  I  also  endeavoured 
to  examine  myself ;  —  and,  if  I  know  my  own  heart,  my  inclination  is 
to  abide  with  my  dear  people,  and  to  spend  and  be  spent  in  the  work 
of  the  ministry  here,  if  this  be  the  will  of  God,  and  most  for  his  glory. 
I  think  I  can  truly  say,  that  no  prospect  of  greater  worldly  honor,  or 
gain,  would  prevail  with  me  to  leave  this  people ;  and  that  I  do  not 
account  my  life  too  dear  to  be  spent  in  the  service  of  Christ  among 
them."  You,  the  people  of  his  charge,  expressed  a  like  affection 
towards  him,  in  your  voted  unwillingness  to  part  with  him.  Upon 
which,  your  beloved  Pastor,  having  again  asked  the  direction  of 
heaven,  thus  writes :  "  I  suppose  that  now  God  makes  my  way  plain 
to  give  an  answer  in  the  negative,  which  I  accordingly  did  ; "  adding 
that  wish  of  piety,  "  Lord  !  provide  a  more  sutable  and  sufficient  per- 
son for  that  important  trust."  2 

Nov.  22.  Bro'r.  Williams  preaches.  The  prudent  forseeth  the 
evil,  and  hideth  himself.     Made  a  very  good  Discourse. 

Nov.  29.  Mr.  Charles  Chauncy  preaches  for  my  Son,  from  Mat. 
19.  17.  If  thou  wilt  enter  into  Life,  Keep  the  Commandments.  Mr. 
Sewall  blessed  the  Congregation.  Mr.  Prince  preached  in  the  After- 
noon from  Hoseah  14 — 1,2,3,4.  Mr.  Sewall  baptized  Benjamin 
Brandon.  Gave  Thanks  for  his  [own]  Recovery,  pray'd  that  all  his 
Sins  and  Defects  might  be  pardoned.     (Sewall.) 

1  [Turell's  Life  and  Character  of  the  2  [Ur.  Chauncy's  Discourse,  July  2, 
Rev.  Beiij.  Colman,  p.  58.]  l7^>9,  PP-  23,  24.] 


DEPRECIATION  OF  THE   CURRENCY.  41 7 

The  young  man  mentioned  above,  Mr.  Charles  Chauncy,  was 
a  baptized  child  of  the  church,  and  had  become  a  member  two 
or  three  months  before  he  preached  this  sermon,  which  was  one 
of  his  first.  His  father,  of  the  same  name,  a  merchant,  and  his 
mother,  Sarah,  daughter  of  the  Hon.  John  Walley,  were  also 
members.  He  married,  May  9,  1728,  Elizabeth  Hirst,  a  grand- 
daughter of  Judge  Sewall.  He  was,  therefore,  a  nephew  of 
Mrs.  Sewall,  and  a  nephew  by  marriage  of  the  Rev.  Joseph 
Sewall.  His  name  will  come  prominently  before  us,  as  we 
proceed  with  our  history. 

Lord's  Day,  Deer.  6th.     Lord's  Supper.     Mr.  Prince's  Text,  Cant. 

2.  14.  which  I  hope  I  was  the  better  prepared  for,  being  ravished  with 
Christ's  Love  declar'd  in  Psal.  40—  I  joy  to  do  thy  will  —  which  sung' 
in  course  in  the  morning.  My  Son,  and  Deacon  Green  were  kept  at 
home  by  the  Great  Rain  and  Indisposition.  Deacon  Checkly  De- 
liver'd  the  Cup  first  to  Madam  Winthrop,  and  thus  gave  me  a  Tankard. 
'Twas  humiliation  to  me  and  I  think  put  me  to  the  Blush,  to  have  this 
injustice  done  me  by  a  Justice.  May  all  be  sanctified.  Mr.  Mayhew 
preached  p.  m.     Heb.  12.  14.     Holiness. 

Fifth  day,  Dec.  31.  [Lecture.]  Mr.  Prince  takes  notice  of  it  as  the 
last  day  of  the  year,  and  preaches  an  agreeable  Sermon  from  Lam. 

3.  22.     It  is  of  the  Lord's  Mercies  that  we  are  not  consumed. 

Sixth  day,  Jany.  1.  Mr.  Colman  in  his  Sacramental  Lecture,  men- 
tions Mr.  Prince's  Text  and  then  reads  his  own,  Deut.  30,  20  —  for  he 
is  thy  Life  —  and  made  an  excellent  Sermon  thereupon,  demonstrating 
that  God  is  emphatically  our  Life ;  natural,  Spiritual.     (Sewall.) 

The  following  vote  explains  itself  :  — 

At  a  Church  Meeting  June  25.  1725. 

Upon  consideration  had  that  the  Bills  of  Credit  on  this  Province 
are  considerably  lessened,  or  sunk  in  their  value, 
Voted 

That  there  be  allowed  and  paid  to  each  of  the  Revd  Pastors  of  this 
Church,  Four  pounds,  five  shillings  per  week  for  their  support. 

Thomas  Fitch 

Moderator 
A  true  copy 

Joseph  Sewall 
Thomas  Prince.1 

Katharine,  wife  of  the  Hon.  Josiah  Willard,  secretary  of  the 

1  [June  25.  1725.     "A  church  meeting  4.  5.  o  a  peece,  and  the  authority  ordered 

at  the  Old  South,  and  raysed  our  two  it  soon  after  to   be   increased  to  other 

ministers'    (viz.    Mr.    Prince    and    Mr.  ministers  through  the  Colloney."  —  Bum- 

Sewall)  sallerys  from  3.  5.  o  a  week  to  stead's  Diary.] 


41 8  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

province,  died  on  Sunday,  the  ist  of  August,  and  Katharine, 
widow,  successively,  of  John  Eyre  and  Wait  Winthrop,  died  on 
the  following  day.  On  the  6th  of  December,  Mrs.  Anne  Pollard 
died  :  she  had  been  a  member  of  the  church  fifty-five  years  ; 
she  attained  the  age  of  one  hundred  and  five  years,  and  left  one 
hundred  and  thirty  descendants.1 

Lord's  Day,  Deer.  12.  Mr.  Sewall  preach'd  from  Gen.  5.  Adam 
died,  of  Mortality — a  good  Discourse  on  occasion  of  Mrs.  Pollards 
great  Age.  Exhorted  all  to  prepare  to  dye.  Mr.  Prince  prosecuted 
his  Discourse  on  Compunction  in  order  to  Conversion,  Act  2.    (Sewall.) 

Collections  for  benevolent  purposes  had  been  taken  up  in  the 
congregation  from  time  to  time,  as  circumstances  had  seemed 
to  make  it  desirable.  It  was  now  proposed  that  they  should  be 
made  statedly,  twice  a  year,  and  that  a  committee  should  be 
authorized  to  make  appropriations  to  uses  corresponding  to 
Home  and  Foreign  Missions,  the  Bible  Society,  and  the  Pub- 
lication Society  in  our  own  day. 

At  a  church  meeting,  March  13  1725-26 

The  following  Proposal  was  made  to  the  church,  viz. 

That  there  be  a  publick  Collection  on  our  anniversary  Fasts  and 
Thanksgivings,  to  be  bestowed  on  pious  uses,  for  the  advancement,  of 
Christ's  Kingdom  among  the  poor  and  other  proper  objects  of  such  a 
Charity  ;  first  among  ourselves,  and  then  in  other  places,  as  we  shall 
find  we  are  able  ;  by  putting  into  their  hands  Bibles,  Catechisms  and 
other  Books  of  piety ;  or  by  promoting  Religion  among  them  any  other 
way  as  you  shall  agree  and  determine. 

Upon  which  the  Church  very  generally  came  into  this  Vote  — 

That  there  be  a  publick  Collection  on  our  anniversary  Fasts  and 
Thanksgivings,  to  be  bestowed  on  pious  uses,  and  for  the  advance- 
ment of  Christ's  Kingdom. 

The  church  then  voted  that  the  Honble.  Edward  Bromfield  and 
Daniel  Oliver  Esqrs.  be  joined  with  the  Deacons  as  Trustees  of  this 
Evangelical  Treasury. 

The  church  also  Voted,  that  the  concurrence  of  the  congregation 
should  be  asked  in  this  affair. 

Joseph  Sewall 
Thomas  Prince. 

Pursuant  to  the  Vote  above  mentioned,  the  Proposal  was  made  to 
the  Congregation  March  20.  who  readily  consented  to  it. 

Accordingly  on  Thursday  the  24th  of  March  1725-6,  there  was  Col- 

1  Her  portrait  is  in  the  collection  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society. 


COLLECTIONS  FOR  PIOUS   USES.  419 

lected  by  the  whole  Congregation,  the  sum  of  Eighty-three  Pounds, 
seven  shillings  and  eleven  pence.1 

March  27.  Mr.  Prince  preach'd  out  of  Exod.  12.  Comparing  the 
Passover  with  the  Lord's  Supper ;  made  good  work  of  it.  p.  m.  Mr. 
Sewall  preached  from  Hab.  2-3.  —  For  the  Vision  is  yet  for  an 
appointed  time  &c.     very  well. 

April  3.  My  Son  preach'd  in  the  fore-noon  from  Gen.  1.  26.  Read 
the  whole  Chapter,  and  Commented  pithily  and  well  upon  it;  and  after 
that  spoke  to  the  26th  verse.  ["And  God  said,  Let  us  make  man  in 
our  image,  after  our  likeness,"  etc.]  I  desire  with  humble  Thankfull- 
ness  to  Bless  God,  who  has  favour'd  me  with  such  an  excellent  Dis- 
course to  begin  my  75th  year,  withall  delivered  by  my  own  Son,  mak- 
ing him  as  a  parent  to  his  Father !     (Sewall.) 

[From  the  Church  Records.2] 
On  the  Thanksgiving  day,  Nov.   10th   1726,  [there  was  collected] 
Eighty  four  pounds,  five  shillings  and  sixpence. 

At  the  meeting  Nov  15,  1726. 

Voted 

That  fourty  Pounds  be  given  out  of  the  last  Collection  for  supplying 
the  poor  of  this  Church  and  Congregation  with  Wood  and  other  neces- 
saries of  life. 

Voted, 

That  ten  Pounds  be  given  out  of  the  money  collected  by  the  Church 
and  Congregation  towards  the  encouragement  of  the  preaching  of  the 
Gospel  at  Kingston  in  Narraganset.3  Joseph  Sewall. 

March  3,  1726-7,  Mrs.  Sarah  Williams,  second  wife  and 
widow  of  Deacon  Nathaniel  Williams,  died,  "  a  very  pious  gen- 
tlewoman."     The  Rev.  Nathaniel  Williams  was  her  stepson. 

1  [Mr.  Joseph  Sewall  says :  —  2  [From   this   time,  we   shall   usually 

"  March  10.     The  united  Ministers  of  print  the  church  records  in  their  order, 

the  Town  having  agreed  to  Propose  to  without    mentioning    the    record    book 

the  Churches  the    Having  a  Collection  from  which  they  are  taken.] 

for  pious  Uses  on  our  Publick  Fasts  and  3  [On  the  last  Sunday  of  the  year,  Mr. 

Thanksgivings,  Mr.  Prince  and  I  Pray'd  Sewall  wrote  in  his  diary  :  "  I  have  been 

together  about  the  time  for  God's  Direc-  much  concern'd  that  so  few  have  been 

tion  and  Blessing  upon  this  Affair."  added  to  the  Church  of  late  :  I  humbly 

"  March  13.     We  made  the  Proposal  hope    God    hath    enabl'd    me    to   seek 

to  the  Church,  who  generally  came  into  earnestly   to   him   to   Revive   his   work 

this  Vote,  [as  above]."  among  us."     There  were  five  admissions 

"  March  20.     It  was  Proposed  to  the  on  that  day  (William  Alden,  Mary  Wil- 

Congregation."  liams,    Ann    Williams,   Mary    Simpson, 

"  March  24.  ...  I  am  inform'd  that  Robert  Due),  and  twenty-five  altogether 
in  other  Congregations  in  this  Town  in  1726.  In  1727  there  were  seventy- 
there  were  liberal  Contributions."]  four,  and  in  1728  forty-two. 


420  HISTORY  OF   THE   OLD   SOUTH   CHURCH. 

She  was  nearly  eighty  years  of  age,  and  had  been  a  member  of 
the  South  Church  fifty-seven  years. 

Mr.  Benjamin  Franklin,  an  uncle  of  Dr.  Franklin,  died  March 
17,  1727,  in  the  seventy-seventh  year  of  his  age.  His  wife, 
Katharine,  became  a  member  of  the  church  in  1678,  and  it  is 
more  than  probable  that  he  was  a  member  also.  He  was,  we 
are  told,  "  a  rare  and  exemplary  Christian."  It  was  said  of  him  : 
"  His  presence  in  the  house  of  God  was  always  solemn  and 
affecting ;  and  though  he  courted  not  the  observation  of  men, 
yet  there  were  many  that  could  not  but  take  notice,  and  admire 
the  peculiar  excellencies  that  so  visibly  adorned  him."  In  these 
characteristics,  we  should,  suppose  that  he  and  his  brother  Josiah 
were  much  alike.  Mr.  John  Borland,  a  prominent  merchant, 
died  March  30.  He  became  a  member  in  1694,  soon  after  his 
arrival  from  England.  His  son,  Francis,  was  afterward  active 
in  the  affairs  of  the  congregation. 

At  a  Church  Meeting,  March  21.  1726-7 

Notwithstanding  the  vote  pass'd  by  this  Church,  March  13  1725-6, 
relating  to  a  publick  collection  ; 

Voted, 

That  it  is  the  mind  of  the  church  that  these  collections  should  not 
be  made  from  time  to  time,  till  the  church  have  particularly  considered, 
and  determined  upon  them ;  and  that  the  money  collected,  shall  be 
disposed  of  to  charitable  and  pious  uses  as  the  church  shall  from  time 
to  time  determine. 

Agreable  to  the  foregoing  vote,  the  question  being  put  whether 
there  should  be  a  publick  collection  on  the  anniversary  Fast,  next 
ensuing,  March  30.  1727,  it  pass'd  in  the  affirmative.1      J.  Sewall. 

March  30.  1727.     Collected  Ninety-two  Pounds. 

August  9.  Mr.  Pemberton  was  Ordain'd  at  the  Old-South  Pastor 
to  a  Church  at  N.  York.  Mr.  Thacher  began  with  Prayer.  Mr.  Col- 
man  preach'd  from  Matt.  9.  38.  I  pray'd.  Dr.  Mather  gave  the 
Charge,  and  Mr.  Prince  the  Right  Hand  of  Fellowship.     (J.  Sewall.) 

Mr.  Pemberton  became  pastor  of  the  First  Presbyterian 
Church  in  New  York,  then  worshipping  in  Wall  Street,  near 
Broadway. 

At    the    Thursday    Lecture,  on    the    17th   of   August,   Mr. 

1  [Mr.  Sewall's  private  record  of  this  tion   made   as   to   the   Votes    about   it 

meeting  is  as  follows  :  "  At  the  Church  However  I  hope  it  pleased  God  to  bless 

Meeting,    March    21,   Some    seem'd    to  what  was  said,  so  that  the  Brethren  voted 

oppose  our  Proceedings  in  these  publick  a  Collection  on  this  Fast  with  consider- 

Collections,  and  there  was  some  Altera-  able  Unanimity."] 


ORDINATION  OF  MR.    CHAUNCY. 


421 


Sewall  preached  a  funeral  sermon  for  King  George  the  First. 
"  Twas  his  turn  and  the  Council  also  desired  him,"  says  his 
father.1 

October  25.  This  day  Mr.  Charles  Chauncy  was  Ordain'd  Pastor 
to  the  Old  Church  in  this  Town.  Mr.  Foxcroft  began  and  Mr. 
Thacher  concluded  with  Prayr.  Mr.  Colman  gave  the  Charge,  Dr. 
Mather  the  Right  Hand  of  Fellowship.  Mr.  Chauncy  Preach'd  from 
Matt  28.  20.  —  Lo  I  am  with  you  alway —  I  hope  God  was  graciously 
Present  with  his  Servants.  Shew  thy  Servant  His  Need  of  the  Pres- 
ence of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  enable  him  to  Live  by  the  Faith 
of  the  Son  of  God.2     (J.  Sewall.) 

The  question  of  repairing  and  enlarging  the  meeting-house, 
or  building  a  new  one,  could  be  deferred  no  longer,  and  a  meet- 
ing was  called  to  consider  it. 

At  a  church  Meeting  Oct  20.  1727. 

Voted  —  I.  That  there  be  a  Committee  appointed  to  view  this 
House ;  and  consider  what  is  needful  to  be  done  towards  the  repairing 


1  "  August  14.  This  day  we  have  the 
surprising  and  awfull  News  of  the  King's 
Death.  Lord  Sanctify  thine  Hand,  enable 
thy  people  to  humble  themselves  under 
it.  Pour  out  thy  Spirit  on  thy  Servant 
who  is  our  King.  O  make  him  a  nursing 
Father  to  thy  people  !  " 

"August  17.  It  being  my  Lecture  in 
course,  I  was  Desir'd  by  the  Governor 
to  take  notice  of  the  late  awfull  Provi- 
dence in  the  King's  Death.  I  preach'd 
from  Isai.  33.  22.  For  the  Lord  is  our 
Judge."     (J.  Sewall.) 

The  sermon  was  printed  with  the  title, 
Jehovah  is  the  King  and  Saviour  of  his 
People. 

2  [We  reproduce  the  letter  -  missive 
sent  by  the  First  Church  in  anticipation 
of  this  ordination,  at  the  risk  of  its  be- 
ing condemned  by  some  authorities  as 
"  archaic  and  uncongregational  " :  — 

Boston,  Oct.  10.  1727 
To  the  Church  of  Christ  whereof  the 

Reverend  Mr.  Sewall  and  Mr.  Prince  are 

the  Pastors, 

The  Old  Church  in   Boston,  Sendeth 

Greeting  in  our  Lord  Jesus. 

Revd  Ho iid  and  Beloved, 

We  presume  you  are  not  unacquainted 

that  we  have  sometime  since  chosen  and 


called  our  worthy  Brother  Mr.  Charles 
Chauncy  to  the  Pastoral  Office  among 
us.  Now  these  come  to  inform  you  that 
we  have  appointed  Wednesday  the 
Twenty  fifth  of  this  instant  October  to 
be  the  Day  for  his  Ordination.  At  which 
Solemnity  We  desire  your  Presence  and 
Help,  by  your  Elders  and  Messengers, 
to  joyn  with  others  in  Council  on  that 
important  Occasion  ;  agreeable  to  the 
known  approv'd  Custom  of  these 
Churches.  And  beseech  you  in  the 
mean  time  to  assist  us  by  your  fervent 
Prayers,  in  Preparing  for  so  great  a 
Transaction ;  That  We  may  have  the 
gracious  Smiles  of  Heaven  on  our  Pro- 
ceedings, and  experience  much  of  the 
promised  Presence  of  our  Ascended  Sa- 
viour and  Head  in  the  midst  of  us.  The 
same  we  wish  to  you,  and  to  all  the 
Churches.  Grace  be  with  you,  and  peace 
to  the  Brethren,  with  Faith  and  Love 
which  is  in  Christ  Jesus  :  Unto  whom  be 
Glory  in  the  Churches  World  without 
End.     Amen  ! 

Thomas  Foxcroft,  Pastor 
In  the  Name 

of  the  Chh 
P.  S.     The   Delegates  are  desired  to 
meet  at  Mr.  Foxcroft's  House  by  nine 
6  clock  in  the  Morning  of  said  Day.] 


422  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

of  it,  and  the  charge ;  and  that  they  make  a  report  to  the  church  as 
soon  as  conveniently  may  be. 

II.  That  the  same  Committee  consider  whether  this  House  may 
be  conveniently  enlarged,  and  the  charge ;  and  make  a  report  to  the 
church  at  the  same  meeting. 

III.  That  the  Honble  Jonathan  Belcher,  Major  Savage,  Capt.  Wins- 
low,  Mr.  Lewis  and  Mr.  Prout,  be  a  committee  to  manage  the  affair 
above  voted. 

Voted  —  I.  That  fifty  Pounds  be  given  out  of  the  last  Collection  for 
the  further  support  of  the  poor  of  this  church  and  congregation  with 
wood  and  other  necessaries  of  life. 

II.  That  ten  Pounds  of  the  Collection  be  laid  out  in  Bibles  and 
other  Books  of  piety,  to  be  disposed  of  to  proper  objects  of  such  a 
charity  in  this  church  and  congregation. 

III.  That  there  be  a  publick  collection  on  the  Anniversary  Thanks- 
giving next  insuing,  Novr.  9,  1727.  And  that  the  money  collected 
shall  be  disposed  of  to  pious  and  charitable  uses,  as  the  church  shall 
from  time  to  time  determine.  Joseph  Sewall 

Thomas  Prince. 

N.  B.  Novr.  9.  1727.  Collected  One  Hundred  and  twenty  two 
Pounds. 

Between  the  ordering  of  this  collection  and  the  date  of  taking 
it,  the  town  was  startled  by  one  of  those  earthquake  shocks 
with  which  New  England  has  been  visited  from  time  to  time 
ever  since  its  European  settlement. 

Oct.  29.  1727.  Att  better  than  half  an  hour  after  ten  a  clock  att 
night,  a  very  surprising  Earthquake  in  Boston  and  the  Towns  round 
about.  Dr.  Mather  had  a  full  meeting  at  his  church  next  morning ; 
and  Mr.  Sewall  and  Mr.  Foxcroft  att  their  churches  next  night  by 
candle-light,  for  prayer  and  preaching.1     (J.  Bumstead.) 

October  30  I  find  the  Town  was  in  a  general  Consternation  last 
night.  There  was  a  publick  and  very  numerous  Assembly  at  the  Old- 
North  [this  morning.]  Dr.  Mather  preach'd  from  Micah  6.  9  The 
Lord's  Voice  crieth  to  the  City.  Several  Ministers  pray'd.  O  enable 
thy  people  to  hear  and  obey  thy  Voice.  The  Lieut.  Governor  desired 
that  there  might  be  a  Meeting  at  the  Old  at  5.  So  many  came  that  it 
was  found  needfull  to  Divide.  Accordingly  there  were  two  crowded 
Assemblies  —  the  one  at  the  Old,  the  other  at  the  South.  With  us 
Mr.  Prince  began  with  Prayr.  I  preach'd  from  Ps  :  4.  4.  Stand  in 
aw  and  Sin  not.  Then  Mr.  Williams  pray'd  and  I  concluded.  We 
sung  part  of  the  46  Ps  :     I  hope  God  hath  been  graciously  present 

1  [Paul  Dudley,  who  was  a  member  of     of  the  earthquake  of  October  29,  1727, 
the  Royal  Society,  published  an  account     in  its  Transactions.'] 


THE  EARTHQUAKE   OF  1727.  423 

with  his  Ministers  this  Day,  and  the  people  seem  to  be  generally 
affected.     (J.  Sewall.) 

"  The  Thursday  of  the  same  week,"  says  Mr.  Prince,  "  was 
kept  as  a  Day  of  extraordinary  Fasting  and  Prayer  in  all  the 
churches  in  Boston  ; "  the  earthquake  was  also  the  subject  of 
discourse  on  Thanksgiving  Day,  a  week  later.  Mr.  Sewall's 
sermon  of  the  30th  of  October,  the  Duty  of  a  People  to  stand 
in  Awe  of  God,  and  Mr.  Prince's  two  sermons,  preached  on 
Fast  Day  in  the  morning  and  on  Thanksgiving  Day  in  the  after- 
noon, from  Psalm  xviii.  7,  Earthquakes  the  Works  of  God,  and 
Tokens  of  his  Just  Displeasure,  were  printed.1 

At  a  church  Meeting  Nov  21.  1727. 

The  Report  of  the  Committee  appointed  last  Meeting  was  read. 

Voted : 

I.  That  there  be  two  committees  appointed ;  the  one,  to  inquire 
what  encouragement  may  be  given  by  the  church  and  congregation, 
towards  the  Repairing  of  this  House  ;  the  other,  to  inquire  what  en- 
couragement may  be  given  towards  the  Building  a  New  Meeting- 
House ;  and  that  they  make  a  Report  to  the  church  as  soon  as  con- 
veniently may  be. 

II.  That  Major  Savage,  Capt.  Armitage  and  Mr.  Wentworth  be  of 
the  one  :  Capt.  Winslow,  Deacon  Henchman  and  Mr.  Brandon  be  of 
the  other  committee.2  Joseph  Sewall. 

The  Rev.  Peter  Thacher,  youngest  son  of  the  Rev.  Thomas 
Thacher,  died  December  17,  1727.3  He  joined  the  Third 
Church  four  years  after  its  foundation,  and  he  had  been  pastor 
of  the  church  at  Milton  forty-six  years.     Dr.   Cotton  Mather 

1  A  second  edition  of  these  three  ser-  thought  to  do  unto  them.     O  spare  thy 

mons  was  printed;    and,   in   1755,   Mr.  people!  Lord  hear  our  Prayers." 
Prince  brought  out   another   edition   of         2  [Nov.     "On  the  21,  a  Church  meet- 

his  sermons  with  addenda.     The  earth-  ing  att  the  Old  South  Church,  and  then 

quake  of  1727  will  be  referred  to  again  it  was  voted  that  two  Committees  should 

in  a  succeeding  chapter.  be  chosen,  one  to   see  what  incourage- 

Mr.  Sewall  records  privately  that  the  ment  they  could  gett  towards  repairing 

Thanksgiving  collection  of  1727  amount-  the  meeting  house  now  standing.     The 

ed  to  £122.  other  to  see  what  encouragement  they 

There  was  a  "  Publick  Fast  upon  ac-  could  get  towards  building  a  new  house." 

count  of  the  Earthquake,"  December  21,  — Jeremiah  Bumstead's  Journal] 
and  Mr.  Sewall  preached  from  Jer.  xviii.         3  "  On   the    22d    I    accompanied    my 

7,  8.     "  At  what   instant    I   shall  speak  honored  Father,  Mr.  Prince,  Mr.  Cooper 

concerning  a  nation,  and   concerning  a  to  the  funeral  of  the  Revd  Mr.  Thach- 

kingdom,  to  pluck  up,  and  to  pull  down,  er  —  Was  a  bearer.  .  .  .  My  Father  bore 

and  to  destroy  it :  If  that  nation,  against  the  journey  very  well ;  but  when   going 

whom    I   have    pronounced,    turn   from  in  at  his  Gate  slip'd,  and  much  hurt  his 

their  evil,  I  will  repent  of  the  evil  that  I  shin."     (J.  Sewall.) 


424  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD   SOUTH  CHURCH. 

preached  his  funeral  sermon,  and  this  was  the  last  occasion  on 
which  this  eminent  man  officiated  in  public  ;  his  own  death  took 
place  Tuesday,  February  13,  1727-8,1  and  his  funeral  sermon 
was  preached  by  his  colleague,  Mr.  Gee.  At  the  Thursday  Lec- 
ture immediately  following  Dr.  Mather's  death,  Mr.  Colman, 
who  had  preached  his  father's  funeral  sermon  five  years  before, 
took  for  his  text  Gen.  v.  24 :  "  And  Enoch  walked  with  God  ; 
and  he  was  not,  for  God  took  him."  "We  mourn,"  he  said, 
"  the  decease  from  us  of  the  first  minister  in  the  Town,  the 
first  in  age,  in  gifts  and  in  grace  ;  as  all  his  brethren  very  read- 
ily own.  I  might  add  (it  may  be  without  offence  to  any)  the 
first  in  the  whole  Province  and  Provinces  of  New  England,  for 
universal  literature,  and  extensive  services."  This  was  gener- 
ous praise  on  the  part  of  Mr.  Colman,  and  we  may  believe  that 
it  was  just,  for  no  man  knew  Cotton  Mather  —  his  excellences 
and  his  defects  —  better  than  he.     He  said  further  :  — 

Love  to  Christ  and  his  servant  commands  me  to  draw  a  veil  over 
every  failing  :  For  who  is  without  them  ?  Not  ascending  Elijah  him- 
self ;  who  was  a  man  of  like  passions  with  his  brethren  the  prophets ; 
and  we  have  his  mantle  left  us  wherewith  to  cover  the  defects  and  in- 
firmities of  others  after  their  translation  in  spirit.  These  God  remem- 
bers no  more,  and  why  should  we  ?  and  he  blots  out  none  of  their 
good  deeds,  and  no  more  should  we. 

A  church  meeting  was  notified  on  Sunday,  February  25,  to 
hear  the  reports  of  the  committees  appointed  three  months  be- 
fore in  reference  to  the  meeting-house.  We  can  well  under- 
stand that  there  might  be,  as  indeed  there  was,  a  difference  of 
opinion  as  to  the  desirableness  of  erecting  a  new  building,  and 
that  there  would  be  on  the  part  of  the  older  members  such  an 
attachment  to  their  accustomed  Sabbath  home  that  they  would 
be  unable  to  do  full  justice  to  the  considerations  presented  on 
the   other   side.     When  the  foundation  of  the  second  Jewish 

1  "  On  the  13th  between  8  and  9  a.  m.  "  Feb.  19.  The  Rev'd  Dr.  Mather  was 
Dr.  Mather  Expir'd.  Thus  hath  the  buried.  Bearers,  the  Revd  Messrs.  Col- 
Sovereign  God  brought  this  very  Active  man,  Thacher,  Prince,  Webb,  Cooper, 
usefull  life  to  an  End.  Lord  Sanctify  this  Sewall.  A  vast  concourse  of  people, 
awfull  Rebuke,  to  his  Family,  Flock,  Lord  sanctify  thine  Hand,  and  help  us 
Town  and  the  whole  Land."    (J.  Sewall.)  duly  to  lay  it  to  heart.     The  Brethren  of 

There  had  been  a  public  meeting  at  the  Bereaved  Flock,  with   their  Pastor 

the   Old   North   "with    regard    to    Dr.  [Mr.     Gee]    went    before    the    Corpse. 

Mather's  broken   state    of    health "   on  When   we   return'd    to    the    House    of 

the  31st  of  January;    Messrs.  Colman,  mourning  Mr.  Walter  pray'd."     (J.  Sew- 

Thacher,   Sewall,    and    Prince    prayed,  all.)     Mr.  Sewall  preached  at  the  North 

and  Mr.  Cooper  preached.  Brick  March  10. 


"THE  DAYS   THAT  ARE  NO  MORE?'  425 

temple  was  laid,  we  are  told  that  many  of  the  priests  and  Le- 
vites  and  chief  of  the  fathers,  who  were  ancient  men,  that  had 
seen  the  first  house,  wept  with  a  loud  voice.  Their  emotions 
were  touched  in  part,  no  doubt,  by  the  remembrance  of  the 
architectural  magnificence  which  could  not  be  reproduced  by 
their  generation  ;  but  also,  we  may  think,  by  the  recurrence  to 
their  minds  of  all  the  happy  days  and  scenes  in  their  national 
history  and  national  worship,  which  were  gone  never  to  return. 
"Oh,  death  in  life,  the  days  that  are  no  more."  To  many  of  the 
members  of  the  South  Church  it  probably  seemed  that  to  take 
down  the  old  walls  where  they  and  their  fathers  had  worshipped, 
and  where  so  many  learned  and  saintly  men  had  preached  the 
gospel  of  Christ,  and  to  rear  new  ones  in  their  stead,  which 
should  be  as  bare  of  associations  within  as  of  weather-stains 
and  ivy  without,  was  to  open  a  gulf  between  them  and  the  past 
which  their  fond  and  tender  sensibilities  would  be  unable  to 
traverse.  Judge  Sewall  was  one  of  these.  Every  timber  in  the 
building  was  dear  to  him.  His  honored  father-in-law,  John 
Hull,  and  other  noble  men  of  the  early  days  had  made  personal 
and  pecuniary  sacrifices  to  erect  this  house  of  worship,  and  to 
maintain  in  it  the  ordinances  of  the  gospel.  Mary  Chilton,  who 
came  over  in  the  Mayflower,  and  Simon  Bradstreet,  who  came 
over  in  the  Arbella,  had  there  lifted  up  their  hearts  and  voices 
in  prayer  and  praise.  The  Thachers,  the  Mathers,  Samuel  Wil- 
lard,  Solomon  Stoddard,  John  Eliot  (no  doubt),  and  nearly  all 
the  prominent  divines  of  the  second  generation  had  spoken 
from  its  pulpit.  Here  Sewall,  half  a  century  before,  and, 
eleven  years  later,  the  wife  of  his  youth,  when  she  was  en- 
abled to  overcome  her  self-distrust  and  sense  of  unworthi- 
ness,  had  entered  into  solemn  covenant  with  God  and  with 
his  church  ;  and  here  their  children,  most  of  them  now  in 
heaven,  had  been  given  to  Him  in  baptism.  Here,  also,  Sewall 
had  stood,  with  bowed  head  and  crushed  heart,  to  make  humble 
confession  for  his  share  in  the  madness  of  the  witchcraft  delu- 
sion. With  all  his  memories  and  sympathies,  we  can  well 
understand  why  he  should  cling  tenaciously  to  that  which  was 
old,  and  earnestly  deprecate  its  destruction.  And  yet,  as  seems 
to  have  been  his  habit,  he  contented  himself  with  a  strong  and 
free  expression  of  his  preferences  and  convictions,  and  then, 
finding  himself  in  a  decided  minority,  he  said  nothing  more  on 
the  subject.  Mr.  Bromfield,  he  tells  us,  called  and  urged  him 
to  attend  the  meeting,  and,  when  he  declined,  asked  him  to 


426  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

write  a  letter,  which  he  promised  to  do.  This  letter,  for  which 
Mr.  Bromfield  called  again  to  take  to  the  meeting,  was  read,  but 
does  not  appear  in  the  proceedings.     It  was  as  follows  :  — 

To  the  Reverend  Mr.  Joseph  Sewall,  and  to  the  Reverend  Mr.  Thomas 

Prince,  Pastors  of  the  South  Church  in  Boston,  and  to  the  Brethren 

of  said  Church,  assembled  in  a  Church  Meeting,  on  Tuesday,  the 

seven  and  twentieth  day  of  February,  1727-8. 

In  which  Meeting  Two  Questions  are  to  be  Answered  to  wit : 
Whether  the  Old  Meeting  House  shall  be  Repaired,  or  a  New  One 
builded. 

That  our  Meeting  House  needs  Repairing,  is  Apparent :  and  I  ap- 
prehend that  it  ought  to  be  done  as  soon  as  the  Season  of  the  year 
will  admit. 

But  as  for  the  building  of  a  New  Meeting  house,  it  is  now  unsea- 
sonable. God  in  his  holy  Providence  preserving  this,  seems  plainly 
to  advise  us  to  the  contrary.  This  is  a  very  good  Meeting  house,  and 
we  have  not  convenient  room  to  build  a  New  one  in,  while  this  is 
standing.  And  considering  the  Terrible  Earth-Quakes  we  have  had, 
shaking  all  our  Foundations,  it  behooves  us  to  walk  humbly  with  our 
God  and  to  observe  the  divine  Counsel  given  to  Baruch  by  the  Prophet 
Jeremiah  in  the  forty-fifth  Chapter :  And  to  take  care  that  we  do  not 
say  in  the  Pride  and  greatness  of  [our]  heart,  We  will  cut  down  the 
Sycamores,  and  change  them  into  Cedars,  (Isaiah,  9.  10.)  We  ought 
to  look  not  only  on  our  own  Things,  but  also  on  the  things  of  others, 
(Philip.  2.  4.,)  and  beware  that  we  do  not  unjustly  and  violently  Oust 
them  of  what  they  are  lawfully  possessed  of. 

Besides  I  fear  the  Mischief  is  like  to  be  distressing,  for  want  of  a 
place  to  worship  God  in,  while  the  New  Meeting  House  is  setting  up. 

Upon  these,  and  such  like  Considerations,  I  dissent  from  those 
Brethren,  who  promote  the  building  a  New  Meeting  House  at  this 
Time,  and  pray  that  what  I  have  written  may  be  entred  in  the 
Church  Records.  Saml.  Sewall. 

After  the  lapse  of  one  hundred  and  sixty  years  we  comply 
with  the  request  of  the  noble  judge,  and  give  his  letter  a  per- 
manent place  in  the  annals  of  the  church. 

At  a  church  Meeting,  Feb.  27.  1727-8. 

After  some  considerable  discourse  — 

This  Question  was  put  to  the  Brethren  ; 

Whether  it  was  their  mind  that  this  House  should  be  repaired  and 
enlarged ;  or  a  new  Meeting  House  Built. 

They  voted  by  papers. 

There  were  twenty  of  the  Brethren  for  repairing  and  enlarging  this 
House. 

Fourty  one  for  building  a  New  Meeting  House. 


A   NEW  BUILDING  PROPOSED.  427 

Upon  which  they  pass'd  this  Vote ;  viz. 

The  church,  having  judged  it  advisable,  with  submission  to  Provi- 
dence, that  a  New  Meeting  House  be  built  for  the  publick  Worship  of 
God  ;  Desire  that  the  Brethren  of  the  Congregation  would  give  them 
a  meeting  upon  that  affair,  next  Tuesday,  at  half  an  hour  past  2 
a  clock  P.  M. 

Voted  —  That  Twenty  Pounds  be  given  out  of  the  Collection  for 
the  supply  of  the  present  necessities  of  the  poor,  according  to  the  dis- 
cretion of  the  Committee.  Joseph  Sewall. 

N.  B.  The  Church  and  Congregation  met,  and  the  affair  above 
mentioned  was  communicated  to  them. 

We  must  assume  that  many  of  the  brethren  of  the  majority 
who  voted  for  a  new  meeting-house  were  as  warmly  attached  to 
the  old  building  as  were  the  brethren  of  the  minority.  But, 
forecasting  the  future,  they  saw  that  the  best  prosperity  of  the 
church  demanded  larger  and  better  accommodations  ;  that  to 
repair  and  enlarge  the  old  house  would  only  serve  as  a  tempo- 
rary expedient ;  and  that  the  question  of  a  new  structure  would 
be  sure  to  present  itself  again  at  no  distant  day.  The  old  walls, 
after  all,  were  but  as  the  casket  to  the  jewel,  the  body  to  the 
spirit,  the  symbol  to  the  thing  signified.  The  church — vital, 
spiritual,  permanent  —  was  of  inconceivably  more  importance 
than  the  enclosure  of  wood  of  which  it  had  been  making  use, 
and  which  at  any  moment  might  be  utterly  consumed  by  fire. 
Moreover,  all  that  was  truly  precious  in  the  past  history  of  the 
church  —  the  traditions  of  its  foundation,  the  teachings  of  its 
ministers,  the  lives  of  its  sainted  members  —  was  its  assured 
and  imperishable  possession,  amid  whatever  surrounding  con- 
ditions it  might  maintain  the  historic  continuity  of  its  Christian 
worship  and  service.  The  past  should  be  always  an  incentive 
to  us,  never  an  incubus  ;  a  lofty  inspiration,  not  an  unyielding 
despotism.  It  is  entitled  to  our  reverential  regard,  but  our 
paramount  duty,  both  in  thought  and  action,  concerns  the  pres- 
ent and  the  future.  And  the  future  will  mature  for  others,  soft- 
ening, subduing,  sanctifying  influences  and  impressions,  like 
those  with  which  the  past  has  enriched  us.  It  would  have  as- 
tonished the  men  of  the  minority  in  1728  if  they  had  been  told 
that  a  minority  in  1872  would  be  as  unwilling  to  vacate  the  sec- 
ond meeting-house  of  the  South  Church  as  they  were  to  give 
up  the  first.  They  could  not  foresee  that  the  bright  new  build- 
ing of  1730  was  destined  to  become  the  most  venerated  church- 
edifice  in  New  England. 


428  HISTORY  OF   THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  Church  March  15.  1727-8 
Voted  —  (out  of  the  money  collected  —  ) 

1.  That  Twenty  Pounds  be  delivered  to  Deacon  Henchman  for  the 
purchasing  of  Bibles  with  the  New  England  Psalms,  at  eight  and  three- 
pence pr.  Bible,  to  be  distributed  to  proper  objects  as  there  shall  be 
occasion. 

2.  That  ten  Pounds  be  distributed  in  other  Books  of  piety,  at  the 
discretion  of  the  Trustees. 

3.  That  twenty  Pounds  be  given  to  Mr.  Josiah  Cotton,  to  encour- 
age his  settlement  at  Providence  ;  provided,  he  accept  of  the  call 
which  we  are  informed,  is  given  him  to  the  work  of  the  Ministry 
there.1 

4.  That  fifteen  Pounds  be  given  to  the  Revd  Mr.  Mathew  Short  of 
Easton  for  his  encouragement  in  the  work  of  the  Ministry,  part  in 
money,  and  part  in  books,  as  the  Trustees  shall  judge  proper  upon 
discoursing  with  him. 

5.  That  fifteen  Pounds  be  given  to  the  Rev.  Mr.  James  Hale  of 
Ashford,  for  his  encouragement  in  the  work  of  the  Ministry. 

6.  That  fifteen  Pounds  be  given  to  the  Rev.  Mr.  Nathanael  Prentice 
of  Dunstable,  for  his  encouragement  in  the  work  of  the  Ministry,  to 
be  laid  out  in  Books,  as  the  Trustees  shall  judge  proper  upon  dis- 
coursing with  him. 

7.  That  ten  Pounds  be  given  for  the  further  supply  of  the  present 
Necessities  of  the  poor  of  this  church  and  congregation,  in  wood  &c. 
at  the  Discretion  of  the  Trustees. 

8.  That  there  be  a  publick  collection  for  pious  and  charitable  uses, 
on  the  Anniversary  Fast  next  insuing  March  21.  1727-8. 

9.  That  the  Trustees  have  their  accounts  fairly  stated,  and  lay  them 
before  the  church  at  least  twice  in  a  year,  before  the  Anniversary 
Fasts  and  Thanksgivings. 

Voted,  I.  That  Capt.  Winslow,  Deacon  Henchman  and  Mr.  Bran- 
don, of  the  church,  and  Mr.  William  Foye,  Mr.  Daniel  Goffe  and  Mr. 
Samuel  Holyoke  of  the  congregation,  be  a  committee  to  take  subscrip- 
tions towards  the  building  of  a  New  Meeting-House  ;  and  make  a  Re- 
port to  the  church  on  the  third  Tuesday  in  April  next. 

Voted,  II.  That  the  Honble  Jonathan  Belcher,  Daniel  Oliver,  Jo- 
siah Willard  esqrs.  Mr.  Ezekiel  Lewis,  Mr.  Samuel  Wells,  Capt. 
Gerrish  and  Mr.  Francis  Borland,  be  a  committee  to  survey  the  land 
belonging  to  this  church,  to  consider  of  the  most  convenient  place  to 

1  [Mr.    Cotton    graduated    at    Cam-         Oct.  1728.  "  On  the  23d  Inst,  a  congre- 

bridge  in  1722,  and  was  settled  over  the  gational  Church  was  publickly  gather'd 

First  Congregational  Church  in  Provi-  at   Providence,  and  Mr.  Josiah    Cotton 

dence   in    1728.     He   was   dismissed  at  ordain'd   their    Pastor,    the    Elders   and 

his  own  request   in    1747.     The    South  Messengers  of  18  churches  being  pres- 

Church  made  appropriations  to  encour-  ent."    (J.  Sewall.)    Mr.  Prince  took  part 

age  him  in  his  work  for  several  years,  in  this  service.] 


PRELIMINARY  ARRANGEMENTS.  429 

set  the  House  upon,  to  draw  a  Projection  of  the  Building,  and  com- 
pute the  Cost ;  And  that  they  make  a  Report  to  the  church  on  the 
third  Tuesday  in  April  next.  Joseph  Sewall. 

N.  B.  March  21.  1727-8.  Collected  One  hundred  and  seventeen 
pounds. 

March  26.  Mrs.  Mary  [widow  of  John]  Dafforne  laid  in  her  grave 
in  the  old  Burying  Place,  ^Ets.  78.  Bearers,  Sewall,  Byfield  ;  Oliver, 
Capt.  Ephraim  Savage  ;  Capt  Ballentine,  Deacon  Marshall.  It  seems 
Mr.  Moffat,  who  married  the  only  daughter,  belongs  to  the  old 
Church  ;  and  the  Bearers  were  equally  divided  [between  the  First  and 
Third  churches].  She  was  of  my  Father  Hull's  privat  Meeting,  I 
hope  a  good  Woman  ;  much  Confin'd.  I  am  griev'd  I  visited  her  no 
more,  though  hindered  by  my  own  Sickness  and  indisposition.  (Sew- 
all.) 

At  a  Meeting  of  the  Church  April  16.  1728. 

The  Reports  of  the  Committees  were  read. 

There  was  a  motion  made,  whether  the  Vote  pass'd  by  the  church, 
at  their  meeting,  Febr.  27.  1727-8,  For  the  Building  a  New  Meeting- 
House,  should  be  re-considered. 

Neg. 

Voted; — I.  That  a  reasonable  consideration  be  made  in  the  New 
Meeting-House  to  such  as  have  a  right  to  pews  in  this  House,  as  the 
Church  shall  determine 

II.  That  the  committee  for  taking  subscriptions  towards  the  build- 
ing a  New  Meeting-House  be  continued  ;  And  that  they  give  to  the 
members  of  this  church  and  congregation  opportunity  of  subscribing 
till  the  end  of  May  next;  After  which,  they  may  receive  the  subscrip- 
tions of  others  as  they  shall  judge  proper. 

Voted  —  That  Five  Pounds  be  given  out  of  the  Collection  towards 
the  discharging  Mr.  Abbot's  accompt  relating  to  Providence  Meeting- 
House.  Joseph  Sewall. 

At  a  Meeting  of  the  Church  April  23.  1728. 

Voted  —  I.  That  the  New  Meeting  House  be  set  upon  that  place 
on  which  the  old  House  now  standeth. 

II.  That  the  draught  of  the  Building  drawn  and  offered  by  the 
committee  be  accepted  so  far  as  concerns  the  Dimensions  and  out- 
ward form  of  the  House ;  Reserving  to  the  committee  that  shall  be 
employed  for  the  Building,  a  Liberty  to  propose  to  the  Church,  such 
alterations  as  they  shall  judge  convenient. 

It  was  then  proposed  to  the  church  whether  the  New  House  should 
be  built  with  Wood  ;  but  a  vote  was  not  obtained  for  it. 

III.  That  there  be  a  committee  chosen  to  make  provision  for  the 
Building,  and  to  take  the  Oversight  of  it :  The  said  committees  to  con- 


43°  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

sider  whether  it  be  advisable  to  Build  with  Brick  or  Stone,  and  make 
a  Report  to  the  church  as  soon  as  conveniently  may  be. 

IV.  That  the  Honble.  Jonathan  Belcher,  Mr.  Edward  Winslow,  Mr. 
Ezekiel  Lewis,  Mr.  Samuel  Wells  and  Mr.  William  Foye  be  of  this 
committee. 

V.  That  the  Honble.  Daniel  Oliver  be  the  Treasurer  to  receive  the 
money  to  be  collected  by  the  committee  for  subscriptions  towards  the 
Building  of  the  New  Meeting-House  ;  and  to  pay  out  the  same  accord- 
ing to  the  orders  of  the  committee  for  Building. 

VI.  That  Mr.  James  Pemberton  be  added  to  the  committee  for  sub- 
scriptions in  the  place  of  Capt.  Winslow. 

VII.  That  Mr.  Francis  Borland  be  added  to  the  committee  for  sub- 
scriptions, in  the  room  of  Mr.  William  Foye. 

VIII.  That  the  Money  which  the  Hon.  Daniel  Oliver  hath  received 
for  the  use  of  the  church  be  paid  by  him  according  to  the  orders  of 
the  committee  for  Building.  Joseph  Sewall. 

Captain  Winslow  and  Mr.  Foye  were  excused  from  serving 
on  the  committee  to  obtain  subscriptions,  because  they  had  been 
placed  on  the  building  committee.  A  few  words  about  the 
members  of  the  building  committee  will  be  appropriate.  Of 
the  chairman,  the  Hon.  Jonathan  Belcher,  we  have  already 
spoken.  After  spending  some  time  abroad,  he  became  a  mer- 
chant, and  soon  entered  upon  political  life.  He  was  a  member 
of  the  council,  and  in  the  spring  of  1729  was  sent  to  England 
as  an  agent  of  the  province.1  This  must  have  interfered  with 
the  discharge  of  his  duties  on  the  building  committee.  Ed- 
ward Winslow  was  son  of  Edward,  and  grandson  of  John  and 
Mary  (Chilton)  Winslow,  who  came  to  Boston  in  their  old 
age,  and  united  with  the  church  by  letter  from  the  Plymouth 
Church.2  He  was  a  goldsmith,  colonel  of  a  regiment,  captain 
of  the  artillery  company  in  17 14  and  1729,  sheriff  of  the  county 
of  Suffolk,  and  shortly  before  his  death  judge  of  the  court  of 
common  pleas.  His  wife,  Hannah,  was  a  daughter  of  the  Rev. 
Joshua  Moodey.  Ezekiel  Lewis  was  a  son  of  William  Lewis, 
of  Farmington,  Connecticut,  and  a  grandson  of  Ezekiel  Cheever, 
of  Boston.  He  graduated  at  Harvard  College  in  1695,  and 
taught  for  a  time,  first  in  Westfield,  and  then  in  Boston  as  an 

1  Mch  4,  1728-9.  "  We  were  at  Mr.  mentions  the  death,  September  1 6,  1728, 
Belcher's  where  the  afternoon  was  spent  of  Mrs.  Winslow,  in  her  eighty-ninth 
in  Prayr,  He  being  with  his  eldest  Son  year,  "  the  Eldest  person  of  our  commun- 
bound  for  London.  Lord  hear !  Let  ion  and  congregation,  and  I  trust  died 
thy  presence  goe  with  thy  Servants."  in  the  Lord."  We  suppose  her  to  have 
(J.  Sewall.)  been  the  mother  of  Edward  Winslow, 

2  See  ante,  pp.  181, 182.    Mr.  J.  Sewall  the  goldsmith. 


THE  BUILDING   COMMITTEE.  43 1 

assistant  to  his  grandfather.  He  became  a  successful  merchant, 
and  was  selectman  and  representative.  His  first  wife  was  Mary 
Brading  or  Breadon,  and  his  second,  Abigail,  widow  of  Roger 
Kilcup,  whom  he  married  in  1704.  Samuel  Welles  was  born  in 
Glastonbury,  Connecticut,  and  was  a  great-grandson  of  Governor 
Thomas  Welles,  of  that  colony.  He  graduated  at  Yale  College 
in  1707,  and  was  ordained  pastor  of  the  church  in  Lebanon. 
He  became  engaged  to  Abigail  (who  changed  her  name  to 
Hannah)  Arnold,  daughter  of  Captain  Berechiah  and  Abigail 
Arnold,  and  granddaughter  of  Theophilus  Frary.  As  she  was 
an  only  child  and  heiress  to  a  large  landed  property,  her  parents 
were  desirous  that  Mr.  Welles  should  move  to  Boston,  and  he 
did  so,  much  to  the  regret  of  his  people  in  Lebanon.  He 
became  a  member  of  the  South  Church  in  1728,  and  was  imme- 
diately called  to  serve  upon  important  committees.  He  also 
took  a  prominent  position  in  the  town  and  province,  and,  in 
1753,  succeeded  Edward  Winslow  on  the  bench.1  William  Foye 
was  a  son  of  Captain  John  Foye,  who  commanded  vessels  in 
the  London  trade,  and  a  nephew  of  Jonathan  Belcher;  he  was 
for  many  years  the  treasurer  of  the  province. 

April  25.  I  was  at  a  Council  at  Linn —  End.  (12  churches  there.) 
Mr.  Sparrowhawk  not  joining  in  calling  this  Council  was  not  free  to 
submit  the  matter  in  Controversy  to  their  Determination.  They 
agreed  to  joyn  in  calling  another  Council  of  9  Churches.     (J.  Sewall.) 

The  Rev.  Nathaniel  Sparhawk  was  settled  over  the  north 
parish  in  Lynn,  now  Lynnfield,  in  1720.  A  part  of  his  people 
became  dissatisfied  with  him,  and,  in  173 r,  on  the  advice  of 
some  whom  he  considered  his  friends,  "  he  asked  a  dismission, 
in  order  to  produce  tranquillity,"  and  it  was  unexpectedly 
granted.  Mr.  Sparhawk  took  to  his  bed  soon  after,  and  is  sup- 
posed to  have  died  in  consequence  of  his  disappointment. 

The  latest  extract  we  shall  make  from  Judge  Sewall's  diary 
relates  to  the  benevolent  work  of  the  churches  :  — 

June  4.  1728.  I  holp  to  assist  the  Committee  for  allowing  Mr.  John 
Cleverly  Ten  Shillings  a  Sabbath  for  preaching  at  George-Town,  on 
Arrowsick,  for  one  year,  to  be  paid  Quarterly :  petition'd  for  by  Mr. 
Denny  and  others.  I  mention'd  what  I  had  read  out  of  Isa  32.  20, 
Sowing  by  all  Waters.  Mr.  Cooper  said  had  sown  little  or  nothing 
by  these  waters  yet.     Lans  Deo.     (Sewall.) 

1  His  daughter  Abigail  joined  the  1761.  Arnold  Welles  married  Susanna, 
Old  South  in  1756,  and  his  son  Arnold,  daughter  of  John  Jones,  of  Bristol,  Eng- 
Harv.  Coll.  1745,  owned  the  covenant  in     land,  and  died  in  1802. 


43 2  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

Judge  Sewall  had  visited  Arrowsic  Island  on  the  Kennebec 
River  in  171 7,  with  Governor  Shute,  and  always  afterward  took 
a  deep  interest  in  the  prosperity  of  the  settlement  there. 

At  a  church  Meeting,  June  26.  1728. 

Voted  —  I.  That  the  New  Meeting  House  be  built  with  Brick. 

II.  That  the  Subscribers  doe  each  of  them  pay  in  to  the  Treasurer 
a  third  part  of  their  subscriptions,  on  or  before  the  10th  of  July  next. 

III.  That  the  Honble  Daniel  Oliver  having  desired  to  be  excused 
from  serving  as  Treasurer  for  the  Building  ; 

Voted  —  That  Capt.  Osborne  be  the  Treasurer,  to  receive  the  money 
to  be  collected  towards  the  Building  the  New  Meeting  House  ;  and  to 
pay  out  the  same  according  to  the  orders  of  the  committee  for  Build- 
ing. 

IV.  That  the  committee  for  Building  proceed  to  purchase  such 
Materials  as  they  shall  judge  proper  to  be  laid  in  before  Winter,1  and 
take  other  methods  to  forward  the  Building,  as  soon  as  the  Treasurer 
hath  money  in  his  hands  to  enable  them. 

Voted  —  That  fifteen  pounds  be  given  to  Joseph  Secombe,  out  of 
the  collection  towards  his  support  at  the  College. 

Joseph  Sewall. 

On  the  morning  of  Thursday,  July  4,  which  had  been  set  apart 
as  a  day  of  prayer,  on  account  of  the  prevailing  drought,  the 
moral  sense  of  the  town  received  a  shock  as  startling  as  that 
which  had  disturbed  the  foundations  of  the  buildings  a  few 
months  before,  and  even  more  terrible.  Two  young  men  on 
Wednesday  evening  had  risen,  flushed  with  wine,  from  a  quarrel 
over  a  card-table  in  the  Royal  Exchange  Tavern,  King  Street, 
had  gone  to  the  Common,  and  there,  "near  the  water  side," 
had  fought  a  duel  with  small  swords,  which  proved  almost  imme- 
diately fatal  to  one  of  them.  The  unhappy  victim  of  this  quar- 
rel was  Benjamin  Woodbridge,  son  of  the  Hon.  Dudley  Wood- 
bridge,  judge  advocate  of  the  island  of  Barbadoes,  and  agent 
of  the  South  Sea  Company  there.2  He  was  only  twenty  years 
of  age,  and  had  just  commenced  business  with  Jonathan  Sewall,  a 
nephew  of  Judge  Sewall.  The  still  more  unhappy  youth  who 
survived  the  duel  was  Henry  Phillips,  son  of  Samuel  Phillips,  a 
much  respected  bookseller.3    His  mother  was  Hannah,  daughter 

1  [Dr.  Wisner  mentions  a  tradition  badoes.  See  Memoir  of  the  Rev.  Nath. 
that  all  the  mortar  was  made  the  autumn  Ward,  A.  M.,  by  John  Ward  Dean,  p. 
before  it  was  used.]  193. 

2  He  was  the  agent  of  the  Society  for  3  John  Dunton,  in  his  Letters  from 
the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel  in  For-  New  Englattd,  speaks  of  Mr.  Phillips  in 
eign  Parts,  and  Hutchinson  says  he  was  1686  as  an  old  correspondent,  and  de- 
the   projector  of  paper  money  in   Bar-  scribes  him  as   "young,   witty  and  the 


THE  FIRST  DUEL  IN  BOSTON.  433 

of  Benjamin  and  Hannah  (Savage)  Gillam.  He  was  baptized  at 
the  South  Church,  of  which  his  parents  were  members,  Febru- 
ary 25,  1704-5,  and  he  graduated  at  Harvard  College  in  1724, 
in  the  same  class  with  Adam  Winthrop  (third  of  the  name), 
Andrew  Belcher  (third  of  the  name),  Andrew  Oliver  (Senior), 
Dudley  Woodbridge  (third  of  the  name),  Phillips  Payson,  and 
Joseph  Park.  He  was  in  his  twenty-fourth  year,  and  had  re- 
cently gone  into  partnership  with  his  brother  Gillam,  to  con- 
tinue the  business  of  their  late  father.  With  the  help  of  Gillam 
Phillips,1  Peter  Faneuil,  and  John  Winslow,  he  made  his  escape 
by  getting  on  board  a  British  man-of-war  which  was  just  leaving 
the  harbor,  and  when  the  town  awoke  next  morning  to  the  ex- 
citement which  was  awaiting  it  he  was  far  out  at  sea.  He  found 
a  refuge  at  Rochelle,  in  France,  and  died  there  within  a  year, 
of  grief  and  a  broken  heart.2 

The  high  standing  of  the  parties  implicated  in  this  duel,  and 
of  the  families  made  desolate  by  it,  did  not  prevent  the  ministers 
of  the  town  from  speaking  out  faithfully  and  solemnly  against 
the  sin  itself  and  the  evil  courses  which  had  led  to  it.  Mr. 
Colman,  to  whose  care  young  Woodbridge  had  been  commended 
by  his  father  on  leaving  home,  took  his  text  on  the  following 
Sunday  from  Job  x.  22,  "  Without  any  order."  The  whole  pas- 
sage reads  :  "  Before  I  go  whence  I  shall  not  return,  even  to 
the  land  of  darkness  and  the  shadow  of  death  ;  a  land  of  dark- 
ness, as  darkness  itself ;  and  of  the  shadow  of  death,  without 
any  order,  and  where  the  light  is  as  darkness."  The  preacher 
in  his  application  spoke  of  "a  late  hopeful  and  promising  youth, 
who  was  heretofore  of  us,  a  child  of  great  expectation,  but  he 
went  out  from  us,  and  ran  himself  into  the  paths  of  the  de- 
stroyer and  an  untimely  death."  And  again  :  "  You  see,  Children, 
what  comes  of  leaving  these  Churches  after  an  Education  in 
them  :  even  Duelling  and  Bloodshed  and  Flight  from  Country 
and  Friends,  may  come  of  Bursting  the  Bonds  of  God  asunder, 
and  going  after  Strangers,  and  into  the  Manners  Customs  and 
impious   Maxims  of    the  World."     Evidently  Woodbridge    had 

most  beautiful  man  in  the  whole  town  of  visited  Mrs.  Ph.     O  Lord  sanctify  thine 

Boston  ;  he  's  very  just  and  (as  an  effect  awfull  Judgment  to  her.    Give  her  Son  a 

of  that)  thriving."     He  died  in  1720,  at  thorow  Repentance." 

the  age  of   fifty-eight.     He  was  not  de-  Jan.  22.  1728-9.     "Mr.  Thacher,  Mr. 

scended  from  the  Rev.  George   Phillips,  Prince  and  I  met  at  Mrs.  Phillip's,  and 

Watertown.  Pray'd  for  her   Son.     I  hope  God  gra- 

1  Gillam  Phillips  married  Marie,  sister  ciously  assisted.     Lord  pardon  the  hain- 

of  Peter  Faneuil.  ous  Sins  of    that  young  man,  Convert 

-  July  4.    1728.     "  In   the  Evening   I  and  Heal  his  Soul."     (J.  Sewall.) 


434  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

been  a  member  of  the  Brattle  Street  congregation.  The  ser- 
mon was  printed  under  the  title,  Death  and  the  Grave  with- 
out any  Order.  On  the  iSth  of  July,  at  the  Thursday  Lecture, 
Mr.  Sewall  preached  a  sermon,  the  subject  of  which  was,  He 
that  would  keep  God's  Commandments  must  Renounce  the  So- 
ciety of  Evil  Doers.  His  text  was  Psalm  cxix.  115  :  "Depart 
from  me,  ye  evil-doers  :  for  I  will  keep  the  commandments  of 
my  God."  He  endeavored  to  show  the  evil  and  danger  of  wicked 
company,  and  he  condemned  duelling  as  a  bloody  crime.  To- 
wards the  close  he  said  :  — 

Nor  hath  any  word  been  spoken  with  a  design  to  wound  such  as  are 
greatly  distressed.  No  !  my  heart's  desire  and  prayer  is,  That  they 
may  be  enabl'd  to  Mourn  after  a  godly  sort,  and  then  Experience  the 
Presence  of  Christ  with  them,  giving  them  the  oyl  of  joy  for  Mourn- 
ing. May  the  Comforter  which  shou'd  relieve  their  Souls  not  be  far 
from  them,  And  God,  who  can  make  all  things  work  together  for  good, 
bring  light  to  them  out  of  this  thick  darkness. 

The  sermon  was  published,  with  a  preface  signed  by  the  other 
Congregational  ministers  of  the  town,  ten  in  number. 

A  new  governor  arrived  at  midsummer,  in  the  person  of  Wil- 
liam Burnet,  a  son  of  the  famous  Bishop  of  Salisbury.  His 
administration  was  to  be  a  brief  one,  but  he  was  very  heartily 
received  and  very  handsomely  entertained  on  his  arrival.1  On 
the  Thursday  following  Mr.  Prince  preached  before  his  Excel- 
lency and  the  General  Court  from  Psalm  lxxviii.  70-72:  "He 
chose  David  also  his  servant,  and  took  him  from  the  sheep- 
folds  :  from  following  the  ewes  great  with  young,  he  brought 
him  to  feed  Jacob  his  people,  and  Israel  his  inheritance.  So 
he  fed  them  according  to  the  integrity  of  his  heart,  and 
guided  them  by  the  skilfulness  of  his  hands."  The  sermon  was 
printed ;  its  title  was,  Civil  Rulers  Raised  up  by  God  to  Feed 
His  People. 

August  31.  We  are  under  difficulty  respecting  the  Admission  of 
a  Member.  His  admission  was  suspended.  Lord  hear  my  poor  peti- 
tions. Shew  the  Church  what  thou  wouldst  have  us  to  doe.  Let  thy 
people  keep  close  to  Scripture  rules,  and  require  nothing  more  than 
God  requires.  O  enable  us  to  keep  the  unity  of  the  Spirit  in  the 
bond  of  peace.     (J.  Sewall.) 

1  "  On  the  19th  Inst.  Governor  Burnet  gious   and   civil   Privileges!     Bless  him 

came  to  Town.     The    Ministers  waited  Pouring  out  thy  Spirit  .  .  .  upon  him." 

on  him,  and  Mr.  Colman  made  a  short  "  August   6.     Some  of   the  Ministers 

Speech  to  him.     O  Lord  incline  thy  Ser-  met  and  pray'd  together  for  the  Govern- 

vant  to  favour  this  people,  in  our  reli-  or  &c."    (J.  Sewall.) 


TERMS   OF  MEMBERSHIP.  435 

The  difficulty  thus  briefly  referred  to  by  Mr.  Sewall  seems  to 
have  led  the  church  to  define  more  precisely  than  before  the  qual- 
ifications upon  which  it  would  insist  in  those  seeking  admission 
to  its  membership.  The  question,  as  a  practical  one,  may  never 
have  presented  itself  for  settlement  until  now.  The  prayer  of 
the  pastor,  of  which  he  tells  us,  seems  to  have  been  answered, 
for  the  church  determined,  as  the  result  of  this  discussion,  to 
"  keep  close  to  Scripture  rules  "  in  this  important  matter,  and 
to  "  require  nothing  more  than  God  requires,"  and  than  was  re- 
quired in  the  apostolic  age,  of  candidates  for  church  membership 
in  full  communion.1 

At  a  Church  Meeting,  Septr.  1728. 

Voted  —  That  such  as  come  into  full  Communion  should  make  a 
publick  Profession  of  their  Repentance  towards  God,  and  Faith  in  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  of  their  Belief  of  the  Scriptures  as  a  perfect  Rule 
of  Faith  and  life,  and  of  their  Resolution,  by  the  Grace  of  God,  to 
walk  according  to  them.  Joseph  Sewall.2 

At  a  church  Meeting,  Octr.  29.  1728. 

Voted  —  I.  That  sixty  pounds  be  given  out  of  the  stock  remaining 
of  the  collections  for  pious  and  charitable  uses,  for  the  supply  of  the 
Poor  of  this  church  and  congregation,  with  Wood  and  other  Necessa- 
ries of  life. 

II.  That  Mr.  William  Rand,  Mr.  [Joseph]  Belknap,  and  Mr.  [John] 
Durant,  be  desired  to  collect  what  is  behind  of  the  first  Payment  of 
subscriptions  towards  the  New  Meeting  House,  and  pay  it  to  the 
Treasurer.  Joseph  Sewall.3 

1  "  The  fundamental  doctrines  of  were  buried,  the  Widow  Wheeler,  about 
Christianity  are  not  the  deep  results  of  83,  and  the  Widow  Horton,  about  80  or 
metaphysical  skill  or  learned  investiga-     Si."     (J.  Sewall.)] 

tion,  but  those  evident  truths  which  all  3  ["Nov.  11.  I  understand  there  was 
men  of  ordinary  capacity  and  diligence  about  39  pounds  gather'd  privately  on 
may  receive  from  a  perusal  of  the  Bible,  the  Lord's  day,  part  for  publick  uses  of 
According  to  the  most  enlightened  and  piety  and  charity.  There  was  £6.10.0 
orthodox  judgment,  among  Christians,  put  into  the  Box  directed  to  me,  about 
'no  doctrine  is  a  fundamentals  neces-  ,£13.10.0,  to  Mr.  Prince.  Lord  bless 
sary  article  of  a  Christian's  faith,  but  those  who  thus  contribute  to  our  mainte- 
what  is  so  plainly  and  distinctly  revealed  nance,  with  spiritual  and  temporal  bless- 
as  that  an  ordinary  Christian,  sincere  in  ings.  Shew  thy  people  their  Duty,  and 
his  inquiries,  cannot  miss  of  the  knowl-  enable  us  to  fulfill  our  Ministry." 
edge  of  it.'"  "Dec.  15.  I  preach'd  from  1  John  1. 
"All  that,"  says  Baxter, "  without  which  7.  Took  occasion  to  thank  the  Congre- 
a  man  cannot  be  a  good  and  holy  Chris-  gation  for  the  liberal  Collection  made  the 
tian,  is  plain  and  easy  in  itself ;  and  last  Lord's  day  for  our  support,  of  which 
Christ  did  choose  therefore  to  speak  to  my  part  was  £79.12.2."  (J.  Sewall.) 
the  capacity  of  the  meanest." —  White's  A  few  days  after  this  Mr.  Sewall  was 
N.  Eng.  Congregationalism,  pp.  166,  167.  chosen   a  Fellow  of    Harvard    College, 

2  ["  October  28.  The  last  week  two  and  the  choice  was  confirmed  by  the 
aged  pious  Women  of  our  Communion  overseers  January  2.] 


436  HISTORY  OF   THE    OLD   SOUTH  CHURCH. 

At  a  church  Meeting  [at  Mr.  Sewall's  house]  Jany  15.  1728-9 
Voted  —  I.  That  Mr.  Timothy  Prout  be  added  to  the  Committee 
for  Building. 

II.  Upon  a  representation  made  to  the  church  by  the  Committee  for 
Building,  that  the  money  paid  in  to  the  Treasurer,  was  near  expended, 

Voted,  That  another  third  part  be  paid  in,  on  or  before  the  10th  of 
March  next ;  and  the  subscribers  are  desired  to  pay  it  in  accordingly. 

III.  That  a  committee  be  chosen  to  take  an  account  of  the  Pews 
in  this  House,  and  who  have  a  right  to  them  according  to  the  votes 
of  the  church :  That  a  reasonable  consideration  may  be  made  to 
them,  agreeable  to  a  vote  pass'd  Febr.  27.  1727-8. 

IV.  That  Anthony  Stoddard  Esq.  Mr.  James  Pemberton  and  Mr. 
[George]  Bethune,  be  of  this  committee. 

V.  That  a  committee  be  chosen  to  consider  where  it  may  be  most 
convenient,  for  the  church  and  congregation  to  meet  on  the  Lord's 
days,  after  this  House  shall  be  taken  down,  and  while  the  New  House 
is  in  Building. 

VI.  That  the  Honble.  Coll.  Fitch,  Daniel  Oliver,  Secretary  Willard, 
Mr.  Lewis,  and  Deacon  Henchman,  with  the  Elders  [that  is,  the  pas- 
tors] of  the  church,  be  of  this  committee. 

Then  the  Meeting  was  Adjourned  to  the  28th  of  this  Instant,  Jan- 
uary. Joseph  Sewall. 

At  a  church  Meeting,  Jany  21.  1728-9 

Whereas  through  the  good  Providence  of  God  there  is  a  considera- 
ble Legacy  bequeathed  to  this  church  by  Mrs.  Anne  Mills,  the  Relict 
of  Mr.  Henry  Mills,  late  of  Watertown,  to  be  improved  for  the  Relief 
of  the  poor  of  this  church  and  congregation  : 

Voted  —  That  Anthony  Stoddard  Esq.  Deacon  Henchman,  and  Mr. 
James  Pemberton,  be  a  committee  to  receive  this  Legacy  according 
to  the  tenour  of  the  Will,  and  give  proper  discharges  to  the  executors. 

Joseph  Sewall. 

Mrs.  Mills  became  a  member  of  the  church  in  1690.  After 
making  certain  bequests,  she  provided  by  her  will  that  all  the 
rest  and  residue  of  her  estate  should  be  divided  as  follows :  one 
quarter  part  to  the  Old  or  First  Church  in  Boston,  one  quarter 
part  to  the  South  Church,  one  quarter  part  to  the  church  in  the 
east  parish  in  Watertown,  and  one  quarter  part  to  the  church  in 
the  west  parish.1  The  South  Church  received  as  its  share  about 
^280,  in  securities,  but  we  are  uncertain  as  to  how  much  it 
realized  upon  them. 

At  a  church  Meeting  Jany.  28.  1728-9. 

The  Report  of  the  committee  appointed  to  consider  where  it  may 

1  See  ante,  p.  408,  note. 


COURTESY  OF   THE  FIRST   CHURCH.  437 

be  most  convenient  for  the  church  and  congregation  to  meet  &c,  was 
read  and  accepted,  and 

Voted  —  I.  That  it  will  be  most  convenient  for  the  church  and  con- 
gregation to  meet  on  the  Lord's  days  after  the  present  Meeting  House 
shall  be  taken  down,  and  while  the  New  House  is  building,  at  the  Old 
Brick  Meeting  House. 

II.  That  it  will  be  most  convenient  to  meet  twice  on  each  Lord's 
day  at  said  Brick  Meeting-House,  saving  on  their  Sacrament  days. 

Upon  which  it  was  agreed  that  a  letter,  then  read  and  accepted 
should  be  sent  to  the  Old  church  in  a  respectfull  manner  to  ask  this 
Privilege  of  them.  Joseph  Sewall. 

Feb.  16.  1728-9.  I  preach'd  from  Eph.  4.  3.  O  Lord  enable  thy 
people  to  keep  the  Unity  of  the  Spirit  in  the  bond  of  Peace  !  Our 
Letter  to  the  Old  Church,  and  their  Answer  granting  us  the  Privilege 
of  assembling  in  their  Meeting-House  was  read.     (J.  Sewall.) 

At  a  church  Meeting  Febr.  18.  1728-9. 

I.  Whereas  this  church  have  determined  with  submission  to  the 
Providence  of  God,  to  build  a  New  Meeting  House,  in  the  place  where 
our  present  Meeting  House  stands,  and  the  Materials  for  building 
are  in  a  considerable  forwardness  ; 

Voted — That  this  Meeting  House  be  taken  down. 

II.  That  the  committee  for  Building,  viz  :  the  Honble.  Jonathan 
Belcher,  Edward  Winslow  Esq.  Mr.  Ezekiel  Lewis,  Mr.  Samuel  Welles, 
Mr.  Timothy  Prout  and  Mr.  William  Foye,  be  impowered  and  directed 
to  take  down  our  present  Meeting  House,  as  soon  as  conveniently 
may  be  after  the  24th  of  this  Instant,  February. 

III.  That  the  said  committee  be  directed  to  dispose  of  our  present 
Meeting  House  to  the  best  advantage. 

IV.  Voted  —  That  the  church  Propose,  God  willing,  to  begin  to  As- 
semble for  publick  Worship  in  the  Old  Brick  Meeting  House  on  the 
Lord's  day  which  will  be  on  the  9th  of  March  next,  at  n.  A.  M.  and  4 
P.  M. ;  And  that  the  congregation  be  desired  to  assemble  with  them. 

V.  Voted  —  That  the  Pastors  of  this  church  be  desired  to  return 
our  hearty  thanks  to  the  Old  Church,  for  the  Liberty  they  have  given 
us  of  Assembling  in  their  Meeting  House  ;  and  to  inform  them  that  we 
purpose  God  Willing,  to  begin  to  meet  there  on  the  9th  of  March  next. 

VI.  That  Friday  come  sennight,  Febr.  28.  be  observed  by  this 
church  as  a  day  of  Fasting  and  Prayer,  to  humble  ourselves  before 
God  for  all  our  unfruitfulness  under  the  means  of  Grace  enjoyed  in 
this  Meeting  House,  and  to  ask  his  Presence  and  Blessing  upon  us  in 
the  momentous  affair  of  taking  down  this  House,  and  building  another 
for  his  Publick  Worship  ;  and  that  the  congregation  be  desired  to  join 
with  us  in  this  Solemnity. 


43§  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

VII.  Whereas,  Capt.  Timothy  Cunningham x  in  his  last  Will  and 
Testament  generously  bequeathed  to  this  church  two  hundred  pounds  ; 
and  the  Execution  of  his  Will  by  order  of  his  Mother,  Mrs.  Ruth 
Cunningham,  falling  into  the  Hands  of  his  Elder  and  only  Brother, 
Mr.  Nathaniel  Cunningham,  to  whom  the  committee  of  this  church 
have  made  application  for  the  said  Legacy,  and  which  he  offered  to 
pay,  at  the  same  time  signifying  his  desire  that  the  money  should  be 
invested  in  a  Bell  for  the  new  House  now  going  to  be  built : 

Voted  —  That  the  said  Money  be  applied  to  the  purchasing  as 
good  a  Bell  as  it  will  procure  ;  and  that  in  honour  and  gratitude  to  the 
Memory  of  the  Donor,  there  be  the  following  Inscription  cast  on  the 

Bell :  viz. 

The  Gift  of 

Capt.  Timothy  Cunningham 

to  the  South  Church  in  Boston  ; 

Who  died  at  Sea, 

Septr   12.  1728 

Joseph  Sewall. 

Mrs.  Ruth  Edwards,  widow  of  George  Edwards,  joined  the 
church  in  1685.  She  afterward  became  the  wife  of  Timothy 
Cunningham,  and  the  baptism  of  their  children,  Ruth,  Hannah, 
and  Nathaniel,  is  recorded  in  1689  and  later.  The  baptism  of 
their  son  Timothy  is  not  recorded  ;  nor  do  we  find  either  his 
name  or  that  of  his  brother  Nathaniel  among  the  members  of 
the  church.  Of  their  interest  in  the  church,  however,  there  can 
be  no  doubt.  Nathaniel,  a  man  of  large  wealth,  when  he  died 
(in  London)  in  1748,  left  to  it  by  his  will  sixty  ounces  of  silver, 
to  be  made  into  some  proper  vessel  for  the  communion  table, 
and  ^500  for  its  poor.2  His  daughter  Ruth  and  her  distin- 
guished husband,  James  Otis,  were  afterward  members  of  the 
church  and  congregation.  The  bell,  purchased  with  the  be- 
quest of  Timothy  Cunningham,  did  faithful  service  in  the  Old 
South  tower  until  the  autumn  of  18 15,  when  it  was  cracked 
while  ringing  an  alarm  of  fire.  The  inscription  on  it,  which 
commemorated  the  name  and  generosity  of  the  donor  for  more 
than  two  generations,  we  now  enter  upon  these  pages,  in  the 
hope  that  he  will  continue  to  be  held  in  grateful  remembrance 
while  the  church  endures. 

1  [Benjamin  Walker  in  his  Diary,  ningham,  married  Sarah,  daughter  of 
September  23,  1728,  says  that  Timothy  Christopher  Kilby.  They  had  two 
Cunningham's  sloop  arrived  from  Anti-  daughters,  Susannah  and  Sarah  ;  and 
gua  on  that  day,  and  that  Mr.  Cunning-  the  younger  of  these  had  a  daughter, 
ham  had  died  on  the  passage.  "  He  Elizabeth,  who  married  the  seventh 
was  a  brisk  likely  young  man."]  Duke  of  Argyll.     (See    the  cut  at    the 

2  Nathaniel,   son   of   Nathaniel   Cun-  head  of  this  chapter.) 


THE   OLD  MEETING-HOUSE.  439 

In  accordance  with  the  vote  of  the  church  special  services 
were  held  on  Friday,  February  28.  In  the  forenoon,  Mr.  Fox- 
croft  offered  prayer,  and  Mr.  Prince  preached  from  Lam.  iii.  41, 
"  Let  us  lift  up  our  heart  with  our  hands  unto  God  in  the 
heavens."  In  the  afternoon  Mr.  Colman  assisted,  and  Mr. 
Sewall  preached  from  Psalm  cxxvii.  1  :  "  Except  the  Lord  build 
the  house,  they  labour  in  vain  that  build  it :  except  the  Lord 
keep  the  city,  the  watchman  waketh  but  in  vain."  Mr.  Sewall 
says  in  his  journal  :  "  I  hope  we  had  the  Tokens  of  God's 
gracious  Presence  with  us.  The  congregation  generally  at- 
tended, and  many  others  with  them.  I  hope  God  enabled  me 
in,  publick  and  private,  to  look  earnestly  to  him  this  day.  O 
Lord,  hear,  Forgive  and  doe  as  the  matter  may  require."  On 
Sunday,  March  2,  the  last  sermons  were  preached  in  the  old 
building  to  very  large  congregations,1  and  on  the  following  day, 
Mr.  Sewall  having  prayed  with  the  workmen,  the  process  of 
demolition  began.  "  On  the  4th.  this  ancient  building  was  taken 
down,  about  5,  P.  M.  No  hurt  done."  "  Several  of  the  beams 
and  timbers  "  were  found  to  be  so  much  "decayed  "  that  it  was 
"apprehended "  the  "crowded"  assemblies  on  the  preceding 
Sabbath  "  had  a  very  gracious  preservation."  Mr.  Sewall,  after 
recording  this,  says  :  "  I  thank  thee,  O  thou  Preserver  of  men. 
Reconcile  thy  Servants  who  have  been  opposite  to  this  Work, 
and  let  there  be  good  Agreement  among  thy  people  in  the 
things  that  are  pleasing  in  thy  sight."  2 

March  9.  We  met  in  the  Old-Meeting-House.  Mr.  Prince  preach'd 
from  Ps.  119.  54.  The  House  of  my  Pilgrimage.  I  preach'd  P.  M. 
from  Isai.  12.  2.  I  will  trust  and  not  be  afraid.  O  Lord  enable  me 
and  thy  people  to  put  our  Trust  in  thee  ! 

1  "  I  preach'd  P.  M.  from  Ps.  127. 1.  A  southern,  eastern  and  western  porches  ; 
very  great  Assembly  I  hope  God  helped  the  length  of  this  is  near  95  feet,  breadth 
me.  But  have  great  Reason  to  be  hum-  near  68,  besides  the  western  tower,  and 
bled  under  my  own  great  Weakness,  eastern  and  southern  porches."  A1.  Eng. 
having  forgot  to  propound  three  persons  Weekly  Journal,  March  31,  April  2S, 
for  full  communion.  Lord  shew  me  my  1729.  Drake's  Hist,  and  Antiq.  p.  584. 
own  frailties  and  infirmities."  (J.  Sewall.)  August    18.    1729.      "On   the    15th   I 

2  March  4.  "  Cut  the  posts  and  pull'd  pray'd  with  the  workmen  who  are  raising 
house  down,  it  fell  into  the  meeting-  the  Roof  of  the  Meeting-House,  again 
house  ground."     (B.  Walker.)  this  day.     I    thank   thee    O   Thou  Pre- 

They  began  to  lay  the  stone  founda-  server  of  men,  that  this  difficult  work  is 
tion  for  the  new  building  March  31,  so  far  accomplish'd  and  with  so  little 
"  seven  feet  below  the  pavement  of  the  hurt  to  any  person.  (Two  were  some- 
street."  The  old  building  "was  near  75  thing  hurt  and  others  in  danger.)" 
feet  long,  and  near  51  wide ;  besides  the  (J.  Sewall.) 


44°  HISTORY  OF   THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

March  27.  A  person  of  our  Church  came  to  me,  acknowledging  he 
had  committed  a  very  hainous  Sin.  I  pray'd  with  him.  0  Lord  re- 
buke Satan  !  Save  this  miserable  young  man  from  his  Pride  discon- 
tent &c.     I  hope  God  hath  bless'd  our  Endeavours  with  him. 

May  28.     Several  Ministers  met  at  my  House. 

May  29.  Mr.  Colman  Preach'd  the  Sermon  to  the  Ministers  in 
Publick  from  2  Thess.  3.  1.  Brethren,  pray  for  us.  A  considerable 
number  of  Ministers  met  again  after  dinner.1     (J.  Sewall.) 

At  a  church  Meeting  [at  Mr.  SewalPs  house]  Septr.  30.  1729. 

Whereas  the  church  is  determined  with  submission  to  Providence 
to  assemble  for  the  Worship  of  God  in  the  New  Meeting  House  before 
winter,  there  being  an  hopefull  prospect  that  the  House  will  be  in  a 
condition  to  receive  us,  tho'  not  compleatly  finished  : 

Voted  —  That  the  subscribers  be  desired  to  pay  in  the  Remainder 
of  their  subscriptions  forthwith.  Joseph  Sewall.2 

At  a  church  Meeting,  Octr.  29.  1729. 

Voted  —  That  the  Treasurer  be  desired  and  impowered  to  borrow 
such  a  sum  of  money  as  the  committee  for  building  shall  judge  need- 
full  for  expediting  the  Building,  not  exceeding  Eight  Hundred  Pounds, 
which  sum  or  sums  so  borrowed,  the  Brethren  of  the  church  hereby 
oblige  themselves  to  repay  to  said  Treasurer  within  six  moneths  from 
the  time  of  borrowing  the  Money. 

Voted  —  That  Mr.  James  Pemberton.  Mr.  Samuel  Gerrish 3  and 
Deacon  Henchman  be  a  committee  to  inquire  of  the  Seaters  &c.  of 
other  churches  in  this  Town,  concerning  their  methods  relating  to 
the  tenure  of  their  Pews  ;  and  make  a  Report  to  this  church  at  their 
next  Meeting  Joseph  Sewall. 

Upon  a  Report  made,  Voted  —  That  the  thanks  of  the  church  be 

1  [We  suppose  that  this  sermon  was  monish'd  D  of  his  late  scandulous 
preached  at  the  South  meeting  house,  as  Sins.  He  expresseth  a  sorrow  for  them 
the  ministers'  meetings  were  held  at  Mr.  and  a  readiness  to  Confess  them.  Lord 
SewalPs  parsonage.  We  have  no  ac-  give  him  the  sorrow  which  is  to  repent- 
count  in  Mr.  SewalPs  diary  of  the  ser-  ance.  Recover  him  and  others  fallen, 
mons  in  1730  and  1731 ;  in  1732  Mr.  O  revive  a  godly  Discipline  among  us 
Colman  preached  again,  his  text  being  more  and  more."     (J  Sewall.)] 

Rev.  ii.  1.]  3  [James  Pemberton  was  a  grandson 

2  ["Sept  30.  We  had  a  Church  Meet-  of  James  Pemberton,  one  of  the  founders 
ing  at  my  House.  Lord  hear  our  Prayers,  of  the  church,  and  a  nephew  of  its  third 
Let  the  House  be  seasonably  finish'd  ;  minister.  Samuel  Gerrish  was  a  son  of 
Preserve  thy  people,  and  Provide  well  the  Rev.  Joseph  Gerrish  of  Wenham. 
for  them  in  the  mean  time.  O  thou  He  married,  first,  Mary,  daughter  of 
great  Shepherd  keep  us  together,  Lead  Judge  Sewall,  who  died  at  the  age  of 
and  Feed  us  !  The  Evening  before  the  nineteen ;  and  secondly,  Sarah,  daughter 
Pastors  with  two  other  of  the  Brethren  of  John  Coney.  He  was  a  bookseller, 
(agreable  to  the  Church's    Desire)  Ad-  and  town  clerk  from  1733  t0  l74l-\ 


THE  REV.   OLIVER  PEA  BODY.  441 

given  to  Anthony  Stoddard  Esq.  Deacon  Henchman  and  Mr.  James 
Pemberton,  who  were  appointed  a  committee  to  receive  the  Legacy 
bequeathed  to  this  church  by  Mrs.  Anne  Mills  ;  for  their  care  and 
pains  taken  in  that  Affair.  Joseph  Sewall.1 

"In  consideration  of  the  danger  the  town  and  country"  were 
"in  from  the  small  pox,"  the  "Friday  lecture  [October  31]  at 
Mr.  Colman's  was  turned  into  a  day  of  prayer."  Mr.  Webb 
preached  in  the  morning,  from  the  words,  "  Prepare  to  meet  thy 
God  ; "  and  Mr.  Colman,  in  the  afternoon,  from  the  text,  "  How 
shall  I  give  thee  up,  Ephraim  ?" 

Dec.  17.  Mr.  Peabody  was  Ordain'd  to  the  Pastoral  Office  over 
the  Church  in  Natick  —  consisting  of  4  English  and  3  Indians.  Mr. 
Appleton  began  with  Prayr.  Mr.  Coleman  being  Confined  by  Illness, 
I  preach'd  from  Jer.  3.  15.  I  will  give  you  Pastors.  Mr.  Baxter  gave 
the  Charge.  Mr.  Williams  (westown)  the  right  Hand  of  Fellowship 
and  Concluded  with  Prayr.  O  Lord  Bless  this  little  Flock,  and  let 
there  be  added  to  them  many  of  such  as  shall  be  Saved.  Pour  out 
thy  Spirit  on  thy  Servant,  that  he  may  approve  himself  a  Pastor  after 
thine  Heart.  Turn  the  poor  Indians  from  darkness  to  light.  O  when 
shall  the  time  to  Favour  them  come  !     (J.  Sewall.) 

At  a  church  Meeting  Deer  30.  1729. 

Voted;  —  I.  That  the  last  Possessors  who  had  a  right  to  Pews  in 
the  Old  Meeting  House,  and  desire  a  consideration  in  the  New  Meet- 
ing House,  shall  bring  in  their  claims  and  desires  in  writing  to  Deacon 
Henchman  on  or  before  the  20th  of  Janry  next ;  that  there  may  be 
such  allowance  made  to  them  as  the  church  shall  determine. 

II.  That  the  Honble.  Coll.  Fitch,  and  Anthony  Stoddard  Esq.,  with 
the  committee  for  building,  be  a  committee  to  consider  and  propose 
to  the  church,  the  tenure  and  conditions  by  which  persons  are  to  hold 
their  Pews,  and  such  Rules  and  Orders  as  are  needfull  about  them  ; 
To  number  and  value  the  Pews  below  and  in  the  Galleries,  and  to 
propose  the  way  and  method  for  the  Disposition  of  them. 

III.  That  no  person  be  allowed  to  enter  and  take  possession  of  any 
pew  before  he  produce  to  the  above  said  committee  a  certificate  or 
Receipt  under  the  Treasurer's  hand,  that  he  hath  paid  the  price  of  it. 

Joseph  Sewall. 

The  new  meeting-house  was  nearly  ready  for  occupancy,  but 
Judge  Sewall  did  not  live  to  take  possession  of  it  with  his 
brethren.  How  he  felt  after  the  work  of  demolition  and  of  re- 
construction had  been  fairly  entered  upon,  we  do  not  know  ;  but 

1  [Oct  29.  "  We  had  a  Church  Meet.  Difficulties  !  Let  the  Building  be  speedily 
ing.     O  Lord  pity  us  under  our  present     finish'd  may  it  be  thy  Will."  (J.  Sewall.)] 


442 


HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 


perhaps  it  was  well  that  he  should  not  long  survive  the  hallowed 
walls  within  which  he  had  worshipped  for  more  than  fifty  years. 

He  "  had  served  his  own  gen- 
eration by  the  will  of  God;" 
and  another  generation  had 
now  come  forward,  which,  with 
the  new  house  of  worship, 
would  desire  other  new  things 
to  which  he  might  be  unable 
to  give  his  approval.  With  a 
different  administration,  there 
was  to  be  the  same  spirit ;  the 
inner  life  of  the  church  was  to 
be  as  it  had  been  from  the  be- 
ginning, although  some  of  the 
outer  conditions  and  accesso- 
ries would  be  changed.  But 
all  this  Judge  Sewall,  if  he  had 
lived  much  longer,  might  not 
have  been  able  to  understand  ; 
and  like  Simon  Bradstreet  and 
Joshua  Scottow,1  both  of 
whom  he  had  helped  to  lay  in  their  peaceful  graves  many  years 
before,  he  might  have  shed  "old  men's  tears  "  over  the  degener- 
acy of  the  times.  As  it  was,  he  had  attained  to  a  venerable 
age ;  he  was  seventeen  years  old  when  the  South  Church  was 
founded,  and  he  had  sat  under  the  preaching  of  its  first  five 
ministers  ;2  he  took  his  bachelor's  degree  at  college  under  Presi- 


1  Joshua  Scottow  died  January  20, 
169S.  In  1691  he  wrote  a  pamphlet,  enti- 
tled "  Old  Men's  Tears  for  their  own  De- 
clensions, mingled  with  Fears  of  their  and 
Posterities  further  falling  off  from  New 
England's  Primitive  Constitution.  Pub- 
lished by  some  of  Boston's  Old  Planters 
and  some  others."  In  1694  he  printed  a 
larger  work,  "  A  Narrative  of  the  plant- 
ing of  the  Massachusetts  Colony,  Anno 
1628,"  and  dedicated  it  to  Simon  Brad- 
street.  Both  publications  are  full  of 
lamentations  over  the  prevailing  degen- 
eracy from  the  principles  and  practices 
of  the  fathers. 

2  In  the  communion  service  of  the 
Old  South,  there  is  a  flagon,  represented 


above,  on  which  the  Sewail  arms  and 
the  date  1730  are  engraved,  and  which 
was  given,  no  doubt,  to  commemorate 
Judge  Sewall's membership  in  the  church. 
The  late  Rev.  Samuel  Sewall,  of  Bur- 
lington, Mass.,  in  a  memoir  of  his  ances- 
tor printed  in  1S4T,  in  the  American 
Quarterly  Review,  said :  "  The  arms  of 
John  Seawale,  Sheriff  of  Essex  and 
Hertfordshire,  1380,  are  thus  described 
by  Fuller :  '  S.  (sable)  cheveron  betwixt 
three  gadd-bees  argent,'  which  are  pre- 
cisely the  same  with  those  handed  down 
by  painting,  tradition,  or  otherwise 
among  all  the  Sewalls  now  known  to 
reside  in  New  England  and  Lower  Can- 
ada, as  their  family  arms." 


DEATH  OF  SAMUEL  SEW  ALL.  443 

dent  Chauncy,  and  his  master's  degree  under  President  Hoar, 
and  he  had  seen  six  later  presidents  ;  he  had  lived  under  twelve 
governors  and  acting  governors,  and  had  served  under  nine  of 
them.  He  had  been  a  member  of  the  judiciary  forty-four  years, 
and  for  ten  years  chief  justice  of  the  province.  He  had  seen 
his  son  installed  as  one  of  the  pastors  of  the  church  in  which 
he  had  labored  and  prayed  so  long,  and  which  he  loved  so  well. 
How  important  and  how  lasting  a  work  he  had  done  for  this 
church,  in  committing  so  much  of  its  early  history  to  paper,  he 
could  not  have  had  the  faintest  conception,  nor  have  his  succes- 
sors in  the  membership  understood  until  very  recently.  Had 
he  foreseen  this,  he  certainly  would  have  said,  in  the  words  of 
Israel,  what  indeed  he  might  well  have  said  as  it  was,  "  It  is 
enough."  After  "  about  a  month's  languishment,"  he  died,  on 
the  1st  of  January,  1729-30,  in  the  seventy-eighth  year  of  his 
age. 

Dec  26.  My  Father  seems  to  grow  weaker.  At  different  times  He 
repeated  to  me  the  Creed  and  the  Lord's  prayr.  Mention'd  that  text, 
If  any  man  Sin,  we  have  an  advocate  with  the  Father.  When  ask'd 
what  wee  should  Pray  for — Answer,  to  this  Effect,  that  he  might 
follow  the  Captain  of  his  salvation.     In  general,  He  speaks  but  little. 

Dec  29.  I  read  to  him  11  John  23-27  &c.  My  Father  took  notice 
and  spake  of  what  was  read  —  that  we  were  beholden  to  Martha. 
Spake  of  the  brazen  Serpent  —  of  Looking  to  Jesus  —  He  the  only 
remedy. 

Jan  1.  I  was  call'd  up  about  4  cl.  (or  something  before)  found  my 
Father  dying.  He  seem'd  to  enjoy  the  use  of  his  reason.  I  pray'd 
with  him,  then  Mr.  Cooper.  C[ousin]  Chauncy  came  in  and  Pray'd. 
My  Honoured  and  d^ar  Father  Expir'd  about  35  minutes  after  5  A.  M. 
Near  the  time  in  which  29  years  agoe,  He  was  so  affected  upon  the 
Beginning  of  this  Century,  when  he  made  those  Verses  to  usher  in 
the  New  Year,  Once  more  our  God  vouchsafe  to  Shine.     (J.  Sewall.) 

On  the  following  Lord's  day,  at  the  Old  Brick,  where  the  con- 
gregations of  the  First  and  Third  Churches  were  worshipping 
together,  Mr.  Chauncy  preached  in  the  morning,  from  John  xi. 
25  :  "  He  that  believeth  in  me,  though  he  were  dead,  yet  shall 
he  live ; "  and,  says  Mr.  Sewall,  "  made  an  honorable  mention  of 
my  father."  Mr.  Prince  preached  in  the  afternoon,  from  Isaiah 
lvii.  1  :  "  The  righteous  perisheth."  The  funeral  took  place  on 
Wednesday  the  7th.  "  Bearers,  the  Honble  Coll.  Tailor,  Simeon 
Stoddard,  Judge  Davenport,  Coll.  Fitch,  Daniel  Oliver.  Mr. 
Bromfield  was  appointed ;  but  being  ill,  Mr.  Secretary  Willard 


444  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

stood  in  his  Room.  A  fair  cold  Day."  On  Thursday,  Mr. 
Prince  preached  the  Lecture  in  Mr.  Sewall's  turn,  and  took  for 
his  text,  i  Sam.  vii.  15-17  :  "  And  Samuel  judged  Israel  all  the 
days  of  his  life.  And  he  went  from  year  to  year  in  circuit  to 
Bethel,  and  Gilgal,  and  Mizpeh,  and  judged  Israel  in  all  those 
places.  And  his  return  was  to  Ramah  ;  for  there  was  his 
house:  and  there  he  judged  Israel,  and  there  he  built  an  altar 
unto  the  Lord."  "  Gave  my  Father  a  modest  and  true  Char- 
acter." x  On  Sunday  the  nth,  Mr.  Sewall  preached  to  the  same 
congregations  as  above,  from  Psalm  xxvii.  10  :  "  When  my  father 
and  my  mother  forsake  me,  then  the  Lord  will  take  me  up." 

In  recognition  of  the  long  and  eminent  services  of  Samuel 
Sewall  in  church  and  state,  the  members  of  the  Old  South,  in 
1884,  placed  a  memorial  tablet  upon  the  walls  of  their  present 
meeting-house  ;  other  commemorative  tablets  were  erected  at 
the  same  time,  and  appropriate  addresses  were  made  Sunday 
evening,  October  26,  which  were  printed.2 

Stately  and  slow,  with  thoughtful  air, 
His  black  cap  hiding  his  whitened  hair, 
Walks  the  Judge  of  the  great  Assize, 
Samuel  Sewall  the  good  and  wise. 
His  face  with  lines  of  firmness  wrought, 
He  wears  the  look  of  a  man  unbought, 

1  The  Netvs-Letter  which  contains  the  Person,    and   in    an    high    Degree   and 

notice  of  his  death  gives  the  following  Station,  rendered  Him  one  of  the  most 

epitome  of  his  character  :  —  shining  Lights  and  Honours  of  the  Age 

"  He  was  universally  and  greatly  rev-  and  Land  wherein  He  lived  ;  and  worthy 

erenc'd,  esteemed  and  beloved  among  us  of  a  very  distinguishing  regard  in   the 

for  his  eminent  Piety,  Learning  and  Wis-  New  English  Histories." 

dom ;    his  grave  and  venerable  Aspect  Judge  Sewall  left  no  will.     His  sons, 

and  Carriage;  his  instructive,  affable  and  Samuel  and  Joseph,  and  his  son-in-law, 

cheerful  Conversation  ;  his  strict  Integ-  the  Rev.  Mr.  Cooper,  administered  on 

rity  and  regard  to  Justice  ;  his  extraor-  his  estate.     Samuel  inherited  the  man- 

dinary  tender  and  compassionate  Heart ;  sion  house  and  occupied  it.     He  and  his 

his  neglect  of  the  World  ;  his  abundant  wife,    Rebecca,   had    joined    the   South 

Liberality;    his   catholick    and    publick  Church,  May  12,  1728. 

Spirit ;  his  critical  Acquaintance  with  the  2  For  an  appreciative  and  affectionate 

Holy  Scriptures  in  their   inspir'd  origi-  estimate   of  Judge    Sewall's   character, 

nals ;  his  Zeal  for  the  purity  of  instituted  see  the  address  on  this  occasion  by  the 

Worship ;  his  constant,  diligent  and  rev-  Rev.  George  E.  Ellis,  D.  D.,  LL.  D.,  now 

erent   Attendance    on    it,   both    in   the  president   of  the    Mass.    Hist.    Society. 

Church  and  Family ;  his  Love  for  the  The  members  of  the  Old  South  are  under 

Churches,    People    and    Ministers,    the  lasting  obligation  to  Dr.  Ellis,  and  the 

civil  and  religious  Interests  of  this  Coun-  other  editors  of  the  Sewall  Papers  and 

try ;  his  tender  Concern  for  the  aboriginal  Letters,  for  the  labor  performed  by  them 

Natives  ;  and  as  the  Crown  of  all,  His  in  preparing  the  five  volumes  for  publi- 

Moderation,  Peaceableness  and    Humil-  cation  and  in  carrying  them  through  the 

ity ;  which  being  all  united  in  the  same  press. 


IN  MEMORY  OF  SAMUEL   SEW  ALL. 


445 


Who  swears  to  his  hurt,  and  changes  not ; 
Yet,  touched  and  softened  nevertheless 
With  the  grace  of  Christian  gentleness, 
The  face  that  a  child  would  climb  to  kiss  ! 
True  and  tender  and  brave  and  just, 
That  man  might  honor  and  woman  trust. 


(Whittier.) 


CHAPTER   IX. 

1730-1740. 

THE    NEW   MEETING-HOUSE. 

COLLECTIONS  FOR  CHARITA- 
BLE   USES. 

THE  new  meeting-house 
was  not  finished  as  soon 
as  had    been    expected,    but 
twelve    or    thirteen    months 
does  not    seem   a  very  long 
time  in  which  to  remove  an 
old  building  and  erect  a  new  one,  such  as  this  was,  in  its  place. 
The  various  questions  relating  to   the  pews,  old  and  new,  re- 
quired much  thought  and  care,  but  they  were  at  length  satisfac- 


TENURE    OF  PEW  PROPERTY.  447 

torily  adjusted,   and  principles  were    agreed  upon  to  regulate 
the  tenure  and  transfer  of  pew  property.1 

At  a  church  Meeting  [at  Mr.  Sewall's  house]  Febr.  3.  1729-30. 

Voted  —  That  the  committee  for  disposing  of  the  collection  for 
pious  and  charitable  uses,  are  desired  to  expend  such  a  part  of  the 
stock  as  they  shall  judge  proper  for  the  supply  of  the  present  necessi- 
ties of  the  poor  of  this  church  and  congregation. 

Joseph  Sewall. 

Feb.  3.  We  have  the  joy  full  News  that  Mr.  Belcher  is  appointed 
our  Governor.  O  Lord  !  Pour  thy  Spirit  on  thy  Servant,  and  bring 
him  in  safety  and  make  him  a  great  Blessing  to  us.     (J.  Sewall.) 

At  a  church  Meeting  Febr.  9.  1729-30. 

Pursuant  to  a  vote  of  Febr.  27.  1727-8,  There  was  an  allowance 
made  to  such  possessors  of  Pews  in  the  Old  Meeting-House  as  did 
not  see  cause  to  resign  their  claims.  Joseph  Sewall. 

[No  date.] 

Voted  —  That  the  two  Pews  at  the  right  and  left  hand  of  the  Dea- 
cons' Seat,  fronting  on  the  broad  Alley,  be  set  apart  for  th*  use  of  the 
Ministry. 

[No  date.] 

These  proposalls  were  offer'd  to  the  church  by  the  committee  ap- 
pointed to  consider  the  tenure  and  conditions  upon  which  Persons  are 
to  hold  their  Pews  &c  :  And  after  they  had  been  distinctly  read  and 
considered,  were  voted  as  follows. 

Voted  — .  I.  That  a  committee  be  appointed,  and  from  time  to  time 
continued,  to  order  and  regulate  the  Pews  and  Seats  in  the  Meeting- 
House,  and  other  matters  relating  to  said  House. 

II.  That  all  persons  keep  the  seats  and  places  assigned  them  by 
the  said  committee,  and  remove  not  to  any  other  seat  or  place,  without 
their  appointment  or  approbation  ;  that  so  good  order  and  decency 
may  be  observed. 

III.  That  no  Pew  shall  be  appropriated  to  any  particular  Person  or 

1  The    following    receipt    shows    the  stantly  come  to  said  Church,  and  con- 
conditions  upon  which  pew  property  was  tribute  thereto  ;  in  default  thereof,  to  re- 
owned  in  Brattle  Street  Church  when  it  sign  up  said  pew  unto  the  Committee  for 
was  founded  :  —  said  Church  for  the  time  being,  they  al- 
Boston  30  April  1700  lowing  said  Pitts  or  his  heirs  what  he 

Received  then  of  Mr.  John  Pitts  the  now  gives  for  the  same,  I  say  received 

summe  of  fifteen  pound  for  a  pew  in  the  for  the  use  and  behoof  of  said  Church 
New  Church  in   Brattle   Street,  No  22,  p  Tho.  Brattle 

being  that  next  the  West  dore  on  the  Treasurer  of  said  Church, 

left  hand  as  one  enters  said  Church  ;  To 

have  and  enjoy  the  said  pew  to  him  and         See   Pitts  Jl/SS.  in   the  possession  of 

his  heirs,  so  long  as  he  or  they  shall  con-  Mr.  Daniel  Goodwin,  Jr.,  of  Chicago. 


448  HISTORY  OF   THE    OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

Family,  but  such  as  at  present  are,  or  hereafter  shall  be  of  the  con- 
stant Auditory,  and  Contributors  to  the  support  of  the  Ministry. 

IV.  That  every  Person  to  whom  a  Pew  or  part  of  a  pew  is  or 
shall  be  assigned,  shall  be  obliged  in  proportion  to  the  Privilege  they 
enjoy,  to  contribute  for  the  Honourable  support  of  the  worship  of 
God,  as  well  as  other  necessary  charges. 

V.  That  every  Proprietor  and  their  Heirs,  shall  hold  their  respec- 
tive Pews  so  long  as  they  shall  comply  with  the  aforesaid  conditions  of 
their  Tenure  ;  and  in  default  thereof,  that  such  Pews  revert  to  the 
church  upon  their  paying  the  original  cost  to  said  Proprietors,  their 
Executors  or  Administrators. 

VI.  That  no  seat  or  Pew  appropriated  to  any  Person  shall  be  trans- 
ferr'd  or  disposed  of  by  such  person  to  another  without  the  approba- 
tion and  allowance  of  the  committee  for  the  time  being  first  had  for 
the  same. 

VII.  Upon  the  death  or  removal  of  any  Proprietor,  such  Pew  shall 
be  in  the  disposition  of  the  committee,  upon  their  paying  to  such  per- 
sons, his  Executor,  or  Administrators,  the  first  cost  and  charge  by  him 
disbursed  for  it ;  but  if  the  church  shall  refuse  to  pay  for  the  same,  for 
the  space  of  two  months  after  an  offer  thereof  made  them,  the  Owner 
may  dispose  of  it  to  some  other  Person  that  shall  be  acceptable  to 
the  committee. 

VIII.  Altho'  Pews  may  not  be  accounted  an  Estate  in  Fee,  abso- 
lutely, yet  it  is  but  equal  that  they  descend  to  children  ;  but  if  during 
their  minority  they  are  not  able  to  perform  what  is  incumbent  upon 
them,  the  seaters  may  place  others  with  them  in  such  Pews,  untill 
such  time  as  they  arrive  to  full  age  or  shall  contribute  as  aforesaid. 

IX.  That  all  vacancies  in  the  seats  be  filled  from  time  to  time,  by 
the  committee  or  seaters  for  the  time  being. 

X.  It  is  justly  expected  that  every  Person  or  family  that  enjoy  a 
whole  Pew  below,  should  not  contribute  less  than  five  Pounds,  four 
shillings  per  annum  and  proportionably  for  a  part ;  and  those  in  the 
Gallery,  in  proportion  to  the  value  or  cost  of  them.  But  withall,  it  is 
desired  and  expected  that  such  as  are  in  superior  circumstances,  will 
not  confine  themselves  to  that  sum ;  but  will  manifest  their  Liberality 
agreeable  to  their  condition. 

XL  If  at  any  time  the  right  or  property  of  any  Pew,  or  a  part  of 
one,  should  by  descent  or  otherwise,  Be  vested  in,  or  claimed  by  any 
person  that  enjoys  a  whole  Pew,  it  shall  be  in  the  power  of  the  com- 
mittee to  dispose  of  it  to  any  other  suitable  person,  paying  the  cost 
thereof  to  him  to  whom  of  right  it  belongs. 

Joseph  Sewall 
Thomas  Prince. 


"REMOVE   TO   OUR  NEW  HOUSE."  449 

At  a  church  Meeting  March  20  1729-30. 

The  Valuation  of  the  Pews  on  the  Floor  and  in  the  Galleries  of  the 
New  Meeting  House,  was  accepted  and  voted. 

Severall  Articles  reported  by  the  committee  for  seating,  relating  to 
the  Disposal  of  the  Pews  on  the  Floor  and  in  the  Galleries  of  the 
New  Meeting  House  were  distinctly  considered  and  accepted :  And 
the  said  committee  are  impowered  to  dispose  of  the  Pews  accordingly. 

The  said  committee  are  also  desired  and  impowered  to  Dispose  of 
the  Seats  in  the  New  Meeting  House. 

These  particulars  were  voted.  Joseph  Sewall.1 

Lord's  Day  April  19.  1730. 

The  church  voted  that  they  would  Assemble  for  publick  Worship  in 
the  New  Meeting  House,  God  willing,  the  next  Lord's  Day. 

And  the  congregation  was  notified  accordingly,  P.  M. 

After  the  Congregation  was  dismissed,  a  letter  was  read  to  the 
church  and  accepted,  in  which  this  church  gave  their  thankful  acknowl- 
edgments to  our  Brethren  of  the  Old  Church,  for  the  Privilege  granted 
us  of  Assembling  in  their  Meeting-House  for  the  time  in  which  our 
house  was  building.  Joseph  Sewall. 

The  pastor  added  in  his  diary  :  "  Lord  bountifully  reward  the 
kindness  shew'd  us  by  this  Church,  and  be  graciously  present 
with  us  in  our  Remove  to  our  New  House." 

There  were  no  special  services  of  dedication  for  this  house  of 
worship,  which  was  to  receive  its  consecration,  week  by  week, 
for  a  century  and  a  half  to  come,  from  the  prayers  and  praises  of 
God's  people  within  its  walls.  On  the  first  Sunday  of  its  occu- 
pancy sermons  appropriate  to  the  occasion  were  preached  by" 
the  two  pastors.  Mr.  Sewall's  text  in  the  morning  was  Hag- 
gai  ii.  9.  "  The  glory  of  this  latter  house  shall  be  greater  than 
of  the  former,  saith  the  Lord  of  Hosts  :  and  in  this  place  will  I 
give  peace,  saith  the  Lord  of  Hosts."2     Mr.  Prince's  text  in 

1  [March   20.      "  We   had   a   Church-  comfortable  Expressions  of  resentment 

Meeting  to  determine  the  way  in  which  from  several)  and  it  is  said  there  is  a 

the  Subscribers  are  to  Choose  their  Pews,  more  general  Satisfaction  in  the  Choice 

O   Lord   govern  this   matter  in  mercy ;  than  could  almost  have  been  expected." 

keep  us  in  Peace.     Mr.  Prince  and  I  had  (J.  Sewall.)] 

prayd  together  with  an  especial  regard  2  Mr.  Sewall  preached  again  from  this 

to  this  Affair  ;  And  this  day  I  again  com-  text  on  the  next  Lord's  Day,  particularly 

mended  it  to  God."  dwelling   on   the   words   "  And    in   this 

March  24.  26.  27.  28.     "  The  Difficult  place  will  I  give  peace."     "  O  Lord,"  he 

and   Critical    Affair   of    the    Choice   of  wrote,  "  I  thank  thee  for  the  peace  we 

Pews  (on  the  Floor)  was  manag'd.    Con-  enjoy."     The  disturbed  feeling    attend- 

siderable  offence  was  given  about  the  3  ing  the  choice  of  seats  seems  to  have 

Divisions  in  the  Choice.     However  all  subsided  very  speedily, 

or  the  most  chose  (tho'  not  without  un-  Among  those  who  joined  the    South 


450  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

the  afternoon  was  Psalm  v.  7 :  "  But  as  for  me,  I  will  come  into 
thy  house  in  the  multitude  of  thy  mercy ;  and  in  thy  fear  will  I 
worship  toward  thy  holy  temple." 

These  pastors  and  their  people  had  been  encouraged  by  the 
promise  :  "  He  shall  bring  forth  the  headstone  thereof  with 
shoutings,  crying,  Grace,  grace  unto  it,"  and  now  one  of  them, 
Mr.  Sewall,  hastened  to  record  the  consummation  of  their  work 
upon  the  church's  book. 

Lord's  Day  April  26.  1730. 

We  Assembled  the  first  time  for  religious  Worship  in  the  New  Meet- 
ing House. 

Laus  Deo. 

Mr.  Sewall  also  wrote  in  his  diary  at  the  close  of  the  day  :  "  O 
Lord  I  thank  thee  that  thou  hast  enabled  thy  people  to  build 
such  an  House,  and  hast  granted  us  this  Opportunity  of  Meet- 
ing with  so  much  Peace  to  offer  up  our  Prayers  and  Praises, 
and  to  hear  thy  Word.  O  give  us  the  especial  Presence  of 
Jesus  Christ  with  us  that  we  may  be  built  up  a  Spiritual  House. 
O  help  thy  people  to  make  the  Offering  to  thee,  and  accept 
them  in  thy  beloved  Son.  And  let  thy  people  and  their  off- 
spring for  a  long  time  here  worship  God  in  spirit  and  in  truth, 
and  enjoy  the  fulness  of  the  Blessing  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ." 

We  are  all  familiar  with  the  exterior  of  this  meeting-house, 
which,  except  in  the  color  of  the  walls,  looks  to-day  almost 
exactly  as  it  did  when  it  was  first  completed.1  Richard  Grant 
'White  has  left  us  the  following  description  :  — 

It  is  the  perfect  model  of  a  New  England  "  meeting-house  "  of  the 
highest  style  in  the  olden  time.  Bare  of  the  beauty  of  architectural 
detail,  it  delights  the  eye  by  its  fine  symmetrical  proportion ;  and  its 

Church  in  1730  were  Henry  Gibbs,  John  1  In  the  southwest  corner  of  the  build- 
Hunt,  Jonathan  Loring,  Thomas  Hub-  ing,  just  above  the  sidewalk,  there  is  a 
bard,  and  Joseph  Prince,  who  trans-  stone  bearing  the  letters  N.  E.  and  the 
ferred  their  membership  from  the  First  date  March  31, 1729.  (See  the  cut  at  the 
Church  ;  Thomas  Cushing,  from  Brat-  end  of  this  chapter.)  Dr.  Wisner  men- 
tie  Street;  Daniel  Loring  and  Nathaniel  tions  another  stone,  in  the  northwest 
Goodwin,  from  the  North  Church ;  and  corner,  on  the  west  side,  inscribed  with 
John  Smibert,  the  painter,  who  married  the  letters  S.  S. ;  and  another,  in  the 
a  daughter  of  the  Rev.  Nathaniel  Wil-  northeast  corner,  on  the  east  side,  in- 
liams.  scribed  L.   B.   1729.     The  letters  S.  S. 

Henry  Gibbs,  Harvard  College,  1726,  probably  stand  for    Samuel  Sewall  (see 

married  a  daughter  of  Josiah  Willard.  ante,  p.  360,  note) ;  but   we  are   unable 

The   first  person  to   be   admitted    to  to  explain  those    on   the   other    stones, 

membership  in   the  new  meeting-house  Robert  Twelves  is  said  to  have  been  the 

was  Rebecca  Walker,  May  10.  builder. 


THE  NEW  MEETING-HOUSE.  45 1 

octagonal  spire,  springing  from  an  airy,  eight-arched  loggia,  is  one  of 
the  finest  of  its  kind,  not  only  in  this  country,  but  in  the  world. 
Nothing  more  light  and  elegant  and  graceful  can  be  found,  unless  in 
the  finest  Gothic  work.  Not  a  "  Wren  "  spire  (indeed  an  architect 
would  scout  the  notion)  it  yet  suggests  Wren  to  the  unprofessional  eye  ; 
but  I  have  never  seen  a  spire  of  Sir  Christopher's  which  equalled  it 
in  grace  and  lightness.  A  peculiar  interest  attaches  to  it  because  it  is 
of  home  growth.  It  is  not  a  copy  nor  an  imitation  of  anything  else. 
It  is  the  conception  of  a  Yankee  architect  —  the  outgrowth  and  de- 
velopment of  the  steeple-belfry  of  the  New-England  meeting-house. 
New  England  may  well  be  proud  of  it.  .  .  .  The  interiors  of  these  old 
meeting-houses,  it  must  be  admitted,  are  devoid  of  all  semblance  of 
beauty.  In  them  the  hard,  utilitarian,  unsentimental  spirit  of  the  old 
New  England  life  and  the  old  New  England  Puritanism  was  fully  ex- 
pressed, but  intuitively,  and  without  purpose.  There  no  charm  of 
color,  there  no  grace  of  form,  there  no  monuments  of  departed  nota- 
bility were  allowed  to  divert  the  eye  and  mind  from  religious  business. 
They  were  bare,  galleried  halls,  in  which  mass  meetings  were  held  for 
worship.1 

Of  the  interior,  Dr.  Wisner  said  in  1830:  — 

It  was  finished  with  two  galleries  as  at  present ;  and  the  pulpit  in 
the  same  position  as  now,  but  larger  and  higher  than  this,  with  a 
sounding-board  projecting  from  the  wall  above  the  casing  of  the  win- 
dow ;  and  with  two  seats  directly  in  front,  one  somewhat  elevated  for 
the  deacons,  and  one  still  more  elevated  for  the  elders.  On  each  side 
of  the  middle  aisle,  and  nearest  the  pulpit,  were  a  number  of  long 
seats  for  aged  people  ;  and  the  rest  of  the  floor,  except  the  aisles  and 
several  narrow  passages,  was  covered  with  square  pews. 

Mr.  Prince  preached  the  election  sermon  May  27,  and  took 
occasion  to  commemorate  the  landing  at  Salem  and  the  settle- 
ment of  Boston  a  hundred  years  before.2  His  subject  was: 
The  People  of  New  England  Put  in  Mind  of  the  Righteous 
Acts  of  the  Lord  to  Them  and  their  Fathers.  He  showed  how 
extremely  proper  it  was,  "  upon  the  close  of  the  first  century  of 
our  settlement  in  this  chief  part  of  the  land,  which  will  now 
within  a  few  weeks  expire,  to  look  back  to  the  beginning  of  this 
remarkable  transaction."  Mr.  Foxcroft  and  Mr.  Sewall  preached 
centennial  discourses,  at  the  First  Church,  three  months  later.3 

1  [The  Century,  March,  1884.]  stand  still,  that  I  may  reason  with  you 

2  His  text  was  1  Sam.  xii.  6,7:  "  And  before  the  Lord  of  all  the  righteous  acts 
Samuel  said  unto  the  people,  It  is  the  of  the  Lord,  which  he  did  to  you  and  to 
Lord  that  advanced  Moses  and  Aaron,  your  fathers." 

and  that  brought  your  fathers  up  out  of  3  "  It  has  been  generally  said  that  ow- 
the    land    of    Egypt.      Now    therefore     ing  to  the  small  pox  the  expiration  of  the 


452 


HISTORY  OF   THE   OLD   SOUTH  CHURCH. 


At  a  Meeting  of  the  South  Church  in  their  Brick  Meeting  House 
Augt  5.  1730. 

It  being  represented  to  the  church  that  the  Salleries  allow'd  our 
Rev'd  Pastors  have  not  been  sufficient  for  the  support  of  their  Fami- 
lies, so  that  they  are  brought  considerably  in  arrears  ; 

Voted  —  That  it  be  recommended  to  the  congregation  to  have  a 
collection  to  make  good  the  deficiencies  of  former  Salaries  allowed 
them  for  their  support. 

And  it  being  further  considered  that  the  Sallaries  allowed  our  Min- 
isters have  not  as  aforesaid  of  late  provided  for  their  support  by  rea- 
son of  the  low  value  of  the  Bills  of  Credit, 

Voted,  —  That  for  the  space  of  one  year  from  this  date,  and  untill 
the  further  determination  of  this  church,  There  be  allowed  and  paid 
to  each  of  our  Rev'd  Pastors,  viz.  to  Mr.  Joseph  Sewall  and  Mr. 
Thomas  Prince,  Six  Pounds  pr.  week,  for  their  honourable  support  in 
the  work  of  the  Ministry  ;  And  that  the  congregation  be  desired  to 
enlarge  their  contributions  accordingly,  the  present  contributions  not 
being  sufficient  to  raise  the  allowance  now  made  them  &c. 
A  true  copy 

Thomas  Fitch  Moderator 

Joseph  Sewall.1 


century  was  not  observed  in  Boston.  It 
does  not  appear  that  the  government  of 
the  town  did  take  any  action  for  its  cele- 
bration or  observance."  Mr.  Foxcroft's 
sermon  was  preached  August  23,  and 
was  entitled  "  Observations  on  the  Rise 
and  Primitive  State  of  New  England. 
With  special  Reference  to  the  first 
Church  in  Boston."  See  Drake's  Hist, 
and  Antiq.,  p.  5S7. 

August  27.  "  I  preached  the  Lecture 
from  2  Pet.  3.  15.  Account  that  the  long- 
suffering  of  our  Lord  is  Salvation.  N.  B. 
It  is  this  day  100  years  since  the  first 
Church  in  this  Town  was  gather'd  at 
Charles  Town.  I  hope  God  enabled  me 
to  cry  earnestly  to  him  for  these 
Churches."     (J.  Sewall.) 

1  [Mr.  Sewall  writes:  Aug  17.  "On 
the  Lords  Day  [the  16th]  the  Congrega- 
tion had  a  collection  for  the  Support 
of  the  Gospel.  The  Deacons  bro't  me 
SS^".  Lord  I  thank  thee  for  inclining 
and  spiriting  thy  people  to  contribute  so 
liberally  for  the  support  of  the  Gospel. 
(The  Church  hath  also  rais'd  our  Sala- 
ries  to   6£   pr.  week) "     The   salaries, 


since  July,  1725,  had  been  ,£4.5.0  a  week. 
They  were  advanced  May,  1 740,  to  ^"9.0.0 
a  week. 

Dr.  Robbins  says,  in  his  History 
of  the  Second  Church  (pp.  118,  119): 
"  Such  votes  as  the  following  are  of  not 
infrequent  occurrence :  '  iS  Nov.  1729. 
Voted,  that,  in  consideration  of  the  dear- 
ness  of  all  necessaries  of  life,  there  be 
a  present  of  sixty  pounds  now  made 
to  the  Rev.  Joshua  Gee,  our  pastor, 
out  of  the  money  in  the  church's  stock. 
Also  voted,  that  an  addition  of  five 
shillings  per  week  be  made  to  Mr. 
Gee's  salary,  so  as  to  make  it  up  four 
pounds  ten  shillings  per  week.  Also 
voted,  that  an  addition  of  ten  pounds 
be  made  to  the  thirty  pounds  formerly 
allowed  to  provide  Mr.  Gee  with  fire- 
wood, for  the  year  current,  beginning 
the  first  of  May  last.'  His  salary  was 
afterwards  increased  to  eight  pounds  a 
week ;  and,  when  he  was  alone  in  the 
care  of  the  church,  three  pounds  were 
allowed  him  weekly,  to  supply  his  pul- 
pit, as  he  might  feel  it  to  be  necessary  for 
his  relief."] 


GOVERNOR  BELCHER.  453 

[No  date.] 

Voted  —  That  fifteen  pounds  out  of  the  money  collected  for  pious 
and  charitable  uses  be  given  to  the  Revd  Mr.  Josiah  Cotton,  for  his 
encouragement  to  continue  Preaching  the  Gospel  at  Providence. 

Voted  —  That  the  Deacons  be  desired  to  procure  some  suitable 
Person  to  take  the  oversight  of  the  children  and  servants  in  the  Gal- 
leries, to  take  care  that  good  order  be  maintained  in  time  of  divine 
worship  ;  and  that  a  sufficient  reward  be  allowed  for  the  encourage- 
ment of  such  a  Person.  Joseph  Sewall. 

Jonathan  Belcher  arrived  in  Boston  this  summer,  in  a  ship  of 
war,  with  the  royal  commission  as  governor  of  Massachusetts 
and  New  Hampshire,  and  he  was  warmly  welcomed,  especially 
by  the  religious  community  of  which  he  was  a  conspicuous 
member.1  Dr.  Allen  thus  speaks  of  him  as  a  public  man,  and 
of  his  personal  character  :  — 

He  obeyed  the  royal  instructions  on  the  one  hand,  and  exhibited  a 
real  regard  to  the  liberties  and  happiness  of  the  people  on  the  other. 
He  was  distinguished  by  his  unshaken  integrity,  by  his  zeal  for  justice, 
and  care  to  have  it  equally  distributed.  Neither  the  claims  of  inter- 
est nor  the  solicitations  of  friends  could  move  him  from  what  appeared 
to  be  his  duty.  He  seems  to  have  possessed,  in  addition  to  his  other 
accomplishments,  that  piety  whose  lustre  is  eternal.  His  religion  was 
not  a  mere  personal  thing,  which  he  received  from  tradition,  or  pro- 
fessed in  conformity  to  the  custom  of  the  country  in  which  he  lived ; 
but  it  impressed  his  heart  and  governed  his  life.2 

Although  Governor  Belcher  attended  at  King's  Chapel  occa- 
sionally, and  occupied  the  official  pew  there,  his  religious  home 

1  The  announcement  of  Mr.  Belcher's  And  guide  thy  hand.  He  from  the  worlds  on  high 
appointment   was   received    by    the   non-      Came  once  an  Envoy  and  return'd  a  King ; 

conformists  in  England  with  the  greatest     ™e.,sons,  °f  **?  in  th'ongs  *eir  h°mauge  bring' 

...  _     °   T  °,  .        While   glory,   life,   and    oy  beneath   his   sceptre 

satisfaction.     Dr.  Watts  wrote  a  beauti-  spring. 

ful  ode  on  the  eve  of  the  governor's  em- 
barkation, of  which  we  quote  the  closing  2  [American  Biographical  Dictionary. 
stanza.  Its  strain  of  panegyric  seems  to  Hutchinson  says :  "  By  great  freedom  in 
us  extravagant ;  but  it  should  be  remem-  conversation  and  an  unreserved  censure 
bered  that  in  those  days  addresses  of  this  of  persons  whose  principles  or  conduct 
kind  to  persons  in  high  station  were  al-  he  disapproved,  he  made  himself  many 
most  always  adulatory  in  the  extreme.  enemies.     In  a  private  person  this  may 

„     „  ,  ,                              ,    .  often  pass  with  little  notice,  but  from  a 

Go,  Belcher,  go  assume  thy  glorious  sway ;  . 

Faction  expires,  and  Boston  longs  to  obey.  governor  it  is  very  hardly  forgot,   and 

Beneath  thy  rule  may  Truth  and  Virtue  spread,  Some     never    ceased     pursuing     revenge 

Divine  Religion  raise  aloft  her  head  until  they  saw  him  displaced."      Hist,    of 

And  deal  her  blessings  round.     Let  India  hear  A/ass     vol    iii    D    1X2 

That  Jesus  reigns,  and  her  wild  tribes  prepare  t\       -n  n       i          xz                  c     /-• 

-     .          i   •         im.               u  11     i   u   i  JJr.    Palfrey  s   estimate    of    Governor 

r  or  heavenly  jovs.     1  hy  power  shall  rule  by  love ;  J 

So  reigns  our  Jesus  in  the  realms  above.  Belcher  as  a  public  man  is  a  disparaging 

Illustrious  pattern  !     Let  him  fix  thine  eye,  One.] 


454 


HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 


continued  to  be  at  the  South  Church,  when  he  was  living  in  the 
town.     At  Milton,  where  he  had  a  country  seat,  he  identified 

himself  with  the  Congrega- 
tional church,  of  which  the 
Rev.  John  Taylor  was  min- 
ister. He  was  afterward 
charged  in  England,  in  an 
anonymous  letter  addressed 
to  Mr.  Samuel  Holden,  one 
of  the  most  influential  non- 
conformists in  that  country, 
with  being  concerned  with 
the  Episcopal  interest  in  Bos- 
ton in  intrigues  against  the 
established  order ;  but  there 
is  abundant  evidence  that  he 
sincerely  as  well  as  stead- 
fastly adhered  to  the  religion 
of  his  father  and  of  his  own 
youth  to  the  end  of  his  days.1 
The  new  governor  arrived 
at  Castle  William  Saturday 
night,  August  8,  attended  di- 
vine service  there  on  Sun- 
day, and  came  up  to  the  town 
on  Monday  morning.  He 
was  escorted  by  a  large  number  of  soldiers  and  civilians  from 
Long  Wharf  to  the  State  House  ;  thence  "  to  a  splendid  enter- 
tainment at  the  Bunch  of  Grapes,  and  after  dinner,  to  his  own 
pleasant  and  beautiful  seat." 


wcA&r^ 


1  "  Mr.  Belcher  some  time  since  mar- 
ried a  daughter  to  one  Mr.  Lloyd,  a 
churchman,  and  obliged  him  to  promise 
he  would  never  more  go  to  the  Church 
of  England,  saying  he  would  rather  cut 
off  his  daughter's  legs  than  marry  her 
to  a  man  of  that  church.  This  is  a  fact 
which  he  cannot  deny."  Letter  of  Da- 
vid Dunbar  to  the  Duke  of  Newcastle, 
Feb.  4,  1730.  See  Palfrey's  History,  vol. 
iv.  pp.  567,  56S. 

Mr.  Belcher's  daughter  Mary  married 
Byfield  Lyde,  and  their  daughter,  Mary 
Belcher  Lyde,  joined  the  South  Church 
July  24,  176S. 


Jonathan  Belcher,  Jr.,  became  a  mem- 
ber February  13,  1763.  He  graduated 
at  Harvard  in  1728,  and  in  1731  went  to 
England.  "  On  the  24th  [May],"  says 
Mr.  Sewall,  "  we  met  at  the  Governours, 
upon  the  account  of  His  Son,  Mr.  Jona- 
than Belcher  bound  out  for  Great  Brit- 
ain. I  began,  Mr.  Colman  concluded 
with  Prayr.  Mr.  Prince  Preachd  from 
Prov.  3.  6.  ['  In  all  thy  ways  acknowl- 
edge him,  and  he  shall  direct  thy 
paths.'] "  His  father  wrote  of  him  to 
the  Duke  of  Newcastle,  November  7, 
1731,  that  "  after  spending  the  last  seven 
years  at  our  little    University   in    Cam- 


THE  SPIRE   COMPLETED.  455 

August  10.  Governour  Belcher  landed  about  eleven  a  Clock  A.  M. 
The  Ministers  saluted  Him  near  the  Town  House.  O  Lord  Pour  out 
thy  Spirit  upon  thy  Servant,  and  make  him  a  great  Blessing  to  us  ! 

August  12.  The  united  Ministers  of  the  Town  waited  on  the  Gov- 
ernour, and  Mr.  Coleman  made  a  Speech  to  him  in  their  Name. 

August  13.  Mr.  Coleman  preach'd  the  Lecture  from  1  Sam.  2.  8. 
The  Pillars  of  the  earth  are  the  Lord's.  Lord  make  thy  Servant  truly 
such,  under  God  our  strength  and  glory. 

August  16.  Lord's  day.  Mr.  Prince  preached  A.  M.  from  Psal. 
89.  19-21.  ["Then  thou  spakest  in  vision  to  thy  Holy  One,  and 
saidst,  I  have  laid  help  upon  one  that  is  mighty ;  I  have  exalted  one 
chosen  out  of  the  people.  I  have  found  David  my  servant ;  with  my 
holy  oil  have  I  anointed  him  :  With  whom  my  hand  shall  be  estab- 
lished ;  mine  arm  also  shall  strengthen  him."]  I  preach'd  P.  M. 
from  2  Sam.  22.  24.  I  was  also  upright  before  him.  The  Governour 
was  at  meeting  both  parts  of  the  day.  O  Lord  enable  thy  Servant  to 
feed  and  lead  this  people  with  an  upright  heart  and  skilfull  hand. 

Sept.  15.  Yesterday  the  workmen  began  to  raise  the  Spire.  Mr. 
Prince  and  I  pray'd  together  that  God  wou'd  direct  assist  and  preserve 
them  in  this  difficult  work.  O  Lord  hear !  Pardon  thy  people  if  they 
are  too  ambitious  of  an  outward  shew,  and  too  much  conform'd  to 
the  Vanities  of  the  World.  O  let  us  not  be  high  minded,  but  fear. 
(J.  Sewall.) 

Sept.  17.  They  raised  the  vane  or  wether  cock.  Shem  Drown,  tin- 
man, made  it.     (B.  Walker.) 

Octo.  19.  Mrs.  Vryling  was  buried  (ob.  16)  aged  47.  She  was  of 
our  Communion,  a  notable,  and  I  hope,  pious  Woman. 

Octo.  20.  This  day  S[imeon]  Stoddard  Esq.  was  buried.  He  died 
15th  aged  80.  Was  also  of  our  Communion;  but  of  late  attended  at 
Mr.  Colman's. 

Nov.  3.  The  Church  met :  There  was  a  very  thin  meeting ;  how- 
ever They  Voted  a  public  Collection  for  the  Poor  on  the  Thanksgiv- 
ing.    (J.  Sewall.) 

At  a  church  Meeting  Novr.  3.  1730. 

Voted  —  That  there  be  a  publick  collection  on  the  Anniversary 
Thanksgiving  next  insuing  Novr.  12.  current,  for  Relieving  the  Neces- 
sities of  the  Poor  of  this  church  and  congregation. 

Joseph  Sewall. 

N.  B.  The  collection  amounted  to  about  one  hundred  twenty-four 
Pounds. 

bridge,"   he   was   then   studying  in  the  He     repeatedly    appeared     before     the 

Temple  ;  and  that  he  needed  indulgence,  Board  of   Trade  in  his  father's  behalf, 

for  he  "was  but  the  new  production  of  At  his  death  in  1776,  he  was  lieutenant- 

the  wilds  in  America."   He  took  his  Mas-  governor   and    chief  -  justice     of    Nova 

ter's  degree  at  Cambridge  in  England.  Scotia. 


45 6  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

Nov.  14.  On  the  10th  Evening,  Several  of  the  Committee  came  to 
me,  signifying  that  the  Governour  shew'd  a  Liking  to  my  Pew ;  The 
next  day  I  went  and  offer'd  it  him,  He  thank'd  me.  Now  I  under- 
stand that  Madam  Belcher  purposeth  to  goe  into  it  to  morrow,  and  we 
take  the  Pew  shee  chose  by  the  West  Door.  Lord  enable  me  and 
thine  Handmaid  chearfully  to  deny  ourselves ;  graciously  reward  us 
by  granting  us  more  evident  Tokens  of  thy  Presence  in  thy  House. 
The  Church  and  Congregation  gather'd  about  124  pounds  on  the 
Thanksgiving,  principally  for  the  Poor.  Lord  I  praise  thee.  When 
the  matter  was  consider'd  and  voted,  it  labor'd  of  Discouragements, 
by  reason  of  the  very  thin  Meeting  &c. ;  but  God  hath  inclin'd  and  en- 
abl'd  his  people  to  offer  beyond  my  Expectation. 

Nov.  15.  Thanks  were  return'd  for  the  wonderfull  Preservation  of 
5  of  the  Wentworths  (3  Brothers).  The  Ship  was  foundred,  they  were 
taken  up  in  their  Boat  by  a  Ship  that  had  Spent  her  Mast  or  masts. 

Nov.  29.  Messrs.  Ellery,  Prince  and  Johnson  return'd  Thanks  for 
God's  Preservations  of  them  in  their  difficult  and  dangerous  Voyages. 

Dec.  18  The  Governour  had  a  Thanksgiving  at  his  House  to 
Praise  God  for  his  Preservations  abroad,  safe  return  &c.  Mr.  Colman 
began  with  Prayer,  Mr.  Cooper  concluded.  I  preach'd  from  Exod. 
15.  2.  The  Lord  is  my  strength  and  song,  and  he  is  become  my  sal- 
vation :  he  is  my  God,  and  I  will  prepare  him  an  habitation  ;  my 
father's  God,  and  I  will  exalt  him.  The  Governour  read  the  Psalm  in 
Dr.  Watt's  Version.  O  Lord  hear  the  Prayers  put  up  for  thy  Servant 
and  his  Family,  Pour  out  thy  Spirit  upon  him,  his  Yokefellow,  Chil- 
dren, and  make  him  a  great  Blessing  to  thy  People. 

March  2.  Capt.  E.  Savage  was  buried,  aged  86.  I  suppose  the 
Eldest  Brother  of  our  Church.1     (J.  Sewall.) 

As  the  pew  set  apart  for  the  use  of  the  governors  in  King's 
Chapel  was  canopied,  it  was  thought  proper  to  distinguish  the 
official  pew  in  the  South  meeting-house  in  the  same  way. 

At  a  church  Meeting  April  5.  1731. 

Voted  —  1.  That  in  Honour  to  His  Excellency  our  Governour, 
there  be  a  decent  canopy  erected  over  his  Pew,  and  the  charge  born 
out  of  the  Church  stock. 

2.  That  the  committee  for  building  be  desired  to  take  care  of  this 
affair,  and  see  it  accomplished  as  soon  as  conveniently  may  be. 

3.  Whereas  the  Honble  Coll.  Fitch  hath  obliged  this  church  with  a 
new  set  of  Flaggons  ;  voted, 

1  [Ephraim     Savage,    son    of    Major  against  Quebec,  served  for  several  years 

Thomas  Savage,  graduated  at  Harvard  as  town  clerk,  and  was  a  representative. 

College  in    1662,  became  a  member  of  At  the  time  of  his    death,  Mr.  Savage 

the  church  in  1672,  was  captain  of  the  was  not  only  the  oldest  male   member 

artillery-  company  in   1683,  was  in  Phil-  of    the    South    Church,   but    the   oldest 

ip's   War  and    the  expedition    of    1690  graduate  of  Harvard  College.] 


THE  NEW  BELL   RAISED.  457 

That  three  of  the  Flaggons  formerly  used,  be  given  to  the  church 
in  Hopkinton  as  a  Token  of  our  brotherly  respect  and  Love. 

Joseph  Sewall. 

May  26.  Mr.  Fisk  preached  the  [Election]  Sermon  from  Psal.  101. 
6.  Mine  Eyes  shall  be  upon  the  Faithfull  of  the  Land.  Lord  Bless 
the  Labors  of  thy  Servant,  and  give  us  Faithfull  men  to  Rule  over  us. 
The  Ministers  met  at  my  House,  chose  Mr.  Colman  Moderator. 

May  27.  Met  again.  Mr.  Colman  is  chosen  to  receive  what  may 
be  Collected  for  Providence.  And  I  am  to  receive  what  may  be  Col- 
lected for  Kingston.  Lord  help  me  to  manage  that  Affair.  O  Let  the 
Gospel  be  settled  and  prevail  in  those  Places  !  There  was  a  Subscrip- 
tion for  Providence. 

July  8.  Mr.  Edwards  of  Northampton  preached  the  Lecture  from  1 
Cor  1.  29-31.     Lord  bless  the  labors  of  thy  Servant. 

Sept.  13.  On  the  10th  Inst.  Three  Indians,  that  are  come  hither 
from  the  Eastward,  visited  me  :  I  endeavour'd,  by  the  help  of  Capt. 
Gyles,  to  speak  to  them  about  the  great  matters  of  religion.  Lord 
turn  these  poor  people  from  darkness  to  light. 

Sept.  15.  The  Indians  were  at  my  House  again  with  some  that 
came  more  lately.  Mr.  Prince  and  I  spake  to  them  about  religion. 
O  Lord  save  them,  and  bring  them  to  the  knowledge  of  the  Truth. 
In  the  Evening,  one  of  them,  (Sam)  wou'd  needs  ride  —  the  Horse 
ran  away  with  him  and  threw  him  so  that  he  died  presently. 

Sept.  17.  Dean  Berkley  visited  the  College.  Coll.  Hutchinson 
and  I  overtook  him  at  Mr.  Brindley's.1 

Oct.  2.  This  Day  the  Bell  was  rais'd.  Lord  I  thank  thee  for  this 
Gift.  Let  thy  people  rejoice  to  hear  the  joyfull  Sound  calling  them 
to  thy  public  Worship.2     (J.  Sewall.) 

1  [Dean  Berkeley,  afterward  Bishop  ployed  therein,  The  Select  men  also  Ap- 
of  Cloyne,  preached  at  King's  Chapel  proving  of  him,  as  a  Suitable  Person,  it 
on  Sunday,  September  12,  from  1  Tim.     was 

iii.  16.    "  And,  without  controversy,  great  "  Voted,  That  the  Care  and  Charge  of 

is  the  mystery  of    godliness,  etc."     He  Ringing  the  said  Bell  be,  and  hereby  is 

sailed  for  England  September  21.]  Committed  to  the  said  John  Chambers; 

2  [Benjamin  Walker  writes,  October  2,  Who  is  accordingly  Directed  and  ordered 
1731,  "  they  hang'd  their  new  great  bell,"  Constantly  and  Carefully  to  attend  that 
at  the  South  meeting-house.  "  Weighs  Service  as  Usual,  at  the  Hours  of  Nine, 
1000."  This  bell  was  first  used  for  town  Five,  and  Eleven,  as  aforesaid.  For  which 
purposes  in  1736.  At  a  meeting  of  the  he  is  to  be  paid  after  the  Rate  of  Eigh- 
selectmen,  Aug.  27,  1736:  "Mr.  Sendall  teen  pounds  p  annum  agreeable  to  a  Vote 
Williams  having  signified  his  readiness  of  the  Town,  as  Entred  may  21,  1735.  to 
to  resign  the  Care  of  Ringing  the  Old  be  paid  Quarterly,  Commencing  on 
Church  Bell  at  9.  5  &  11  o'clock,  as  En-  Wednesday  the  first  of  September  next." 
tred  the  14th  July  last,  And  his  Quarter  —  Town  Records. 

now  Expiring,  And  Whereas  Mr.  John  "  The  evening  and  the  morning  "  then 

Chambers,   the    Sexton    of    the    South  made  the  day  ;  hence  the  order  in  which 

Church  appears  and  offers  to  Undertake  the  hours  are  here  given  :  9  p.  m.,  5  a.  m., 

that  Service  Praying  that  he  may  be  Em-  11   a.    m.      John   Chambers   joined  the 


45§  HISTORY  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

At  a  church  Meeting  Oct.  19.  1731 

Voted  —  That  there  be  a  publick  collection  on  the  Anniversary 
Thanksgiving  next  insuing  Octr  28  current;  The  money  collected  to 
be  disposed  of  to  pious  and  charitable  uses  as  this  church  shall  from 
time  to  time  determine. 

Collected  128.  14.  2  Joseph  Sewall. 

Nov.  1.  I  waited  on  the  Governour  to  Cambridge  to  an  Overseer's 
Meeting.  Messrs.  Colman  and  Prince  were  also  in  the  Coach.  There 
was  a  Committee  chosen  to  Consider  the  State  of  the  College,  and 
make  a  report.  O  Lord  pour  out  thy  Spirit  on  this  Society,  and  re- 
form whatever  is  amiss.  Towards  the  close,  the  Governour  gave  to 
the  Rev.  Mr.  Colman  and  myself  Diplomas  from  the  University  of 
Glasgow  for  Doctors  in  Divinity.1 

Nov.  8.  The  Society  for  propagating  Christian  Knowledge  at 
Edinburgh  have  sent  a  Deputation  to  his  Excellency  and  several 
others,  wherein  they  are  empower'd  to  Act  for  them  here,  partly  to 
appoint  three  Missionaries  to  carry  the  Gospel  to  the  Indians,  who  are 
to  be  allow'd  twenty  pounds  sterling,  each  of  them.  O  Lord  smile  on 
this  good  Work !  Give  thy  gracious  direction  and  assistance  to  thy 
Servants,  and  bless  their  Endeavours  that  Christ's  Kingdom  may  be 
enlarged.     (J.  Sewall.) 

At  a  church  Meeting  Febr.  7.  173 1-2 

Voted  —  I.  That  there  be  given  out  of  the  collection  for  pious  and 
charitable  uses,  a  sum  not  exceeding  Sixty  pounds,  to  supply  the  Poor 
of  this  church  and  congregation  with  Wood  and  other  Necessaries. 

II.  That  there  be  allowed  out  of  the  collection  to  Mr.  Joseph  Torrey, 
the  sum  of  eighteen  pounds  for  his  support  and  encouragement  in 
preaching  the  Gospel  at  South  Kingston,  in  Narraganset. 

III.  That  a  letter  be  written  by  our  Rev'd  Pastors  to  Francis  Wilkes 
Esq.,  expressing  our  grateful  sense  of  his  generous  Kindness  in  pre- 
senting a  large  Bible  to  this  church.2 

church  February  18,    1727-S.     William  Age  to    Age   to   select   and   dignify  an 

Dinsdall  rang  the  South  Church  bell  be-  eminent  Pastor  or  two  with  your  highest 

fore  Chambers.     Bumstead  records  his  academical  Honours  ;  That  in  Character 

death,  October  5,  1723.]  and  Style,  they  may  appear  equal  to  the 

1  [Dr.  Colman  wrote    to  the  vice-chan-  assuming   gentlemen   of    the   Episcopal 

cellor,  November  7,  1731 : —  Profession  who  are  growing  on  us,  while 

"It   will    be    mine    and   my   Brother  in    Labours    and    Humility   as   well   as 

Sewall's  Ambition,  to  tread  in  the  steps  Learning,  I  trust  they  will  not  be  content 

of  so  worthy  a  Predecessor  [as  Dr.  Cot-  to   be    meerly    Equal."  —  Turell's   Life, 

ton  Mather],  and  by  our  Services  to  the  p.  160.] 

Interest   of   Religion    and   Learning,  to         2  [Mr.  Wilkes,  afterward  Sir  Francis 

render  ourselves  worthy  of  the  Regards  Wilkes,  was  a  merchant  in  London,  for 

you  have  shown   us.     Nor  will  it  be  a  several  years  the  agent  of  the  province, 

small  Service,  I  judge,  to  the  Churches  and    a  warm    personal    friend    of  Gov- 

of  this  nourishing  City  and  Province,  if  ernor  Belcher.     See  the  action   of    the 

your  renowned    University  please   from  church  April  24,  1737.] 


DEATH  OF  DANIEL    OLIVER.  459 

IV.  That  two  of  the  Flaggons  formerly  used,  be  presented  to  the 
Indian  church  of  which  the  Revd.  Mr.  Experience  Mayhew  is  Pastor, 
as  a  Token  of  our  brotherly  Respect  and  Love. 

Joseph  Sewall. 

At  a  church  Meeting  March  28.  1732. 

Voted  —  I.  That  there  be  a  publick  collection  on  the  Anniversary 
Fast  next  insuing,  April  6  ;  The  money  collected  to  be  disposed  of  to 
pious  and  charitable  uses  as  this  church  shall  determine. 

II.  That  the  Congregation  be  notified  of  this  vote  ;  and  be  desired 
to  concur  with  the  church  in  the  said  collection. 

Joseph  Sewall. 

Mr.  Samuel  Mather  was  ordained  as  colleague  pastor  at  the 
Second  Church  with  Mr.  Gee,  June  21,  about  four  years  after 
the  death  of  his  father,  Dr.  Cotton  Mather.  "  He  was  recom- 
mended to  the  church,  not  only  by  their  respect  for  the  ancient 
family,  but  by  his  own  character  for  diligence,  zeal  and  learning, 
of  which  he  certainly  possessed  an  uncommon  share.  He  had 
already  made  himself  known  at  home  and  abroad  by  several 
publications."  x  Mr.  Mather  preached  from  2  Cor.  v.  20.  Mr. 
Gee  and  Dr.  Sewall  prayed  ;  Dr.  Colman  gave  the  charge,  and 
Mr.  Cheever  the  right  hand  of  fellowship. 

The  Hon.  Daniel  Oliver,  a  brother-in-law  of  Governor  Belcher, 
died  July  23. 2  He  was  a  member  of  the  council,  and  "one  of 
the  most  considerable  merchants  of  this  place."  He  joined  the 
South  Church  in  1689,  and  took  an  active  interest  in  its  affairs. 
He  was  distinguished  for  "  eminent  piety,  humility,  and  charity," 
and  he  made  a  large  bequest  for  the  Christian  education  of 
poor  children.3     Mr.  Prince  preached  his  funeral  sermon  at  the 

1  Two  Discourses,  1821,  by  the  Rev.  July  2.  "Several  of  our  Communion 
Henry  Ware,  Jr.,  pp.  22,  23.  Mr.  having  died  of  late  I  preached  from 
Mather  was   chosen  January  28,   1732:     Eccles.  8.  8." 

"  Mr.  Mather  69  votes,  Mr.  B.  40."  Three  July  20.     "  I  visited  Mr.  Oliver,  who 

days  before,  the  church  observed  a  day  last  night  was  seis'd  with  the  Palsy.     He 

of     prayer    and     fasting  ;     Mr.    Prince  lies  in  a  sort  of  stupor." 

preached  a  sermon  in  the  forenoon,  en-  July  23.     "  I  visited  Mr.  Oliver  early. 

titled  The  Dying  Prayer  of  Christ,  which  About  Noon  He  died.  ...  I  have  lost  a 

was  printed.     Dr.  Colman  preached  in  good  Friend." 

the  afternoon.  July  26.     "This  day  were  Buried,  Mrs. 

2  June  28.  "  On  the  18  of  this  Instant  Elisabeth  Green,  only  daughter  of  Mrs. 
the  aged  Mr.  Manley  of  our  Communion  Eliz.  Brattle  aet.  24,  A  pious  young 
was  buried.  On  the  21,  Mrs.  Margaret  woman  —  After  her,  the  Honble.  Dan. 
Davis."  Oliver  Esq.    a  person   eminent   for  his 

June  29.  "  Mrs.  Alford,  and  Mrs.  Han-  piety  and  charity." 

nah  Davis  were  buried.     Lord  Sanctify  3  His  will  was   signed  December  17, 

to  this   Flock   the   repeated   strokes  of  1731,   and   proved  August  7,  1732.      It 

thine  Hand."  provides:    "Imprimis,    I    give   and   be- 


460  HISTORY  OF   THE   OLD   SOUTH  CHURCH. 

Thursday  lecture.  Five  years  before,  his  son  Daniel  Oliver  — 
baptized  by  Mr.  Pemberton,  January  16,  1703-4.  graduated  at 
Harvard  College,  1722,  M.  A.  1725  —  died  of  small-pox  in  Lon- 
don "  as  he  was  finishing  his  travels  and  returning  to  his  friends 
and  country."  He  was  a  young  man  of  much  promise,  and  Mr. 
Prince  preached  and  published  a  discourse  suggested  by  his 
early  death,  entitled :  Young  Abel  Dead  yet  Speaketh.  Another 
son,  Andrew  Oliver  (Harvard  College,  1724),  married  a  daughter 
of  Colonel  Thomas  Fitch,  and  became  prominent  in  public  life. 

At  a  church  Meeting  Octr.  17.  1732. 

Voted — I.  That  there  be  given  out  of  the  collection  for  charitable 
and  pious  uses,  a  sum  not  exceeding  fifty  Pounds,  to  supply  the  Poor 
of  this  church  and  congregation  from  time  to  time,  with  Wood  and 
other  Necessaries. 

II.  That  there  be  allowed  out  of  the  collection  to  the  Revd.  Mr. 
Josiah  Cotton  the  sum  of  ten  pounds  towards  his  support  and  en- 
couragement in  Preaching  the  Gospel  at  Providence. 

III.  That  there  be  allowed  out  of  the  collection  to  Mr.  White  the 
sum  of  ten  Pounds  towards  his  support  and  encouragement  in  preach- 
ing the  Gospel  at  Nantucket.1 

IV.  That  there  be  allowed  out  of  the  collection  to  the  Revd.  Mr. 
Joseph  Torrey,  the  sum  of  ten  Pounds  towards  his  support  and  en- 
couragement in  Preaching  the  Gospel  at  South  Kingston  in  Narra- 
ganset. 

queath  my  house  adjoining  to  Barton's  591;  Memorial  History  of Boston,  vol.  ii. 

Rope- Walk,  called  Spinning  House,  with  p.  539.     Mrs.  Oliver  died  May  21,  1735, 

the  Lands  as  now  fenced  in,  —  about  fifty  and  her  funeral  sermon,  by  Mr.  Prince, 

feet  square, — with  all   the   profits  and  is  in  the  Prince  Library, 

incomes   of   it,  as  it  now  stands   in  my  1  ["Boston,   April    18.    1728,    at    the 

books  (since   built),  for  ever  to  be  im-  House  of  William  Welsteed  Esqr. 

proved  for  learning  poor  children  of  the  "  Upon  Consideration  had  of  the  In- 

town  of  Boston   to   read   the  Word  of  troduction  of  Mr.  Timothy  White  into 

God,  and    to  write   if   need   be,  or  any  the  stated  Preaching   of  the  Gospel  on 

other   work   of    charity   for   the   public  the  Island  of  Nantucket :    And  having 

good,  according  to  the  discretion  of  my  received  from  him  a  serious  Declaration, 

executors  and  executrix,  hereafter  men-  and  Assurance  of  his  Willingness  to  en- 

tioned,  with  the  advice  of  the  ministers  ter  also  upon  the  Service  of  the  Souls  of 

of  the  brick  South   Meeting-house   and  the  Indians  on  said  Island  ;  Voted  that 

their  successors ;  and  at  the  decease  of  Fifty  Pounds  of  the  Money  put  into  our 

my  said  executors  and  executrix,  to  be  Hands    by   the    Reverend   Mr.  Thomas 

put  into  the  hands  of  the  selectmen  or  Cotton  of  Hamstead  near  London,  be 

overseers  of  the  poor   of   the   town    of  advanced  to  Mr.  Timothy  White  for  his 

Boston,  as  the  minister  or  ministers  of  encouragement  and  Support  in  that  Ser- 

the    said    South    Brick    Meeting-house  vice. 

shall  advise,  to  improve  said  charity  for  Saml  Sewall 

said  public  use."     The  property  devised  Wm  Welsteed 

had  cost  Mr.  Oliver  about  ,£600.     See  Benja  Colman." 

Drake's  Hist,  and  Antiq.,  pp.  560,  561,  Sewall's  Letter  Book,  vol.  ii.  p.  240.] 


HOLLIS  STREET   CHURCH.  46 1 

V.  That  the  Remainder,  being  about  six  Pounds,  be  allowed  to  Mr. 
John  Cleverly,  for  his  preaching  the  Gospel  at  Freetown. 

VI.  That  the  committee  for  building  the  Meeting-House,  be  desired 
to  lay  their  accounts  before  the  church  at  their  next  Meeting. 

VII.  That  there  be  a  committee  to  survey  the  Ministerial  Houses 
which  are  out  of  Repair,  and  make  a  Report  to  the  church  at  their 
next  Meeting.  That  Mr.  Pemberton,  Mr.  Cushing,  Mr.  Durant,  and 
Mr.  Foster  be  of  this  committee. 

VIII.  Whereas  the  church  stock  is  not  sufficient  to  bear  the  charges 
of  paying  for  the  Ministers'  wood,  and  necessary  Repairs  of  the  Min- 
isters' Houses  ;  Voted  — 

That  there  be  a  publick  collection  on  the  Lord's  Day,  29th  of  this 
Instant.  Joseph  Sewall. 

The  South  Church  took  much  interest  in  the  gathering  of 
Hollis  Street  Church,  which  was  formed  November  14.  Gov- 
ernor Belcher  gave  the  land  on  which  the  meeting-house  had 
been  built  j1  Dr.  Sewall  drew  up  the  form  of  covenant ;  and  the 
following  members  of  the  church  and  congregation  joined  the 
new  organization  :  John  Clough,  Caleb  Eddy,  John  Bennett, 
Henry  Gibbon,  Joseph  Payson,  and  Isaac  Loring.  Mather 
Byles,  grandson  of  Increase  Mather,  was  ordained  as  its  first 
minister,  December  20. 2 

Mr.  Joseph  Maylem  died  January  29,  1733,  in  the  seventy- 
fifth  year  of  his  age.  He  had  kept  a  private  house  of  entertain- 
ment in  School  Street.  By  his  will,  he  left  five  pounds  to  each 
of  the  ministers,  and  twenty  pounds  to  the  poor  of  the  South 
Church.3  His  widow,  "a  very  discreet,  industrious  woman," 
died  a  few  weeks  later,  March  6. 

1  "  Governor  Belcher  resided  [or  had  Nov.  14.  1732.  "  This  day  was  kept 
a  residence]  in  Orange  Street  in  1732.  as  a  Day  of  Prayer  by  the  New  Society 
Shaw  says  he  resided  in  King  Street,  and  at  the  South.  Mr.  Checkly  began,  then 
that  the  State  Bank  occupied  the  site  Mr.  Cooper  prayd.  Dr.  Colman  preach'd 
of  his  residence.  I  locate  him  by  the  from  2  Cor.  8.  5.  Then  Mr.  Webb  prayd. 
selectmen's  books,  in  which  they  record,  Thirteen  of  the  Brethren  entred  into 
January  12,  that  '  His  Excellency  Gov-  Covenant,  forming  a  distinct  Church.  I 
ernor  Belcher  had  liberty  granted  him  to  read  the  Covenant  to  them  and  then 
dig  up  the  pavement  to   carry  a  drain  Pray'd." 

from  his  house  in  Orange  Street '"  etc.  Dec.    20.      "Mr.   Byles   was   ordain'd 

—  Drake's    Hist,  and  Antiq.   of  Boston,  Pastor  to  the  New  Church.     Mr.  Prince 

p.  585.  began,  with  Prayr.     Mr.  Byles  preach'd 

2  July  6.  1731.  "I  pray'd  with  the  from  2  Tim  3.  17.  Then  Mr.  Walter 
men  who  this  Day  Raise  the  New-Meet-  pray'd.  I  gave  the  Charge.  (Dr.  Col- 
ing  House  at  the  South  End.  Lord  man  was  chosen,  but  declin'd  it,)  and 
overrule  that  Affair  for  the  Advance-  Dr.  Colman  the  right  Hand  of  Fellow- 
ment  of  Christ's  Kingdom  in  the  Town:  ship."     (J.  Sewall.) 

Let  Him  Increase."  3  Neither  his  name,  nor  that   of   his 


462  HISTORY  OF   THE    OLD   SOUTH   CHURCH. 

At  a  church  Meeting  March  20.  1733. 

Voted  —  I.  That  there  be  a  publick  collection  on  the  Anniversary 
Fast  next  ensuing,  March  29 ;  the  money  collected  to  be  disposed  of 
to  charitable  and  pious  uses  as  this  church  shall  determine. 

II.  That  the  congregation  be  notified  of  this  vote,  and  be  desired 
to  concur  with  the  church  in  the  said  collection. 

III.  That  the  Deacons  be  desired  in  the  best  manner  they  can,  to 
procure  two  Velvet  Palls,  one  for  grown  persons  and  the  other  for 
children,  out  of  the  money  collected  at  the  communion,  for  the  benefit 
of  the  Poor  of  this  church.  Joseph  Sewall. 

Collected  87.  10.  3 
For  Mr.  Hale  5^. 

Deacon  Bartholomew  Green  had  died  December  28,  1732,  "a 
pious  worthy  man,"  says  Dr.  Sewall.  We  have  already  quoted 
from  a  notice  of  him  in  the  News-Letter,  the  paper  which  he 
printed  for  nearly  thirty  years,  and  of  which  he  had  been  the 
proprietor  since  1722.  He  was  a  son  of  Samuel  Green,  "the 
famous  printer  of  Cambridge,"  who  came  to  New  England  with 
Governor  Winthrop  in  1630.  The  church  chose  as  the  successor 
of  Deacon  Green,  Jonathan  Simpson,  "a  noted  shopkeeper"  of 
the  town,  who  lived  to  a  venerable  age.  He  had  been  admitted 
to  the  membership  in  1707.  His  name  appears  on  a  petition 
with  the  names  of  Samuel  Adams,  Thomas  Peck  and  others,  in 
171 5,  for  leave  to  erect  a  meeting-house  in  Summer  Street ;  but 
if  at  that  time  he  thought  of  assisting  in  this  new  religious 
enterprise,  he  afterward  changed  his  mind. 

At  a  church  Meeting  Augt.  7.  1733. 

Mr.  Jonathan  Simpson  was  chosen  into  the  Deacon's  office ;  And 
the  Pastors  and  Deacons  of  the  church  were  appointed  to  acquaint 
him  with  the  choice  the  church  hath  made,  and  to  beg  his  acceptance 
of  it. 

Voted  —  That  the  House  in  which  our  Rev'd.  Pastor,  Mr.  Thomas 

wife  Hannah,  is  on  the  list  of  members,         John   Maylem   was   baptized  January 

but  Dr.  Sewall,  in  recording  their  deaths  20,    1694-5,  and  graduated  at  Harvard 

in  his  diary,  says  that  they  were  "  of  our  College,    with     Samuel    Checkley    (the 

communion.      Seven   of    their   children  third),  in   171 5.      He  wrote  two  poems 

were  baptized  at  the  South  Church  be-  entitled  respectively,  The  Conquest  of 

tween    1689   and    1703.      Drake    thinks  Louisburg,  and  Gallic  Perfidy,  for  which 

that  Joseph  Maylem  may  have  been  a  see  Tyler's  Hist,  of  Am.  Literature,  vol.  ii. 

son  of  "John  Mylam,"  one  of  the  signers  p.  54.     Of  the  first,  the  critic  says  that  it 

of  the  paper  urging  the  building  of  the  is  "  tumultuous,  gory  and  gigantesque." 

new  meeting  house  of  the  First  Church  Children  of  John  and  Ann  Maylem  were 

in  1639,  on  the  Green.    See  ante,  pp.  135-  baptized  at  the  South  Church  between 

139-  1734  and  1739. 


A   MISSION  TO    THE  INDIANS.  463 

Prince  dwells,  be  new  shingled  so  soon  as  conveniently  may  be;  And 
that  the  committee  appointed  to  survey  the  Ministerial  Houses,  be  a 
committee  to  manage  this  affair.  Joseph  Sewall. 

At  a  church  Meeting  Augt  14.  1733. 

The  account  of  the  committee  for  repairing  the  Ministerial  Houses 
was  read  and  accepted  ;  And  the  thanks  of  the  church  given  for  their 
care  and  pains' in  this  affair. 

Voted  —  I.  That  the  Honble.  Thomas  Fitch,  Anthony  Stoddard 
Esqrs.  Messrs.  Hugh  Vans,  Thomas  Cushing  junr.  and  John  Hunt  be 
a  committee  to  examine  the  accounts  of  the  committee  for  building 
and  of  the  Treasurer ;  and  make  a  Report  to  the  church  on  Wednes- 
day the  29th  of  this  Instant. 

Any  Three  of  them  to  have  power  to  act. 

II.  That  the  Committee  for  building  take  care  that  the  weight  of 
the  Tongue  of  our  Bell  be  increased  according  to  their  best  Discretion. 

Joseph  Sewall. 

At  a  church  Meeting  Septr.  5.  1733 

Whereas  by  the  Report  of  a  committee  specially  appointed  by  the 
church  Augt.  14.  1733,  it  appears  necessary  to  raise  very  speedily 
469.  12.  7.  viz. 


To  defray  the  charge  of  repairing  the  Minis- 
terial Houses       ..... 

To  pay  for  wood  for  our  Rev'd  Pastors   , 

To  defray  the  charge  of  Paving,  Posts  &c 
about  the  Meeting  House    . 

To  pay  the  balance  due  for  building  the  Meet 
ins  House  ...... 


150. 
116. 


59.   18.     9. 

143-   J3-   io- 
£469.   12.     7. 


Therefore  voted,  that  Messrs.  Jonathan  Loring,  Samuel  Rand, 
Daniel  Goffe  and  John  Trail  be  a  committee  to  take  subscriptions  for 
raising  the  said  sum,  and  to  pay  it  to  the  Treasurer  for  the  Purposes 
above  said. 

Voted,  That  the  Honble.  Thomas  Fitch,  Anthony  Stoddard  and 
George  Bethune  Esqrs.  be  added  to  the  committee  for  increasing  the 
weight  of  the  Tongue  of  our  Bell.  Joseph  Sewall. 

In  1709  the  Society  in  Scotland  for  Propagating  Christian 
Knowledge  was  chartered  under  the  great  seal  of  Scotland. 
Its  primary  object  had  been  to  carry  the  gospel  to  destitute 
places  in  the  highlands  and  islands  of  Scotland ;  but  before 
many  years  it  directed  its  attention  to  North  America.  In 
1730  Governor  Belcher,  Dr.   Colman,  Dr.   Sewall,  and  others, 


464  HISTORY  OF   THE   OLD   SOUTH   CHURCH. 

were  commissioned  to  be  its  correspondents  and  agents,  and 
were  authorized  to  select  and  employ  missionaries  in  New  Eng- 
land. On  the  1 2th  of  December,  1733,  three  young  men,  recent 
graduates  of  Harvard  College,  Stephen  Parker,  Ebenezer  Hins- 
dell,  and  Joseph  Seccombe,1  were  solemnly  set  apart  to  mission- 
ary labors  among  the  Indians.  Dr.  Colman  was  moderator  of 
the  ordaining  council,  and  gave  the  charge  ;  Dr.  Sewall  preached 
the  sermon,  and  Mr.  Prince  gave  the  right  hand  of  fellowship. 
Dr.  Sewall's  text  was  Acts  xxvi.  16-19  \  and  his  subject,  Christ 
Victorious  over  the  Powers  of  Darkness,  by  the  Light  of  His 
Preached  Gospel.  In  urging  the  claims  of  the  mission  upon  his 
audience,  he  said  :  — 

Give  me  leave  then  humbly  to  recommend  to  you  this  pious  Charity, 
which  hath  such  a  direct  tendency  to  promote  the  glory  of  God  and 
best  interests  of  men.  Blessed  be  God  for  what  hath  been  done 
this  way  more  privately,  and  by  our  worshipping  assemblies  in  their 
collections.  I  wish  that  excellent  proposal  might  be  generally  accepted, 
viz.  The  having  publick  collections  for  pious  and  charitable  uses  on 
our  anniversary  Fasts  and  Thanksgivings.  In  this  way  we  might 
honour  God  with  our  substance,  and  give  our  helping  hand  towards 
propagating  Christian  Knowledge  among  our  own  people  and  the 
aboriginal  natives :  And  certainly  the  generous  compassion  express'd 
towards  this  poor  people  by  the  Honourable  Societies  in  South  and 
North  Britain,  should  provoke  us  to  an  holy  emulation  ;  especially 
considering  God  hath  given  us  the  possession  of  this  good  land  which 
their  ancestors  once  inhabited ;  and  that  this  was  the  professed  inten- 
tion of  our  pious  progenitors,  the  first  planters  of  this  country.2 

1  Mr.  Parker  and  Mr.  Hinsdell  gradu-  the  12th  Instant.     I  spake  with  one  to- 

ated  in  1727,  and  Mr.  Seccombe  in  1731.  day,  who  met  them  well  at  Plainfield." 

Ebenezer  Hinsdell  was  baptized  at  the  Mr.  Seccombe  joined  the  South  Church 

South  Church  under  peculiarly  affecting  before  he  went  to  college.     In  the  Mass. 

circumstances.     Judge  Sewall,  writing  to  Archives  there  is  a  memorial,  addressed 

the    Rev.    John    Williams,    August    22,  by  him,  September  22,  1737,  to  Governor 

1706,  of   a   party  of  captives  who  had  Belcher,  asking  for  a  grant  of  £  100  for 

recently  arrived  in  Boston,  probably  from  "  his  Essays  as  Missionary  to  the  Indians, 

Canada,  on  their  way  home  to  central  for  above  five  Years,  at  the  Garrison  on 

Massachusetts,  said  :  —  St.  George's  River,  agreeable  to  an  Act 

"  As   you   prayd    earnestly   for   those  of  the  General  Assembly." 

that  returned  last ;   so  you  will  be  glad  2  [Such    a    collection   as   Dr.    Sewall 

to  hear,  that  they  Landed  well  here  the  here  recommended  had   been  regularly 

2d  Instant.     I  took  the  widow  Hoit  into  taken  in  the  South  Church  since  March, 

my  House.     It  was  a  great  pleasure,  to  1726. 

see  Mr.  Willard  baptise  Ebenezer  Hins-  Gookin,  writing  in  i67i,said  that  "for 

dal,  and  Sea-born  Burt,  two  little  Sons  this    Charity    [the   propagation    of    the 

born  in  the  passage.     The  Captives  most  Gospel  among  the  Indians]  New  Eng- 

of  them,  began  their  journey  homeward  land  people  had  done  not  less,  but  far 


A   MISSIONARY  CHARGE.  465 

In  addressing  the  candidates  for  ordination,  Dr.  Sewall  gave 
the  following  "  Compendium  or  Summary  of  Christian  Religion 
agreeable  to  the  Scriptures,"  to  be  often  inculcated  among  the 
natives,  which,  for  its  practical  good  sense,  it  would  be  difficult 
for  those  who  give  instructions  to  Christian  missionaries  to-day 
to  improve  upon  :  — 

Declare  to  them  the  only  true  and  living  God,  who  made  Heaven 
and  Earth,  and  all  things  in  them  ;  and  that  He  made  Man  upright,  in 
His  own  Image.  Shew  them  their  vile  and  miserable  State  by  the 
Fall.  Declare  to  them  that  this  God,  who  is  the  Father  and  the  Son 
and  the  Holy  Ghost,  hath  contriv'd  a  way  in  which  they  may  be  de- 
liver'd  from  their  Sin  and  Misery.  That  in  order  to  this,  the  Eternal 
Son  of  God  hath  taken  our  Nature,  and  became  Man ;  that  he  was 
obedient  to  Death,  the  Death  of  the  Cross,  rose  again  from  the  Dead, 
and  lives  in  Heaven  to  intercede  for  his  People.  Declare  to  them 
that  this  Jesus  is  the  only  Mediator  between  God  and  Man ;  and  that 
they  must  pray  to  God  in  His  Name  only.  Shew  them  the  necessity 
of  turning  from  all  Sin  to  God  in  true  Repentance  ;  and  of  receiving 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  by  Faith,  and  depending  on  His  Righteousness 
for  Pardon  and  Justification.  Declare  to  them  that  God  alone  hath 
power  to  forgive  Sins.  Shew  them  the  nature  and  use  of  the  holy 
Sacraments,  and  that  those  which  Christ  hath  instituted  are  only  two, 
Baptism  and  the  Lord's  Supper ;  and  labour  to  maintain  in  them  an 
high  esteem  of  them.  Shew  them  that  they  must  be  taught  the  Prin- 
ciples of  the  Christian  Religion,  and  subject  themselves  to  the  Au- 
thority and  Laws  of  Christ,  before  these  may  be  administered  to  them  : 
That  if  they  would  receive  saving  benefit  by  Baptism,  they  must  also 
seek  the  washing  of  Regeneration,  and  renewing  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
for  themselves  and  their  Offspring,  that  being  born  of  Water  and  of 
the  Spirit  they  may  enter  into  the  Kingdom  of  God.  Teach  them  that 
the  Lord's  Supper  must  be  receiv'd  by  the  Communicants  in  both 
Elements,  Bread  and  Wine  ;  and  that  tis  contrary  to  Sense  Reason 
and  Scripture,  to  imagine,  that  these  are  turn'd  into  the  very  Body 
and  Blood  of  Christ;  and  therefore  that  Christ,  who  is  spiritually 
present  with  his  People,  must  be  apprehended  and  received  by  faith, 
if  they  would  partake  in  the  saving  virtues  of  his  Death.     And  take 

more  in  proportion,  than  their  country-  ters.     That  seal,  so  unique  in  the  annals 

men   in   England."  —  Palfrey's    History,  of  our  race,  —  an  Indian  uttering  the  Ma- 

vol.  ii.  p.  332.  cedonian  cry,  —  expressed  the  thoughts 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Treat  said  at  a  meeting  of  many  hearts.  Hence  those  laws,  passed 

of    the   American    Board   at    Salem,   in  from  time    to   time,  which    might   have 

1S71:    "The  colonies  of  Plymouth  and  been  indexed  '  Missionary  laws.'    Hence 

Massachusetts,  let  us  never  forget,  had  that   early   yearning   to  '  preach  among 

a  missionary  purpose.      Their   charters  the  Gentiles  the  unsearchable  riches  of 

were,  in  some  degree,  missionary  char-  Christ.' "] 


466  HISTORY  OF   THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

heed  you  never  prostitute  these  Sacred  Mysteries  of  our  holy  Religion, 
by  administring  them  to  any  under  Heathen  Ignorance,  under  Romish 
Idolatry,  or  that  live  and  allow  themselves  in  open  and  scandalous 
Immoralities.  Declare  to  them  the  Commandments  of  the  Moral 
Law.  That  God  only  is  the  Object  of  Prayer,  and  all  religious  Wor- 
ship. Tell  them,  forasmuch  as  we  are  the  Offspring  of  God,  we  are 
not  to  think  that  the  God-Head  is  like  unto  Gold,  or  Silver  or  Stone, 
graven  by  art,  and  Man's  device  :  that  it  is  a  most  hainous  crime  to 
worship  God  by  Images ;  and  that  He  who  is  a  jealous  God,  threatens 
to  punish  this  Iniquity  upon  Parents  and  their  Children,  unto  the  third 
and  fourth  Generation.  Teach  them  to  Sanctify  the  Sabbath  Dayj 
and  in  a  word,  the  necessity  of  a  sober  righteous  and  godly  Life  :  In 
particular,  do  all  you  can  to  convince  them  of  the  great  Evil  of  that 
Sin  which  most  easily  besets  them,  and  to  keep  them  from  it ;  lest 
they  wholly  forget  God's  Law,  and  quench  every  good  motion  of  His 
Spirit :  Solemnly  warn  them  of  the  Destruction  they  are  bringing  upon 
themselves  by  it,  and  how  they  are  consuming  away  under  the  deadly 
influence  of  it.  Declare  to  them  that  God  alone  can  change  their 
Hearts,  enable  them  to  hate  Sin  and  love  his  Law  ;  and  then  direct 
them  to  ask  of  God  His  Holy  Spirit,  to  sanctify  them,  and  create 
them  in  Christ  Jesus  unto  good  Works.  And  shew  them  that  when 
they  have  done  all,  they  must  Trust  in  the  Merits  of  Jesus  Christ 
and  not  presume  to  think  that  they  can  merit  by  their  good  Works.1 

At  a  church  Meeting  Febr.  i.  1733-4 

Voted,  1.  That  there  be  given  out  of  the  Collection  for  charitable 
and  pious  uses,  a  sum  not  exceeding  fifty  Pounds,  including  ten 
pounds  already  dispos'd  of,  to  supply  the  poor  of  this  Church  and 
Congregation  with  Wood  and  other  Necessaries. 

2.  That  there  be  allow'd  out  of  the  Collection  — ,  to  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Joseph  Torrey,  the  sum  of  ten  pounds  towards  his  support  and  en- 
couragement in  Preaching  the  Gospel  at  South-Kingston  in  Narra- 
ganset. 

3.  That  there  be  allow'd  out  of  the  Collection,  to  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Josiah  Cotton,  the  sum  of  five  pounds  towards  his  support  and  en- 
couragement in  Preaching  the  Gospel  at  Providence. 

4.  That  there  be  allow'd  out  of  the  Collection  to  Mr.  White,  the 
sum  of  five  pounds,  towards  his  support  and  encouragement  in  Preach- 
ing the  Gospel  at  Nantucket. 

1  [These    doctrines,  as    set   forth   by         "  They  were  separated  to  their  work, 

Dr.   Sewall,  were  evidently  intended  to  and  commended  to  the  grace  of  God,  in 

counteract  the  teachings  of  the  Roman  this   house,  in  the  presence    of   a  great 

Catholic    missionaries.       Dr.    Chauncy,  multitude  of  pious  good  people.      But, 

preaching  the  ordination  sermon  of  the  upon  trial,  they  found  themselves  unable 

Rev.  Joseph  Bowman,  August  31,  1762,  to  serve  the  ends  of  the  gospel  among 

said   of    the    three    ministers    ordained  these  Indians ;  as  they  had  been  previ- 

twenty-nine  years  before  : —  ously  corrupted  by  popish  priests."] 


DEATH  OF  EDWARD    BROMFIELD.  467 

5.  The  Account  of  the  Committee  for  New  Shingling  the  Rev'd 
Mr.  Prince's  House  was  read  and  accepted  ;  And  the  Thanks  of  the 
Church  given  to  the  Committee  for  their  care  and  pains  taken  in  that 
Affair. 

6.  That  the  Treasurer  for  building,  be  directed  to  Pay  to  the  Com- 
mittee for  repairing  the  Ministerial  Houses,  their  several  Accounts,  so 
soon  as  may  be.  Joseph  Sewall. 

At  a  Church  Meeting  March  27.  1734. 

Voted  ;  1.  Whereas  the  Subscriptions  towards  defraying  the  Charges 
of  repairing  the  Ministerial  Houses  and  paying  for  our  Rev'd  Pastors 
Wood,  are  deficient  about  one  hundred  Pounds ; 

Voted,  that  there  be  a  public  Collection  on  the  Anniversary  Fast 
next  insuing,  April  4.  to  make  up  this  Deficiency. 

2.  That  there  be  given  out  of  the  Church-Stock,  the  Sum  of  ten 
Pounds  to  Mrs.  Jane  Green,  Relict  of  Mr.  Bartholomew  Green,  late 
Deacon  of  this  Church,  in  Consideration  of  her  Loss  sustain'd  by 
Fire.1 

3.  That  the  Residue  of  the  Collection  for  charitable  and  pious  uses, 
be  laid  out  in  Bibles,  Catechisms,  and  other  Books  of  piety,  to  be  dis- 
pos'd  of  by  the  Pastors  to  proper  Objects  of  such  a  Charity. 

Joseph  Sewall. 

At  a  Church  Meeting  April  14.  1734. 

Upon  reading  a  Letter  from  the  Second  Church  of  Christ  in  Boston 
&c. 

Voted ;  That  this  Church  will  join  with  and  assist  the  2d  Church  in 
this  Town  in  their  Proceeding  in  the  3d  way  of  Communion  with 
respect  to  the  first  Church  in  Salem,  and  Second  their  Charitable  Ad- 
monition given  by  them  to  said  Church,  if  upon  due  Enquiry  there 
shall  appear  just  Cause  for  their  so  doing. 

Josiah  Willard  Esq.  Deacon  Henchman,  Mr.  Edward  Bromfield 
junr,  and  Mr.  Thomas  Cushing,  junr.  were  join'd  with  the  Pastors  as 
the  Delegates  of  the  church  in  this  Affair.  Joseph  Sewall. 

The  Hon.  Edward  Bromfield  died  on  Sunday,  June  2,  and, 
says  Drake,  his  loss  was  as  severely  felt  in  the  town  as  almost 
any  which  had  occurred  since  its  settlement.  He  was  in  his 
eighty-sixth  year,  and  he  had  been  a  member  of  the  South 
Church  thirty-six  years.  He  was  born  at  Hayward  House,  near 
the  New  Forest,  in  Hampshire,  was  bred  a  merchant  in  London, 

1  [On  the  30th  of  January,  1734,  the  a  large  quantity  of  type.     Very  little  was 

"  Printing  House  belonging  to  the  widow  saved.     The  fire  took  place  at  or  near 

and  children  of  the  late  Deacon  Green  midnight.  —  Drake's   Hist,  and  Antiq., 

at  the  South  End  "  was  burned.     In  it  p.  592.     Mrs.  Green  was  a  cousin  of  Dr. 

two  printing-presses  were  destroyed  and  Sewall.] 


468  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

went  to  Jamaica,  came  from  thence  to  Boston  in  1675,  "and, 
being  a  pious  Puritan,  decided  to  spend  his  days  here."  He  was 
prominent  in  all  religious  and  charitable  efforts,1  and  his  son,  of 
the  same  name,  was  equally  consecrated  with  him  in  heart  and 
life.  He  was  buried  on  the  6th  ;  and  on  the  9th  Dr.  Sewall 
preached  from  Isai.  lvii.  1,  "The  righteous  is  taken  away  from 
the  evil  to  come,"  making  "  a  respectful  mention  "  of  his  de- 
ceased parishioner.  Mrs.  Bromfield  died  on  the  7th  of  October 
of  the  same  year, — "a  worthy,  pious  gentlewoman,"  says  Dr. 
Sewall. 

At  a  Church  Meeting,  June  9,  1734. 

The  Report  of  the  Elders  and  Messengers  of  the  Churches,  (viz.  the 
3d  Church  in  Boston,  the  Church  in  Rumny-Marsh,  the  first  Church  in 
Glocester,  united  with  the  2d  Church  in  this  Town,)  who  have  given  the 
2d  Admonition  to  the  1st  Church  in  Salem  for  their  neglecting  the 
means  of  peace  under  Scandalous  Divisions,  was  read  ;  In  which  Let- 
ter the  Delegates  of  said  Churches  declare  that  (after  waiting  above  a 
moneth),  They  find  that  things  remain  in  the  same  deplorable  condi- 
tion at  Salem,  the  said  Church  there  refusing  to  hearken  to  their 
Charitable  Admonition  ;  and  accordingly  deliver  it  as  their  unanimous 
opinion  that  the  Churches  concerned  ought  to  proceed  to  meet  by  their 
Delegates  at  Salem,  July  16,  and  make  use  of  the  help  of  a  Council 
of  neighbour  Churches  for  their  Conviction. 

Upon  which  the  Draft  of  a  Letter  propos'd  to  be  Sent  to  twenty- 
seven  churches  was  read  and  voted.  Joseph  Sewall. 

In  July  the  governor  went  on  a  cruise  to  the  eastward,  taking 
with  him  Mr.  Prince  and  two  of  the  prominent  members  of  the 
South  Church.  They  were  absent  sixteen  days.  The  object  of 
the  trip  is  given  in  the  Weekly  News-Letter  of  July  18,  in  the 
following  announcement :  — 

On  Monday  last  [July  15],  about  6  o'clock  in  the  Afternoon,  the 
Rev.  Mr.  Thomas  Prince  Sailed  from  Boston  for  the  Eastward,  in  his 
Majesty's  Ship  Scarborough,  Capt.  Durell,  in  company  with  Governor 
Belcher,  Hon.  Josiah  Willard,  Esq.  and  Edward  Winslow,  Esq.  Sheriff 
of  the  County  of  Suffolk  and  Colonel  of  a  Regiment  of  Foot  in  this 
town  —  They  go  to  take  a  further  view  of  that  spacious  Country,  and 
as  we  hear,  to  have  an  interview  with  some  of  the  Indian  Tribes,  to 
continue  and  strengthen  their  friendship  with  us. 

1  His  mansion  was  in  Rawson's  Lane,  oratory,  into  which  he  used  to  retire 
now  Bromfield  Street.  It  is  said  that  in  several  times  a  day,  in  his  most  flourish- 
order  to  find  retirement  from  worldly  ing  circumstances  and  heights  of  busi- 
noise  and  business,  "  he  turned  the  pas-  ness,"  for  meditation  and  prayer.  See 
ture  behind  his  house  into  a  very  shady  Drake's  Hist,  and  Antiq.  of  Boston,  p. 
grove,  where,  in   the  midst,  he   built  an  59S. 


A    DAY  OF  FASTING  AND  PRAYER.  469 

An  account  of  the  voyage,  probably  from  the  pen  of  Mr. 
Prince,  appeared  in  a  later  number  of  the  News-Letter. 

[At  a  church  Meeting]  Augt  4.  1734, 

The  Church  was  desir'd  to  stay,  and,  Voted,  That  the  20th  of  this 
Instant  should  (God  Willing)  be  Observed  by  us  as  a  Day  of  Prayer 
with  Fasting,  to  Humble  ourselves  before  God  for  our  unfruitfulness 
under  the  means  of  Grace,  and  to  ask  the  Effusion  of  His  Spirit,  to 
revive  the  Power  of  Godliness  among  us ;  And  that  the  Congregation 
be  desir'd  to  join  with  us  in  this  Solemnity.  Joseph  Sewall. 

Three  months  previously,  on  the  14th  of  May,  such  a  day  as 
was  proposed  by  this  vote  had  been  observed  by  the  Brattle 
Street  Church,  and,  says  Dr.  Sewall,  "  such  days  are,  God  will- 
ing, to  be  observed  in  our  Congregations  successively,  to  ask  of 
God  the  Revival  of  Religion  among  us." 

Aug.  20.  This  Day  was  observ'd  as  a  Day  of  Pray'r  with  Fasting 
by  the  South  Church  and  Congregation  to  ask  of  God  the  Effusion 
of  his  Spirit  to  revive  the  Pow'r  of  Godliness  among  us.  A.  M. 
Mr.  Chauncy  began  with  Prayer,  Mr.  Prince  preach'd  and  concluded 
with  Prayer,  text  2  Chron.  xv.  2  ["  The  Lord  is  with  you,  while  ye  be 
with  him  :  and  if  ye  seek  him,  he  will  be  found  of  you :  but  if  ye  for- 
sake him,  he  will  forsake  you."]  P.  M.  Mr.  Webb  began  with  Pray'r. 
I  preached  from  Rev.  2.  4.  5.  ["Nevertheless  I  have  somewhat 
against  thee,  because  thou  hast  left  thy  first  love,"  etc.]  I  hope  we 
had  God's  gracious  presence  with  us.     (J.  Sewall.) 

Octr.  27.  1734. 

The  Brethren  of  the  church  staid,  and  Voted  —  That  there  be  a 
publick  collection  on  the  Anniversary  Thanksgiving,  the  7th  of  Nov'r 
next ;  The  money  collected  to  be  disposed  of  to  charitable  and  pious 
uses,  as  this  church  shall  determine  ; 

And  that  the  congregation  be  notified  of  this  vote,  and  be  desired 
to  concur  with  the  church  in  the  said  collection. 

Joseph  Sewall. 

Collected  99/.  7.  o. 
of  which  is  appropriated  4/. 

At  a  church  Meeting  Febr.  4.  1734-5. 

The  Narrative  of  the  Proceedings  of  the  Ecclesiastical  Council  con- 
vened at  Salem  in  1734  —  was  read,  and  after  some  discourse  upon  it, 
the  brethren  voted  that  they  would  defer  the  further  consideration  of 
that  affair,  to  the  first  Tuesday  in  March  next. 

Voted  —  I.  That  there  be  given  out  of  the  collection  for  charita- 
ble and  pious  uses  a  sum  not  exceeding  fifty  pounds,  to  supply  the 
poor  of  this  church  and  congregation  with  wood  and  other  Necessa- 
ries. 


47°  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

II.  That  there  be  allowed  out  of  the  collection,  to  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Josiah  Cotton,  the  sum  of  ten  pounds  towards  his  support  and  en- 
couragement in  preaching  the  Gospel  at  Providence. 

III.  That  there  be  allowed  to  the  Rev'd  Mr.  Joseph  Torrey  the 
sum  of  ten  pounds  towards  his  support  and  encouragement  in  preach- 
ing the  Gospel  at  South  Kingston  in  Narraganset. 

IV.  That  the  sum  of  five  pounds  be  laid  out  in  Books  of  piety  to 
be  distributed  by  the  Pastors  to  proper  objects  of  such  a  charity. 

Joseph  Sewall. 

At  a  church  Meeting  March  4  1734-5. 

Voted — I.  That  our  Brethren,  the  Hon.  Ezekiel  Lewis,  Anthony 
Stoddard,  Saml.  Welles  Esqrs.  the  Revd  Mr.  Nathl.  Williams,  and  Mr. 
Thomas  Cushing  jr.  be  joined  with  our  Pastors  as  a  Committee  to 
Prepare  a  Vote  relating  to  the  affair  of  the  first  church  in  Salem, 
to  be  laid  before  this  church  the  next  Lord's  Day  Evening. 

II.  That  five  pounds  be  given  out  of  the  Church  stock  towards  de- 
fraying the  charge  of  Printing  the  Narrative  of  the  Proceedings  of  the 
late  Ecclesiastical  Council  convened  at  Salem  1734. 

III.  That  the  charge  of  Sawing  our  Pastors'  Wood,  be  paid  by  the 
Deacons  out  of  the  church  Stock.  Joseph  Sewall. 

At  a  church  Meeting,  Lord's  Day  Evening.      March  9.  1734-5. 

This  church  having  taken  into  further  consideration  the  unhappy 
and  sorrowful  state  of  the  first  church  in  Salem, 

Voted  as  follows,  viz. 

Although  we  are  greatly  grieved  and  offended  at  the  divisions  and 
contentions  of  the  first  church  in  Salem,  and  their  scandalous  refusing 
of  proper  methods  of  healing  ;  (which  appears  by  a  printed  Narrative 
of  the  Proceedings  of  an  Ecclesiastical  Council  convened  at  Salem  in 
the  year  1734.)  yet  from  our  great  concern  and  affection  for  that 
neighboring  church,  we  conclude  to  suspend  the  determination  of  this 
church's  withdrawing  communion  from  said  offending  church,  till  the 
first  Monday  in  April  next ;  to  give  them  a  further  opportunity  of  con- 
sidering and  retracting  their  disorderly  conduct. 

Joseph  Sewall. 

The  Rev.  Samuel  Fisk,  whom  some  of  the  brethren  thought 
of  calling  to  the  South  Church  at  the  time  of  Mr.  Prince's  settle- 
ment, and  who,  soon  after,  was  ordained  over  the  First  Church, 
Salem,  became  very  arbitrary  in  his  methods,  "having  high 
thoughts  of  church  authority,"  and  departed  in  many  important 
respects  "  from  the  practice  of  his  predecessors,  and  in  such 
manner  as  to  produce  great  uneasiness  and  disaffection  among 
his  people.     He  appears  to  have  dispensed  entirely  with  church 


THE  FIRST  CHURCH  IN  SALEM.  47 1 

meetings,  excepting  when  he  stayed  the  Church  after  religious 
exercises  for  some  particular  purpose."  At  length  ten  of  the 
aggrieved  members  withdrew  from  the  communion  of  the  church, 
and,  having  exhausted  all  expedients  for  pacification,  they  called 
an  ex  parte  council,  at  the  suggestion  of  the  Boston  ministers, 
to  advise  them  as  to  their  duty.  This  council,  consisting  of  the 
representatives  of  ten  churches,  assembled  in  Salem  on  the  17th 
of  July,  1733,  and  after  much  consideration,  earnestly  besought 
the  church  and  its  pastor  to  retrace  their  steps  and  put  an  end 
to  the  scandal,  at  the  same  time  advising  the  aggrieved  mem- 
bers, on  their  continued  failure  to  obtain  satisfaction  by  any 
other  method,  to  seek  relief  through  the  Third  Way  of  Commu- 
nion, as  laid  down  in  the  Cambridge  Platform.  Mr.  Fisk  and 
the  majority  showing  no  disposition  to  yield,  twenty-one  of  the 
brethren,  on  the  20th  of  December,  wrote  a  letter  to  the  Second 
Church  of  Boston,  asking  it  to  come  to  their  relief.  This 
church  responded  to  the  appeal,  and  sent  eight  delegates  to 
Salem,  "to  dispense  an  admonition"  in  its  name,  "if  the  case 
should  appear  to  call  for  it."  Mr.  Fisk  refused  to  receive  the 
delegation,  and  would  not  allow  it  to  meet  his  church.  The 
Second  Church  then  notified  Mr.  Fisk  that  if  it  should  not  hear 
from  him  in  a  month,  it  would  proceed  further ;  and  three  or 
four  months  having  passed  without  bringing  a  reply,  it  took 
another  step  in  the  matter,  and  invited  two  or  three  other 
churches  to  join  with  it  in  seconding  its  "  charitable  admonition." 
This  was  the  invitation  which  the  South  Church  accepted  on 
the  14th  of  April,  1734.  On  the  23d  of  the  same  month,  repre- 
sentatives of  the  South  Church,  the  Church  in  Rumney  Marsh, 
and  the  First  Church  of  Gloucester  x  met  the  representatives  of 
the  Second  Church  of  Boston  in  Salem,  and  together  they 
solemnly  urged  the  First  Church  there  to  repent  of  its  sinful 
course,  and  to  call  a  council  for  the  settlement  of  all  difficulties, 
also  warning  it  that  if  it  refused  to  act  upon  this  advice,  its 
sister  churches  would  proceed  to  call  a  council  for  its  "  con- 
viction," that  is  to  say,  for  the  purpose  of  convincing  it,  if 
possible,  of  its  wrong-doing.  Mr.  Fisk  declined  to  meet  a 
committee  of  this  council,  or  to  receive  its  documents,  and  a 
majority  of  the  church  would  not  consent  to  a  church  meeting 
to  talk  matters  over.  A  month  later,  the  four  churches  above 
mentioned  called  a  council  of  twenty-seven  churches,  to  convene 
at  Salem  on  the  16th  of  July.     Nineteen  churches  responded  to 

1  The  church  in  Ipswich  was  invited  also,  but  did  not  attend. 


472 


HISTORY  OF   THE   OLD   SOUTH   CHURCH. 


this  call,  but  four  of  them  withdrew,  after  the  council  had  or- 
ganized, because  it  declined  to  take  into  consideration  certain 
proposals  made  by  Mr.  Fisk  to  the  aggrieved  brethren.  The 
council  addressed  a  solemn  letter  of  admonition  and  advice  to 
Mr.  Fisk,  and  then  adjourned  for  three  months  to  await  results. 
Reassembling  on  the  15th  of  October,  it  was  informed  that  Mr. 
Fisk  had  refused  to  receive  its  letter,  "but  spake  as  if  he  es- 
teemed it  a  nuisance."  After  further  examination  of  the  case, 
it  agreed  by  unanimous  vote  upon  the  terms  of  a  final  letter  to 
Mr.  Fisk  and  the  brethren  who  sustained  him,  in  which  it  was 
said  :  "  The  whole  of  your  conduct  in  this  affair  appears  to  us  to 
be  very  offensive,  and  which,  if  persisted  in,  will  expose  you  to 
such  a  censure  as  we  hope  and  earnestly  desire  you  will  use 
your  utmost  endeavors  to  prevent ;  it  being  no  less  than  a  depri- 
vation of  the  privilege  of  communion  with  these  churches." 
This  missive  had  no  more  effect  upon  those  to  whom  it  was 
sent  than  had  the  letters  which  preceded  it,  and  at  length,  the 
churches,  one  by  one,  passed  the  threatened  vote  of  non-com- 
munion.1 The  South  Church,  as  we  shall  see,  did  not  take  this 
final  action  until  June  9,  1735. 


1  Mr.  Fisk  was  "  voted  out "  of  the 
pastorate  March  10,  1735,  and  he  and  his 
adherents  formed  the  Third  Church  in 
Salem.  The  First  Church  was  reorgan- 
ized in  1736,  and  the  Rev.  John  Spar- 
hawk  was  settled  as  its  pastor.  See 
Diary  of  Benj.  Lynde,  Jr.,  pp.  140-144  ; 
White's  New  Etig.  Congregationalistn, 
pp.  112-116. 

We  print  here,  for  convenience  of 
reference,  all  the  entries  in  Dr.  Sewall's 
diary  relating  to  the  Salem  troubles. 

[J733]  July  17.  I  went  to  the  Coun- 
cil at  Salem.  There  were  the  Elders 
and  Messengers  of  10  Churches. 

July  20.  I  return'd  safe  with  D.  Hench- 
man. Lord  command  thy  Blessing  on  the 
Endeavours  of  thy  Servants  to  restore 
Peace  to  the  first  Church  in  Salem. 

[1734]  May  6.  On  the  23d  of  last 
moneth  I  set  out  for  Salem  with  Mr. 
Prince.  Our  Church  the  Church  in 
Rumny-Marsh,  the  1st  Church  in  Gloces- 
ter  met.  After  Consideration  of  the  re- 
quest of  the  2d  Church  in  Boston,  they 
united  with  them.  And  having  in  vain 
Endeavour'd  to  confer  with  Mr.  Fisk  and 


his  Church  they  seconded  the  Admoni- 
tion given  by  the  2d  Church  in  Boston.  O 
Lord  pity  this  Flock,  and  Restore  Peace 
with  truth  and  holiness  to  them.  We 
return'd  safe  25.  April. 

[1734]  May  30.  I  preach'd  to  the  Rev- 
erend Ministers  from  Luk.  24.  49.  And 
behold,  I  send  the  Promise  of  my  Father. 
P.  M.  The  Council  met,  agreed  to  send 
27  Churches. 

July  15.  I  set  out  for  Salem  with  Dea- 
con Henchman. 

July  16.  There  were  the  Delegates  of 
19  Churches. 

July  17.  The  Delegates  of  the  4 
Churches  which  call'd  this  Council  had 
a  public  Hearing  in  the  Meeting-House. 

July  18.  19.  The  Council  declar'd 
their  Approbation  of  the  Proceedings  of 
the  Delegates  of  the  4  Churches,  and  de- 
sir'd  that  these  would  Unite  with  them 
in  further  prosecuting  this  Affair.  A 
Letter  of  Advice  to  the  1st  Church  in 
Salem  was  drawn  up,  and  after  some 
Debate  Voted  unanimously  by  the  Dele- 
gates of  15  of  the  19  Churches.  Mr.  Fisk 
and  the  Brethren  with  him  refus'd  to 
appear,  save  one  of  them,  who  on  fryday 


SENTENCE    OF  NON-COMMUNION. 


473 


On  the  7th  of  April  the  church  met,  and  adjourned  to  the  Lord's 
Day  Evening  next,  April  13,  1735.  Joseph  Sewall. 

April  13.  1735.  The  church  further  adjourned  to  the  27th  of  this 
Instant. 

April  27.  1735  P.  M.  The  Church  deferr  the  further  consideration 
of  the  Salem  affair  to  this  time  Five  Weeks.  Thomas  Prince.1 

June  1.  1735.  The  church  determin'd  to  meet  on  Monday  the 
9th  of  this  Instant,  further  to  consider  the  affair  of  Salem. 

Joseph  Sewall. 

At  a  church  Meeting  June  9.  1735. 

After  prayer  to  God  as  usual, 

Voted  —  I.  We  approve  and  accept  the  Judgment  and  Advice  of 
the  late  Ecclesiastical  Council  convened  in  Salem  at  the  Desire  of 
this  and  other  churches,  given  in  their  Result  dated  Salem  October  18. 

J734- 

II.  Agreeable  to  the  advice  of  the  said  Council,  We  declare  the 
Sentence  of  Non-Communion  concerning  the  Rev'd  Mr.  Samuel  Fiske, 
and  his  Brethren  of  the  first  church  in  Salem,  until  they  shall  betake 


P.  M.  brought  in  the  Proposals  Mr.  Fisk 
made  to  the  aggriev'd  Brethren.  N.  B. 
The  greater  part  of  the  Elders  and  some 
of  the  other  Delegates  withdrew. 

Oct.  15.  I  went  to  the  Council  at 
Salem  with  Mr.  Prince.  About  16 
Churches  met  by  their  Delegates.  They 
made  remarks  on  Mr.  Fisk's  Proposals. 
Neither  He  nor  his  Brethren  that  stand 
with  him  would  receive  anything  from 
the  Council ;  On  Fryday  these  remarks 
were  read  in  the  Meeting-House,  then  a 
result  was  drawn  up  and  accepted,  in 
which  the  1st  Church  in  Salem  is  de- 
clar'd  to  be  obstinate  —  3  months  time 
are  given,  and  the  Churches  are  advis'd 
if  they  doe  not  by  that  time  manifest  re- 
pentance, to  withdraw  Communion. 

1735.  Feb  4.  The  Narrative  relat- 
ing to  the  1st  Church  in  Salem  was  read 
at  a  Church  Meeting.  The  further  Con- 
sideration is  put  off  to  the  4.  March. 

1  [May  iS.  I  preach'd  from  John  14 
16-18.  I  will  pray  the  Father,  and  He 
shall  give  you  another  Comforter.  Men- 
tion'd  the  account  we  have  of  the  re- 
markable concern  there  appears  in  great 
numbers  at  N.  hampton  and  several 
other  Towns  near,  about  their  Soul's 
Salvation. 


May  24.  Mrs.  Eliz.  Oliver  was  buried, 
a  worthy  Gentlewoman  of  our  Com- 
munion. 

May  25.  Mr.  Prince  preach'd  a  fu- 
neral Sermon  from  Ps.  116.  15.  ["Pre- 
cious in  the  sight  of  the  Lord  is  the 
death  of  his  saints."]  I  preach'd  again 
from  John  14.  16-1S,  and  endeavoured 
to  improve  the  afflicting  Providence  from 
the  18  v.  ["  I  will  not  leave  *you  com- 
fortless :  I  will  come  to  you."] 

May  28.  Mr.  Prentice  preach'd  [the 
Election  Sermon]  from  2  Chron.  17.  3-6. 

May  29.  Mr.  Hancock  to  the  Minis- 
ters from  Rom.  1.  1.  After  Sermon  they 
chose  Mr.  S.  F.  which  hath  given  just 
matter  of  offence.  O  Lord  I  bewail  the 
disorders  and  confusions  found  among 
us.  O  Pardon,  Pour  out  thy  Spirit  and 
save  us.     (J.  Sewall.) 

The  Convention  questioned  the  right 
of  Mr.  Fisk's  church  to  dismiss  him  from 
the  pastorate,  and  showed  its  favor  to- 
wards him  by  choosing  him  as  preacher 
for  1736.  He  did  not,  however,  fulfil 
the  appointment,  Dr.  Colman  preaching 
in  his  place.  The  Legislature,  by  a  large 
majority,  censured  the  Convention  for  its 
action.] 


474  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

themselves  to  the  use  of  proper  means  of  peace  and  healing ;  except- 
ing those  who  are  by  name  exempted  in  the  Result  abovesaid. 

Joseph  Sewall 
Thomas  Prince. 

N.  B.  A  Letter  was  sent  to  the  Rev'd  Mr.  Fiske  in  the  Name  of 
this  church  to  inform  him  and  his  Brethren  of  the  votes  above  written, 
and  further  to  Exhort  them  to  use  the  means  of  Peace. 

Joseph  Sewall. 

At  a  Meeting  of  the  church  Augt  5.  1735. 

Voted  —  That  this  Meeting  be  adjourned  to  Monday  next  at  eight 
o'clock  in  the  morning  for  considering  of  some  proper  method  for  the 
better  support  of  the  Ministry  among  us  ;  and  that  it  be  desired  that 
such  persons  of  the  congregation  as  doe  usually  contribute  to  the  sup- 
port of  the  ministry  would  then  meet  with  us  in  order  to  their  assist- 
ing with  their  advice  on  this  important  occasion. 

Joseph  Sewall. 

Augt.  11.  The  church  and  congregation  met,  and  their  votes  are 
recorded  at  the  end  of  this  Book. 

From  this  time  forward,  when  the  church  and  congregation 
met  together  for  business,  their  action  was  recorded  apart  from 
the  proceedings  of  the  church,  at  the  other  end  of  the  volume. 
We  shall  not  keep  up  this  separation  in  our  history,  but  shall 
give  the  proceedings  at  the  meetings  of  the  church  and  of  the 
church  and  congregation,  in  the  exact  order  of  time  in  which 
they  took  place. 

August  11.  1735.  The  Brethren  of  the  church  and  congregation 
met,  and  Voted  as  follows ;  scil. 

Whereas  it  appears  'that  the  Allowance  made  by  this  church  and 
congregation  to  their  Rev'd  Ministers  hath  of  late  through  the  sinking 
of  the  value  of  the  bills  of  credit  fallen  short  of  what  is  necessary  for 
their  honourable  support, 

Voted, 

I.  That  there  be  a  collection  made  on  the  next  Lords  Day  come 
se'nnight  for  raising  such  a  sum  of  money  as  may  be  needful  for 
making  up  such  Deficiency  in  the  support  of  the  Ministers  of  this 
church ;  And  that  the  church  and  congregation  be  desired  to  make 
their  contributions  accordingly,  the  money  that  shall  be  so  collected 
to  be  distributed  to  the  Rev'd  Ministers  in  equal  proportion. 

II.  That  Ezekiel  Lewis,  Anthony  Stoddard,  Samuel  Welles  Esqrs, 
Mr.  Thomas  Cushing,  Mr.  Thomas  Hubbard,  William  Foy  Esq.  Mr. 
Nathaniel  Cunningham,  Mr.  Francis  Borland,  and  Capt.  Daniel  Goffe, 
or  any  seven  of  them,  be  a  committee  to  consider  of  some  proper 


DEATH  OF  GEORGE  BETHUNE.  475 

method  for  the  more  certain  and  equal  support  of  the  Revd.  Ministers 
of  this  church  for  the  future ;  to  make  report  as  soon  as  may  be  con- 
venient, not  exceeding  the  space  of  two  months.  * 

Joseph  Sewall. 

At  a  Meeting  of  the  Church  and  Congregation  Octr  1.  1735. 
They  adjourned  to  the  3rd  of  October.     Then  met,  and  Voted, 

I.  Their  acceptance  of  the  Report  of  the  Committee. 

II.  That  the  church  and  congregation  have  two  meetings  annually 
viz.  on  the  first  Monday  of  April,  and  on  the  first  Monday  of  October, 
at  ten  of  the  clock  A.  M.  to  consider  what  may  be  further  necessary 
to  be  done  for  the  support  of  our  Revd  Pastors. 

Joseph  Sewall. 

Nov.  2.  1735.     The  Brethren  of  the  church  staid,  and 

Voted  —  That  there  be  a  publick  collection  on  the  Anniversary 
Thanksgiving,  the  13th  of  this  Instant. 

The  money  collected  to  be  disposed  of  to  charitable  and  pious  uses ; 
And  that  the  congregation  be  notified  of  this  vote,  and  be  desired  to 
concur  with  the  church  in  the  said  collection.  Joseph  Sewall. 

Novr.  13.    Collected  95/. 

[x735~6]  Jan-  14-  This  Day  George  Bethune  Esq.  of  our  Commu- 
nion died  very  suddenly  at  his  Ware-House.  I  visited  the  House  of 
Mourning.  O  Lord  Sanctify  this  awful  Dispensation  to  the  Widow 
and  Children.  Support  and  Comfort  them.  O  awaken  me,  thy  people, 
that  we  may  be  also  ready!  The  last  Sermon  which  the  Deceas'd 
heard  was  from  Luk.  12.  40.  ["  Be  ye  therefore  ready  also,"  etc.  Mr. 
Gee  preached  this  sermon  at  the  South  Church,  three  days  before, 
in  exchange  with  Dr.  Sewall.] 

Jan.  25.  Yesterday  died  Mr.  Robert  Butcher  in  the  g2d  year,  of  his 
Age,  who  was  the  eldest  Brother  of  our  Church.     (J.  Sewall.) 

Febry  1.  1735-6.     The  Brethren  of  the  church  stay'd  and 
Voted  ;  —  I.  That  there  be  given  out  of  the  collection  for  charitable 
and  pious  uses  a  sum  not  exceeding  fifty  pounds  to  support  the  poor 
of  this  church  and  congregation  with  wood  and  other  Necessaries. 

II.  That  there  be  allowed  out  of  the  collection,  to  the  Rev'd  Mr. 
Josiah  Cotton,  the  sum  of  ten  pounds  towards  his  support  and  en- 
couragement in  preaching  the  Gospel  at  Providence. 

III.  That  there  be  allowed  out  of  the  collection  to  Rev'd  Mr. 
Joseph  Torrey,  the  sum  of  ten  pounds  towards  his  support  and  encour- 
agement in  preaching  the  Gospel  at  South  Kingston  in  Narraganset. 

Joseph  Sewall. 

March  21.  1735-6.     The  Brethren  of  the  church  stay'd,  and 
Voted  —  I.  That  there  be  a  publick  collection  on  the  Anniversary 


476  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

Fast,  the  ist  of  April  next;  the  money  collected  to  be  disposed  of  to 
charitable  and  pious  uses  ;  And  that  the  congregation  be  notified 
of  this  vote,  'and  be  desired  to  concur  with  the  church  in  the  said 
collection. 

II.  That  there  be  given  out  of  the  last  collection  for  charitable  and 
pious  uses,  five  pounds  to  supply  the  poor  of  this  church  and  congre- 
gation with  Books  of  piety ;  and  the  remaining  twenty  pounds  to  supply 
them  with  Wood  and  other  Necessaries. 

Joseph  Sewall. 
Thomas  Prince. 

April  i.  1736.     Collected  92/.  10s.  o. 

At  a  Meeting  of  the  church  and  congregation  April  5.  1736. 

Voted,  I.  That  the  sum  of  fifty-three  pounds,  now  in  the  hands  of 
the  Deacons  be  forthwith  equally  distributed  to  our  Revd  Pastors. 

II.  That  this  meeting  be  adjourned  to  the  first  Monday  of  May  next 
at  10  o'clock  A.  M. 

May  3. 

Voted,  I.  That  the  committee  for  building  be  desired  to  draw  on 
Mr.  Treasurer  Osborne,  for  the  ballance  now  in  his  hands,  and  pay  the 
same  to  the  Deacons. 

II.  That  the  Deacons,  so  soon  as  may  be,  pay  to  each  of  our  Revd 
Pastors  the  sum  of  73.  10.  o,  which  with  26.  10.  given  them  at  the  last 
meeting,  makes  to  each  of  them  one  hundred  Pounds. 

Joseph  Sewall. 

May  26.  The  Revd  Mr.  Holyoke  preached  [the  Election  Sermon] 
from  Neh.  7.  2.  The  Ministers  met,  agreed  to  have  a  Sermon  to  mor- 
row, and  a  Collection  with  an  especial  regard  to  Providence  and 
S.  Kingston. 

May  27.  Dr.  Colman  preach'd  from  1  Chron.  29.  14.  All  things 
come  of  Thee.  There  was  Collected  after  Sermon  97/.  1.  o.  Appro- 
priated 2.  10.  o.  The  rest  was  equally  divided  between  Mr.  Cotton  of 
Providence  and  Mr.  Torrey  of  S.  Kingston.     (J.  Sewall.) 

Thomas  Fitch,  one  of  the  most  prominent  members  of  the 
church,  and  equally  prominent  in  public  affairs,  died  June  23, 
1736.  He  was  colonel  of  the  Boston  regiment,  three  times 
captain  of  the  artillery  company,  representative  and  councillor 
for  nearly  twenty  years.  He  was  married  by  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Willard,  April  12,  1694,  to  Abiel,  or  Abiah,  daughter  of  the 
Rev.  Samuel  Danforth,  of  Roxbury,1  and  had  sons,  Thomas, 
Samuel,  and  John,  all  of  whom  died  before  him.2     His  daughter 

1  "  1674.  nth  mo.  31st  day,"  baptized  :  2  John    Fitch,    aged    twenty-six,  was 

"Abiel,  daughter  of  Mr.   Samuel    Dan-  buried  July  15,  1735.     Dr.  Sewall  speaks 

forth,  borne  after  her  father's  decease."  —  of  him  as  an  only  son.     He  graduated  at 

Roxbury  Church  Records.  Harvard  College  in  1727. 


DEATH  OF  MRS.   BELCHER.  477 

Mary  was  the  first  wife  of  Andrew  Oliver.     Mrs.  Fitch's  older 
sister  Mary  was  second  wife  of  the  first  Edward  Bromfield. 

June  23.     The  honble  Coll.  Fitch  died  aet.  68. 

June  27.  Mr.  P.  preach'd.  Ps  :  73.  26.  ["My  flesh  and  my  heart 
faileth  :  but  God  is  the  strength  of  my  heart,  and  my  portion  for 
ever."]  P.  M.  I  preach'd  from  Gen.  47.  9.  ["Few  and  evil  have  the 
days  of  the  years  of  my  life  been,"  etc.] 

June  28.  Coll.  Fitch  was  buried.  Regiment  in  Arms.  I  was  sent 
for  to  the  House  of  Mourning  after  the  funeral,  and  pray'd  with  the 
Mourners.     (J.  Sewall.) 

A  conference  was  held  by  Governor  Belcher  with  several 
Indian  chiefs  at  Deerfield,  on  the  27th  of  August,  1735,  and  four 
following  days;  and  on  Sunday,  the  31st,  Mr.  John  Sergeant 
was  set  apart  and  ordained  to  the  work  of  the  ministry  among 
the  Housatonics,  in  the  presence  of  the  governor,  as  repre- 
senting one  of  the  societies  for  the  propagation  of  the  gospel. 
Several  clergymen  took  part  in  the  services,  Mr.  Appleton,  of 
Cambridge,  preaching  the  sermon.  Mr.  Sergeant  labored  faith- 
fully as  a  missionary  in  the  western  part  of  Massachusetts  for  a 
quarter  of  a  century.  It  was  said  at  the  time  of  his  death  that 
he  had  baptized  one  hundred  and  twenty-nine  Indians,  and  that 
forty-two  were  then  communicants. 

[1736]  Aug.  1.  Mr.  Sergeant  preach'd  for  me  P.  M.  There  were 
a  Number  of  the  Ffousatonnick  Indians,  to  whom  he  is  a  Missionary, 
present  and  behav'd  with  gravity.  There's  an  hopeful  prospect  of  con- 
siderable success.  Several  have  already  been  instructed  and  baptis'd. 
(J.  Sewall.) 

At  a  Meeting  of  the  Church  and  congregation  Octr  4.  1736. 

It  being  represented  by  the  Deacons  that  there  is  in  their  hands  of 
the  weekly  contribution  55/  more  than  the  weekly  charge,  and  for 
half  the  year's  Wood  to  our  Rev'd  Pastors  ; 

Voted,  —  That  the  said  sum  of  55/.  be  equally  divided  between  our 
Rev'd  Pastors  to  encourage  them  in  their  work  among  us. 

Joseph  Sewall. 

Mrs.  Belcher,  wife  of  the  governor,  and  daughter  of  Lieu- 
tenant-Governor Partridge,  of  New  Hampshire,  died  October  6.1 
The  funeral  pageant  recalls  to  us  the  procession  when  Lady 
Andros  was  buried,  half  a  century  before  ;  but  it  will  be  observed 
that  on  this  occasion  there  were  no  services  in  the  meeting- 
house. 

1  Jonathan  Belcher  married,  secondly,  Emily  Teal,  who  survived  him,  —  "a  lady 
September  9,    1748,    Mrs.   Mary  Louisa     of  great  merit  and  a  handsome  fortune." 


47^  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Sewall  made  a  very  suitable  prayer  at  his  Excellency's 
house  just  before  the  funeral.  The  coffin  was  covered  with  black 
velvet  and  richly  adorned.  The  pall  was  supported  by  the  Honour- 
able Spencer  Phipps  Esq.  our  Lieut.  Governor ;  William  Dummer 
Esq.  formerly  Lieut.  Governor  and  Commander  in  Chief  of  this  Prov- 
ince ;  Benjamin  Lynde  Esq.  Thomas  Hutchinson  Esq.  Edmund 
Quincy  Esq.  Adam  Winthrop  Esq.  His  Excellency  with  the  children 
and  family  followed  the  corpse,  all  in  deep  mourning  •  next  went  the 
several  relatives  according  to  their  respective  degrees,  who  were  fol- 
lowed by  a  great  many  of  the  principal  gentlewomen  in  town;  after 
whom  went  the  gentlemen  of  His  Majesty's  Council,  the  reverend 
ministers  of  this  and  the  neighbouring  towns ;  the  reverend  President 
and  Fellows  of  Harvard  College  ;  a  great  number  of  officers  both  of 
the  civil  and  military  order,  with  a  multitude  of  other  gentlemen.  His 
Excellency's  coach  drawn  by  four  horses  was  covered  with  black  cloth 
and  adorned  with  escutcheons  of  the  coats  of  arms  both  of  his  Excel- 
lency and  of  his  deceased  Lady.  All  the  bells  in  town  were  tolled ; 
and  during  the  time  of  the  procession,  the  half-minute  guns  begun, 
first  at  His  Majesty's  Castle  William,  which  were  followed  by  those 
on  board  His  Majesty's  ship  "  Squirrel  "  and  many  other  ships  in  the 
harbour,  their  colours  being  all  day  raised  to  the  heighth  usual  on  such 
occasions.1 

His  Excellency's  pew  at  the  South  Church,  and  the  pulpit, 
"were  put  into  mourning,  and  richly  adorned  with  escutch- 
eons ; "  and  on  the  following  Sunday  funeral  discourses  were 
preached  by  the  pastors.  Mr.  Prince's  text  was  2  Tim.  i.  10  : 
"The  appearing  of  our  Saviour  Jesus  Christ,  who  hath  abolished 
death,  and  hath  brought  life  and  immortality  to  light  through 
the  gospel."  In  closing,  Mr.  Prince  drew  an  admirable  sketch 
of  the  deceased  lady,  but  we  will  only  quote  what  he  said  upon 
her  relations  to  this  church  :  — 

In  the  midst  of  all  the  Sprightliness  of  Youth,  she  was  not  ashamed 
of  the  Gospel ;  but  soon  after  her  entring  the  married  State,  she 
made  an  open  Profession  of  her  Faith  in  Christ  and  Subjection  to 
Him,  and  join'd  to  our  Communion.  She  always  set  a  fair  Example 
of  Gravity  and  Attention  in  the  Publick  Worship.  And  I  am  assured 
by  her  nearest  Relative,  that  she  daily  read  the  Holy  Scriptures  ;  and 
with  great  Reverence  and  Fear,  even  to  a  faulty  Degree  of  Trembling, 
was  ever  wont  to  receive  the  Elements  of  the  Holy  Supper.2 

1  \News-Letter,  October  14,  1736.]  To  you  O  Fav'rite  Man,  the  Pow'r  supream 

2  ["  An    Epistle    in    Verse  "    was     ad-  Gives  wealth,  and  titles,  and  extent  of  fame  ; 
j_          j    .       .1                              v      !•             u  Joys  from  beneath,  and  blessings  from  above; 
dressed  to  the  governor  by  his  nephew,  i,/    ,,         ,  ,     . '     .  ,    *  ,     , 

0  J  .  1  Thy  Monarch's  plaudit ;  and  thy  peoples  love: 

the  Rev.  Mather  Byles,  minister  of  the  The  same  high  Pow,r)  unbounded,  and  alone, 

church   in    Hollis    Street,  from   which  we  Resumes  his  gifts,  and  puts  your  mourning  on. 

quote  a  few  lines  :  —  His  Edict  issues,  and  his  Vassal,  Death, 


THE  NEW  ENGLAND   CHRONOLOGY.  479 

Oct  31,  1736.     The  Brethren  of  the  church  stay'd  and 
Voted  —  I.  That  there  be  given  out  of  the  collection  for  charitable* 
and  pious  uses,  the  sum  of  sixty  pounds  to  supply  the  poor  of  this 
church  and  Congregation  with  Wood  and  other  Necessaries. 

II.  That  fifteen  pounds  be  given  out  of  said  collection,  to  supply 
the  poor  of  this  Church  and  congregation  with  Bibles  and  other  Books 
of  piety. 

III.  That  there  be  a  publick  collection  on  the  Anniversary  Thanks- 
giving the  nth  of  Novr  next;  the  money  collected  to  be  disposed  of 
to  charitable  and  pious  uses  ;  And  that  the  congregation  be  notified 
of  this  vote  and  be  desired  to  concur  with  the  church  in  the  said 
collection.  Joseph  Sewall. 

Novr.  11.  Collected  one  hundred  and  two  pounds;  6/  of  which 
were  appropriated. 

Mr.  Prince  published  the  first  volume  of  his  New  England 
Chronology  this  winter.  It  was  dedicated  to  Governor  Belcher, 
Lieutenant-Governor  Phips,  and  the  Honourable  Council  and 
House  of  Representatives  of  the  province.  The  journal  of  the 
House,  January  12,  1736-7,  records  the  formal  presentation 
by  the  author  of  copies  of  the  work  to  the  House  and  the 
speaker : — 

The  House  being  informed  the  Rev.  Mr.  Thomas  Prince  was  at  the 
Door  and  desired  admittance,  Ordered,  that  Mr.  Prince  be  admitted 
into  the  House,  and  coming  up  to  the  Table,  he  addressed  himself  to 
Mr.  Speaker  and  the  House  in  the  following  manner,  viz. 

Mr.  Speaker,  I  most  humbly  present  to  your  Honour  and  this  Hon- 
ourable House,  the  first  Volume  of  my  Chronological  History  of  New 
England,  which  at  no  small  Expense  and  Pains  I  have  composed  and 
published  for  the  Instruction  and  good  of  my  Country. 

And  then  he  made  a  Compliment  of  one  of  the  Books  to  Mr. 
Speaker  by  presenting  it  to  him,  and  another  he  presented  to  and  for 
the  use  of  the  Members  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  and  laid  it 
on  the  Table,  and  then  withdrew. 

Of  this  work  it  has  been  said,  that  it  was  too  great  "  for  the 
period  in  which  it  appeared  ;  few  could  appreciate  its  extraor- 
dinary merits,  and  fewer  still,  probably,  wished  to  read  a  work 
written  for  a  far  higher  object  than  merely  to  amuse  the  reader. 
Hence  on  the  appearance  of  the  first  volume  a  disappointment 
seems  to  have  fallen  upon  the  community,  and  very  little,  if  any, 

Require's  your  Consort's—  or  Your  flying  breath.  The  gifts  of  Nature,  and  the  charms  of  Art : 

Still  be  your  glory  at  his  feet  to  bend,  So,  over  Death,  the  conquest  shall  be  giv'n, 

Kiss  thou  the  Son,  and  own  his  Sov'reign  hand  ;  Your  Name   shall   live   on   earth,  your   Soul  in 
For  his  high  honours  all  thy  pow'rs  exert,  heav'n.] 


4§0  HISTORY  OF   THE   OLD   SOUTH   CHURCH. 

encouragement  was  proffered  the  author  to  continue  the  work. 
But  conscious  that  it  would  be  appreciated  in  no  very  distant 
day,  he  continued  to  labor  upon  it,  and  from  time  to  time  issued 
a  part  of  a  second  volume  in  pamphlet  form.  This  consisted 
of  three  numbers,  of  thirty-two  pages  each,  which  brought  the 
history  of  New  England  to  near  the  close  of  the  year  1633." 
The  same  authority  says  :  "  It  embraces,  however,  the  most 
obscure  and  difficult  period  of  our  history,  namely,  the  first  set- 
tlement of  the  Plymouth  and  Massachusetts  colonies  ;  and  for 
that  period  it  is  the  most  complete,  exact,  and  satisfactory  his- 
tory extant."  1 

The  Rev.  Mr.  Wadsworth,  president  of  Harvard  College, 
died  at  Cambridge  March  16,  and  was  buried  a  week  later. 
"  He  was  eminently  pious  and  faithful,"  says  Dr.  Sewall,  "  and 
enjoy'd  the  peace  of  the  upright  in  his  death."  On  Sunday, 
March  27,  Dr.  Sewall  preached- at  Cambridge  from  the  text, 
"  Help,  Lord,  for  the  godly  man  ceaseth."  On  the  4th  of  May, 
"the  overseers  met  and  join'd  with  the  corporation  in  prayer  to 
God  for  direction  in  the  choice  of  a  president."  "The  corpo- 
ration endeavoured  to  come  to  a  choice  twice,  but  were  equally 
divided  between  Mr.  Holyoke  and  Mr.  Gee.  Desired  more 
time."  On  the  20th,  Mr.  Cooper,  of  Brattle  Street  Church, 
was  chosen,  but  declined  a  few  days  later.  Mr.  Holyoke  was 
then  chosen,  and  was  inducted  into  office  on  the  28th  of  Sep- 
tember. 

[Lord's  day]  March  20.  1736-7. 

The  Brethren  of  the  church  stay'd,  and 

Voted  —  I.  That  there  be  given  out,  of  the  last  collection  for  charita- 
ble and  pious  uses,  the  sum  of  sixty  pounds,  to  supply  the  poor  of 
this  church  and  congregation  with  wood  and  other  Necessaries. 

II.  That  there  be  allowed  out  of  the  collection  to  the  Rev'd  Mr. 
Josiah  Cotton,  the  sum  of  ten  pounds  towards  his  support  and  encour- 
agement in  preaching  the  Gospel  at  Providence. 

III.  To  the  Rev'd  Mr.  Joseph  Torrey  the  sum  of  ten  pounds  towards 
his  support  and  encouragement  in  preaching  the  Gospel  at  South 
Kingston  in  Narraganset. 

IV.  To  Mr.  Ezra  Carpenter,  the  sum  of  ten  pounds  towards  his 
support  and  encouragement  in  preaching  the  Gospel  at  Hull. 

V.  That  there  be  a  public  collection  on  the  Anniversary  Fast, 
March3i.;the  money  collected  to  be  disposed  of  to  charitable  and 

1  See  the  Memoir,  by  Samuel  G.  the  New  England  Chronology,  published 
Drake,  prefixed  to  the  third  edition  of     in  1S52. 


PUBLIC  READING   OF  THE  SCRIPTURES.  48 1 

pious  uses  j  And  that  the  congregation  be  notified  of  this  vote,  and 
be  desired  to  concur  with  the  church  in  the  said  collection. 

Joseph  Sewall. 

March  31,  1737.  Collected  one  hundred  and  four  pounds,  twelve 
and  eight  pence ; 

Three  pounds  of  which  sum  are  appropriated. 

At  a  Meeting  of  the  church  and  congregation,  April  4.  1737. 

It  being  represented  by  the  Deacons  that  there's  in  their  Hands  of 
the  weekly  contribution  about  20  or  30/  more  than  the  weekly  charge 
has  demanded  ; 

Voted — That  the  said  Ballance  now  in  the  Deacons'  Hands,  to- 
gether with  half  a  year's  rent  of  the  cellar,  as  soon  as  may  be,  be 
equally  distributed  to  our  Revd.  Pastors  to  encourage  them  in  their 
labors  among  us.  Joseph  Sewall. 

[Lord's  day]  April  24.  1737. 

The  Brethren  of  the  church  stay'd,  and 

Voted,  —  That  the  Holy  Scriptures  be  read  in  Public  after  the 
first  Prayer  in  the  morning  and  Afternoon :  And  that  it  be  left  to  the 
discretion  of  the  Pastors ;  what  parts  of  Scripture  to  read,  and  what 
to  expound.  Joseph  Sewall. 

May  1.  We  began  the  Public  Reading  of  the  Scriptures.  I  read 
1  chap.  Genesis.  Mr.  Prince  1  Chap.  Matthew.  I  spake  a  few  words 
by  way  of  Exposition  and  Exhortation.  Then  Preach'd  from  1  Thess. 
5.  27.  ["I  charge  you  by  the  Lord,  that  this  epistle  be  read  unto  all 
the  holy  brethren."]  1     (J.  Sewall.) 

Elizabeth,  wife  of  the  Rev.  Charles  Chauncy,  died  May  13, 
"after  several  weeks  sickness,"  in  her  thirty-first  year.  Says 
Dr.  Sewall :  "  Shee  was  prudent,  modest,  courteous,  and  I  be- 
lieve truly  pious.  The  second  Daughter  of  my  beloved  Sister 
Hirst ;  and  after  her  Mother's  and  then  her  Father's  death,  shee 
dwelt  in  my.  Family  about  ten  years."  2  Dr.  Sewall  preached  at 
the  First  Church  on  the  next  Lord's  day  from  the  words,  "  For 
if  we  believe  that  Jesus  died  and  rose  again,  even  so  them  also 
which  sleep  in  Jesus  will  God  bring  with  him." 

Mr.  William  Hooper  was  ordained  pastor  of  the  West  Church 
May  18.  This  church  had  been  gathered  in  the  preceding  Jan- 
uary, when  the  covenant  was  subscribed  by  seventeen  persons, 

1  [When  the  First  Church   of  Salem  2  Mrs.  Chauncy  left  a  son   and   two 

was  reorganized,  it  voted,  Dec.  27,  1736,  daughters.      Her  sister  Jane,  Mrs.  Dav- 

"  that  the  Scriptures  be  read  as  part  of  enport,  died  four  months  afterward,  Sep- 

public  worship."]  tember  6,  in  her  twenty-eighth  year. 


482  HISTORY  OF   THE   OLD   SOUTH  CHURCH. 

"after  solemn  prayer  and  preaching,  in  presence  of  Thomas 
Prince,  pastor  of  the  South  church,  and  Thomas  Foxcroft,  pas- 
tor of  the  Old,  or  first  church."  Among  the  original  members, 
William  Stoddard  and  Hugh  Hall  came  from  the  South  Church, 
and  they  were  followed  later  by  John  Smibert,  the  portrait- 
painter,  Story  Dawes,  and  Ebenezer  Messenger.  All  the  Con- 
gregational churches  in  the  town  were  invited  to  assist  in  the 
ordination,  and  the  French  Church,  of  which  Mr.  Le  Mercier, 
the  successor  of  Mr.  Daille,  was  minister.  "  All  the  parts," 
says  the  Rev.  Charles  Lowell,  "in  the  solemnities  of  the  occa- 
sion were  assigned  by  the  church,  except  one.  It  is  stated  in 
the  records  that  the  ministers  and  delegates  claimed  '  a  right  in 
the  election  of  the  person  to  give  the  right  hand  of  fellowship.'  " 1 
Mr.  Hooper  preached  the  sermon  from  2  Cor.  iv.  7.  Mr.  Fox- 
croft and  Dr.  Sewall  offered  prayer,  Mr.  Prince  read  the  cove- 
nant and  gave  the  charge,  and  Dr.  Colman  welcomed  the  new 
pastor  to  the  fellowship  of  the  churches.  Mr.  Hooper  continued 
with  the  church  about  nine  years,  "  when  he  resigned,  or  rather 
abdicated,  without  a  formal  resignation,"  his  pastoral  office,  and 
went  to  England  to  receive  Episcopal  ordination.  On  his  return 
he  became  minister  of  Trinity  Church,  and  so  continued  until 
his  death  in  1767. 

At  a  Meeting  of  the  Church  and  Congregation,  Octr.  3.  1737. 

Whereas  there  was  a  committee  chosen  Augt.  14.  1733,  to  examine 
the  accounts  of  the  committee  for  building,  and  of  Mr.  Treasurer  Os- 
borne, and  report  thereon ;  which  hitherto  has  not  been  complied 
with  : 

Voted, — That  said  committee  be  desired  to  pursue  their  design, 
and  report  to  the  next  meeting  thereon  :  Also  to  consider  and  report 
what  method  they  may  think  proper  to  come  into  for  the  more  certain 
and  effectual  support  of  our  Revd.  Pastors.  And  that  Mr.  Joseph 
Brandon  be  added  to  said  committee  in  the  Room  of  the  Hon.  Thomas 
Fitch  deceased. 

A  motion  was  made  to  choose  new  Seaters,  and  to  turn  the  Wo- 
men's foreseat  into  three  Pews. 

Voted,  —  That  this  Meeting  be  adjourned  to  Monday  24th  Instant, 
at  10  o'clock  A.  M.  Joseph  Sewall. 

Oct.  17.  I  sat  out  for  Concord  with  D.  Henchman,  rain'd. 
Lodg'd  at  Mr.  Hancock's.  Next  day  got  to  Concord  ;  visited  Mr.  W. 
Mr.  Hancock  was   chosen   Moderator.     Council  Voted  Mr.  W.   un- 

1  See  Discourse  by  the  Rev.  Charles  Lowell,  delivered  December  31, 1720,  pp.  II, 
24. 


COUNCIL  AT  CONCORD.  483 

worthy  to  be  a  Minister  of  the  Gospel,  and  Advised  the  Church  to 
remove  him  from  his  Office.  After,  a  public-hearing  at  which  Mr.  W. 
would  not  be  present,  as  he  had  before  refus'd  to  submit  matters  to 
the  Council.  The  Crime  —  Intemperance.  21  day.  The  Result  was 
read  in  the  Meeting-House.  I  pray'd.  I  hope  God  helped  me.  The 
Church  (who  before  Voted  a  Concurrence  with  the  Brethren  that 
called  the  Council)  then  met,  and  Voted  agreeable  to  the  Advice  of 
the  Rev'd  Council,  83  Yeas,  1 1  Nos.  My  B[rother]  Cooper  was  their 
Moderator. 

Oct  23.  I  preach'd  at  Concord.  A.  M.  from  Eph.  5.  18.  Be  not 
drunk  with  wine  &c.  Endeavoured  to  bear  Testimony  against  the  Sin 
committed.     P.  M.  from  1  Tim.  4.  7.1 

Oct.  24.     I  return'd  safe.     (J.  Sewall.) 

[Lord's  day]  October  23.  1737. 

The  committee  for  examining  the  accounts  of  the  committee  for 
Building  &c.  not  being  able  to  prepare  and  finish  their  Report ;  the 
Brethren  of  the  church  and  congregation  adjourned  their  Meeting 
from  Munday  24th  Instant,  to  Munday  the  14th  of  November  next  at 
10  o'clock  a.  m.  Thomas  Prince. 

Novr.  14.  1737.  At  a  meeting  of  the  Brethren  of  the  South 
Church  and  Congregation. 

The  committee  for  examining  the  accounts  of  the  committee  for 
Building  &c.  made  their  report,  as  follows 

The  committee  appointed  to  examine  the  accounts  of  the  committee 
for  Building,  and  also  of  Mr.  Treasurer  Osborne  &c.  have  attended  that 
service ;  and  as  to  the  accounts  of  the  committee  for  Building,  they 
not  having  been  as  yet  fully  exhibited  to  us,  we  are  not  able  with  any 
certainty  to  report  the  state  of  them. 

As  to  the  account  of  Mr.  Treasurer  Osborne,  we  find  it  right  cast 

1  ["  Some    objections   were     brought  advised  the  church  to  dismiss  Mr.  Whit- 

against  Mr.  Whiting  in  the  latter  part  of  ing.     The  result  was  read  on  the  21st, 

his  ministry,  and  several  councils  were  and  the  church  accepted  it,  S3  yeas  and 

called  to  investigate  them.     In   March,  1 1  nays,  and  voted,  that  the  pastoral  re- 

1737,  the  deacons  were  chosen  a  commit-  lation  it  held  to  Mr.  Whiting  should  be 

tee  '  to  treat  with  the  Rev.  Mr.  Whiting,  dissolved.     The  town  concurred  on  the 

to  see  whether  he  would  join  with  the  6th  of  March  following, 'nemine  contra- 

town   in  calling  another    minister.'    He  dicente.'  "  —  Shattuck's   History  of  the 

approved   of  this  proposition.     On  pre-  Town  of  Concord,  p.  165. 

senting    their    report,  on    the    16th    of  Mr.   Whiting   graduated   at   Harvard 

May  following,  the  town  voted,  41  to  33,  College  in  1700,  and  died  in  1752.    He  is 

■  to  call  and  settle  another  minister  with  described  in  his  epitaph  as  "  a  gentleman 

Mr.  Whiting.'     On  the  iSth  of  October  of  singular  hospitality   and    generosity, 

an  ecclesiastical   council  was   convened  who  never  detracted  from  the  character 

here,  of  which  the  Rev.  John  Hancock,  of  any  man,  and  was  a  universal  lover  of 

of    Lexington,   was    moderator,    which,  mankind."     Dr.  Allen  says  that  he  was 

after  a  public  examination  of  the  charges,  "  learned,  benevolent  and  rich."] 


484  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

and  well  vouched  ;  that  he  has  received  of  sundry  persons  at  several 
times  the  sum  of   .         .         .         .         .         .         .      .£13  029.  18.  9 

of  which  he  has  paid  out  the  sum  of  .         .  12  987.    7.  8 

So  that  there  remains  in  the  said  Treasurer's  hands 

the  sum  of      ......  42.  11.  1 

And  the  committee  are  of  opinion  that  upon  his  paying  said  Bal- 
lance  to  the  orders  of  the  church  and  congregation,  He  ought  to  be 
so  far  discharged. 

The  committee  also  find  that  Captain  Henchman  has  received 
Thirty  Pounds  of  Mr.  Williams  for  cellar  Rent,  one  year,  ending  the 
3d  May  last,  and  that  it  is  in  the  church  stock. 

We  also  find  that  the  three  Pews  in  the  Gallery,  No  16.  24  and  26 
remain  unappropriated. 

As  to  the  affair  of  our  Revd  Pastors  support  which  we  were  directed 
to  take  under  consideration  ; 

The  committee  are  humbly  of  opinion  that  it  would  not  be  conven- 
ient at  present  to  make  any  alteration  as  to  the  method  of  our  Publick 
contribution,  but  that  there  be  now  a  further  grant  made  to  them,  of 
£39.  10.  1,  which  sum,  together  with  160.  9.  n,  allow'd  in  April  last, 
and  since  paid  to  them  by  the  deacons,  will  make  .£100.  to  each  of 
said  Revd  Pastors,  for  the  space  of  one  year  ending  in  October  last, 
over  and  above  their  weekly  salary. 
All  which  is  honorably  submitted 

Anthony  Stoddard 
John  Hunt 
Thomas  Cushing  Jun. 
Jos.  Brandon 
Hugh  Vans. 

Boston  November  14.  1737. 

Voted  —  I.  That  the  committee's  Report  respecting  Mr.  Treasurer 
Osborne  be  accepted. 

II.  That  their  Report  respecting  our  Revd.  Pastors  be  accepted  — 
and  therefore, 

Voted  III.  That  the  Deacons  pay  said  sum  of  ^39.  10.  1.  to  our 
Revd  Pastors,  to  be  equally  divided  between  them. 

IV.  As  to  the  first  article  of  their  Report, 

Voted,  that  said  committee  be  desired  as  soon  as  may  be,  to  con- 
sider and  report  on  that  affair ;  and  the  Building  committee  to  lay 
their  accounts  before  them. 

V.  That  Deacon  Henchman,  upon  the  receipt  of  the  Ballance  now 
in  Mr.  Treasurer  Osborne's  hand,  pay  to  each  of  our  Revd  Pastors  Ten 
Pounds,  on  account  of  the  extraordinary  price  of  Provisions  &c,  for 
the  current  year. 

VI.  That  Thirty  Pounds  pr  Annum  be  for  the  future  allowed  to 
John  Chambers,  our  Sexton. 


THE  REV.   N.    WILLIAMS.  485 

VII.  Ten  Pounds  of  the  last  publick  collection  for  charitable  and 
pious  uses,  be  laid  out  and  disposed  of  at  the  discretion  of  the  Pastors 
in  Bibles  Catechisms  and  other  Books  of  piety,  for  the  Poor  of  this 
church  and  congregation  ;  and  that  the  remaining  Ballance  of  all  the 
past  Publick  Collections  for  said  uses,  be  disposed  of  at  the  discretion 
of  the  Deacons,  to  supply  the  Poor  of  the  said  church  and  congrega- 
tion with  wood  and  other  necessaries  from  time  to  time  between  this 
and  the  spring. 

VIII.  That  there  be  another  publick  collection  for  charitable  and 
pious  uses,  on  the  Anniversary  Thanksgiving,  on  the  17th  Current ;  and 
that  the  rest  of  the  congregation  be  notified  of  this  vote  at  the  end 
of  the  forenoon  exercise  of  the  said  day,  and  desired  to  concurr  in 
the  said  Collection. 

IX.  That  the  choice  of  new  Seaters,  and  the  time  of  their  stand- 
ing, as  also  the  affair  of  Turning  the  women's  fore  seat  into  Pews,  be 
referred  to  the  next  meeting  of  the  church  and  congregation. 

Thomas  Prince. 

Nov.  17,  1737.  On  this  day  of  the  Anniversary  Thanksgiving,  the 
7th  and  8th  votes  above  were  accordingly  read  in  Publick  at  the  end 
of  the  Forenoon  exercise ;  and  in  the  afternoon  were  collected  for 
said  uses  — 

For  Mr.  Bass     ......    £1.    o.  o 

Cotton 3.    o.  o 

Torrey  .         .         .         .         .       4.  10.  o 

Unappropriated      .         .         .         .  105.    8.  9 


•113.  18.  9 


The  Rev.  Nathaniel  Williams,  third  of  the  name,  died  Janu- 
ary 10,  1738,  in  his  sixty-third  year.  His  father  had  been  dea- 
con of  the  church  twenty-one  years,  and  he  had  preached  for  it 
occasionally.  "  At  fourteen  years  of  age,"  said  Mr.  Prince  in 
his  funeral  sermon,  "  he  entered  the  School  of  the  Prophets. 
He  was  ordained  an  Evangelist  in  the  College  Hall,  for  one  of  the 
West  India  Islands,  but  the  climate  not  agreeing  with  his  con- 
stitution he  soon  returned  to  this  his  native  city."  From  being 
a  private  teacher,  he  went  into  the  "  Public  and  Free  Grammar 
School  of  this  great  town,  the  principal  school  of  the  British 
Colonies,  if  not  of  all  America.  In  this  school,  [now  called  the 
Latin  School,]  he  continued  about  thirty  years.  He  also  studied 
and  practised  physic."  He  was  master  of  the  school  from  1703 
to  1734,  succeeding  Ezekiel  Cheever  and  followed  by  John 
Lovell.     He  was  "  greatly  beloved  by  the  scholars  for  an  agree- 


486  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

able  mixture  of  majesty  and  sweetness,  both  in  his  voice  and 
countenance."  x 

At  a  Meeting  of  the  Brethren  of  the  South  Church  and  Congrega- 
tion April  3,  1738 
Voted  — 

I.  That  the  Report  of  the  committee  for  examining  the  Building 
Committee's  accounts  be  accepted ;  and  that  the  Building  Committee 
be  discharged  accordingly,  with  Thanks  to  them  and  Mr.  Treasurer 
Osborne  for  their  care  and  labour  in  the  service  of  this  Society. 

II.  That  there  be  a  Committee  of  seven  chosen  to  serve  one  year ; 
to  have  the  direction  and  ordering  of  affairs  relating  to  the  Pews  and 
Seats  in  the  Meeting  House. 

Votes  were  brought  in  accordingly,  and  there  were  chosen  for  that 
service,  the  Hon.  Ezekiel  Lewis,  Edward  Winslow,  Francis  Borland 
Esqrs.  Mr.  Timothy  Prout,  Joshua  Winslow  Esq.  Mr.  Thomas  Cush- 
ing  junr.  and  Mr.  Edward  Bromfield. 

Proposed,  whether  it  be  convenient  at  this  time  to  turn  the  women's 
fore  seat  into  Pews.     Neg. 

III.  That  above  the  weekly  allowance,  the  Deacons  pay  to  each  of 
our  Revd  Pastors  forty  Pounds,  for  their  further  encouragement  in 
their  labors  among  us. 

IV.  That  there  be  another  Publick  Collection  for  charitable  and 
pious  uses  on  the  Anniversary  Fast,  April  13th  Current;  And  that 
the  rest  of  the  congregation  be  notified  of  this  Vote  next  Lord's  Day 
and  desired  to  concur  in  the  said  collection. 

And  then  the  Meeting  was  adjourned  to  the  first  Monday  in  May 
next,  at  10  o'clock.  Joseph  Sewall. 

April  13,  Collected  90/. 
Of  which  were  appropriated 

To  the  Revd.  Mr.  Bass 1.  o.  o 

Mr.  Carpenter 1.  o.  o 

Mr.  Torrey     .         .         .         .         .         .         .1.0.0 

Mr.  Callender's  widow        .         .         .         .  6.  o.  o 


At  a  Meeting  of  the  Brethren  of  the  South  Church  and  Congrega- 
tion May  1.  1738. 

Whereas  there  hath  been  a  Proposal  made,  that  some  part  of  the 
money  which  is  or  may  be  collected  for  charitable  and  pious  uses, 
should,  as  we  shall  find  ourselves  able  from  time  to  time,  be  made 
a  stated  fund,  the  income  of  it  to  be  improved  for  said  uses  as  the 

1  The  master  of  the  Latin  School  at  Coll.  1856,  Ph.  D.,  Amherst  1880,  is  an 
the  present  time,  Moses  Merrill,  Harv.     active  member  of  the  Old  South  Church. 


THE  NEW  BRICK  CHURCH.  487 

Brethren  of  this  church  and  congregation  shall  from  time  to  time 
determine ; 

Voted  —  That  a  Committee  be  chosen  to  consider  of  said  Proposal, 
and  make  Report  to  this  Meeting  on  Monday,  the  15th  of  this  Instant, 
at  10  aclock  A.  M. 

Voted  —  That  the  Honble.  Ezekiel  Lewis,  Josiah  Willard,  Anthony 
Stoddard,  Samuel  Welles  Esqrs.  Coll.  Edward  Winslow,  Esq.  Mr. 
Cushing,  Mr.  Thomas  Hubbard,  William  Foye,  Joshua  Winslow  Esqrs. 
and  Mr.  Nathaniel  Cunningham,  with  the  Deacons  ;  be  of  this  Com- 
mittee, j.  Sewall. 

June  1.  The  Rev.  Mr.  Barnard  of  Marblehead  preach'd  to  the 
Ministers  from  Col.  2.  19.     Not  holding  the  Head.     Collected  about 

June  5.  Dr.  Colman  preached  to  the  Hon.  Artillery  Company  (who 
enter  upon  their  second  Century  this  Day)  from  Isai.  11.  10.  which 
shall  stand  for  an  Ensign.     (J.  Sewall.) 

On  the  27th  of  September,  1738,  Mr.  Ellis  Gray,  a  graduate 
at  Cambridge  in  the  class  of  1734,  was  ordained  as  colleague  of 
Mr.  Welsteed,  at  the  New  Brick  Church.  Mr.  Welsteed  offered 
prayer,  Mr.  Gray  preached  the  sermon  from  Isai.  vi.  5-8,  Mr. 
Webb  prayed  after  the  sermon,  Dr.  Colman  gave  the  charge, 
and  Dr.  Sewall  the  right  hand  of  fellowship.  "  The  part  taken 
by  Mr.  Webb  is  the  earliest  notice  we  have  of  a  reconciliation 
with  the  New  North  Church."  1 

There  were  several  adjournments  to  the  first  Monday  in  October. 

At  a  Meeting  of  the  Brethren  of  the  South  Church  and  Congregation 
Oct  2.  1738. 

Voted,  That  the  Deacons  pay  to  our  Revd.  Pastors  equally  the  sum 
of  fifty  six  Pounds  now  in  their  hands  together  with  30/.  one  half 
year's  rent  of  the  cellar  as  soon  as  may  be. 

Voted,  That  there  be  a  collection  the  next  Lords  Day  come  se'n- 
night,  the  whole  of  it  to  be  equally  divided  to  our  Revd.  Pastors. 
The  congregation  to  be  notified  the  next  Lord's  Day. 

Voted,  That  fifty  Pounds,  now  in  the  Deacons'  hands  of  the  former 
Collection  be  distributed  to  the  poor  of  this  Church  and  Congregation, 
to  enable  them  the  better  to  prepare  for  the  approaching  winter. 

It  being  also  proposed  that  a  certain  Fund  be  established  for  the 
support  of  the  Widows  and  Fatherless  Children  of  the  Pastors  of  the 
said  South  Church,  from  time  to  time ; 

Voted  —  That  the  committee  to  consider  the  proposal  of  a  Fund  for 
charitable  and  pious  uses,  take  this  also  into  their  consideration,  and 

1  Historical  Discourses  by  the  Rev.  Henry  Ware,  delivered  May  20,  182 1,  p.  57. 


488  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

make  their  Report  at  the  next  Meeting.     And  that  Messrs.  Andrew 
Oliver  and  Benjamin  Hallowell  be  added  to  the  said  committee. 

Joseph  Sewall. 

At  a  Meeting  of  the  Brethren  of  the  South  Church  and  Congrega- 
tion, Novr.  13.  1738. 

Voted  —  That  fifty  Pounds  be  given  out  of  the  collections  for  chari- 
table and  Pious  uses  to  the  Poor  of  this  church  and  congregation,  to 
supply  them  with  Wood  and  other  necessaries. 

Voted  —  That  Ten  pounds  be  given  out  of  said  collection  to  the 
Revd.  Mr.  Josiah  Cotton  towards  his  support  in  Preaching  the  Gospel 
at  Providence. 

Voted — That  Ten  Pounds  be  also  given  of  said  collection  to  the 
Revd.  Mr.  Joseph  Torrey,  towards  his  support  in  preaching  the  gospel 
in  South  Kingston,  in  Narraganset. 

Voted  —  That  there  be  a  publick  collection  for  charitable  and  pious 
uses,  on  the  Anniversary  Thanksgiving,  23rd  current ;  And  that  the 
rest  of  the  Congregation  be  notified  of  this  vote,  and  desired  to  concur 
in  the  said  collection. 

And  then  the  Meeting  was  adjourned  to  Monday  27th  of  this 
Instant,  at  10  aclock  A.M.  Joseph  Sewall. 

Novr.  23.     Collected         .....      95.     7.  3. 
Of  which  were  appropriated, 

To  the  Ministers  Widows  and  Children    .         .      10.     o.  o 
Towards  defraying  the  charge  of  defending  the 

Ministerial  Lands  in  Kingston,  in  Narraganset,      ^$.   12.  o 

43.   12.  o 

This  last  appropriation,  and  others  for  the  same  object,  made 
afterward,  are  explained  by  the  following  extract  from  the  rec- 
ords of  the  New  Brick  Church  :  — 

There  was  a  collection,  I  remember,  in  many  of  the  congregational 
churches  in  1739  to  defend  a  lawsuit  unjustly  brought  against  Mr. 
Torrey,  the  minister  of  South  Kingston,  in  order  to  recover  the  par- 
sonage estate  possessed  by  Mr.  Torrey.  The  estate  was  left  by  a 
gentleman  for  the  support  of  an  orthodox  minister  of  said  Kingston  ; 
and,  as  I  remember,  one  Dr.  McSparrow,  a  church  minister,  took  it 
into  his  head  that  no  minister  was  orthodox  unless  he  was  ordained  by  a 
bishop  &c.  &c. ;  so,  by  the  help  of  some  no  better  than  himself,  he 
brought  an  action  to  recover  the  estate  for  himself  and  successors  ; 
but  he  failed  in  his  unjust  prosecution.1 

1  [Robbins's  History,  p.  318.  The  shows  that  the  contribution  from  the 
record  quoted  was  made  by  Deacon  New  Brick  congregation,  for  the  use  of 
John  Tudor,  and  the  receipt  preserved     Mr.  Torrey  in  this  suit,  was  ^35.  10.  o.] 


THE  SOUTH  KINGSTON  LANDS.  489 

The  lands  in  question  were  "granted  in  1668  by  the  Proprie- 
tors of  Petaquamscut  Purchase,  now  in  South  Kingston  in  Nar- 
raganset,  to  be  laid  out  and  forever  set  apart  for  the  use  of  an 
orthodox  person  that  should  be  obtained  to  preach  God's  word 
to  the  inhabitants.  These  grantors  were  five,  who  all  brought 
up  their  children  in  the  Congregational  way,  and  three  of  them 
were  members  in  full  communion  in  our  churches."  There 
being  no  preacher  there,  a  Mr.  George  Mumford  gained  posses- 
sion of  the  lands,  but  when  Mr.  Torrey  was  ordained,  he  brought 
an  action  for  them,  and  his  case  being  carried  on  appeal  before 
the  King  in  Council,  judgment  was  rendered  in  his  favor.  A 
year  or  two  later,  the  Rev.  James  McSparran,  who  had  gone  over 
from  Presbyterianism  to  Episcopacy,  and  who  was  preaching  in 
the  Narraganset  country,  brought  suit  against  Mr.  Torrey  for 
the  possession  of  the  lands,  on  the  ground  that  no  minister  could 
be  denominated  "orthodox"  who  was  not  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land. This  case,  also,  was  carried  up  to  the  King  in  Council, 
and  was  at  length,  in  1752,  decided  in  favor  of  Mr.  Torrey,  who 
was  declared  to  be  "  the  first  incumbent  of  ordination."  The 
suit  against  Mr.  Torrey  was  carried  on  by  the  united  vestries  of 
Christ  Church  and  King's  Chapel.  Dr.  Cutler,  the  minister  of 
the  former,  who  had  been  a  Congregational  clergyman,  spoke,  in 
a  letter,  of  these  lands  granted  by  Congregationalists  for  Congre- 
gational purposes,  as  a  tract  "  claimed  by  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land, in  opposition  to  the  saints  here,  who  would  inherit  the 
earth."  The  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  Dr.  Herring,  "stead- 
fastly asserted  the  justice  of  Mr.  Torrey's  claim."  Mr.  Samuel 
Holden,  then  at  the  head  of  the  Bank  of  England,  at  Dr.  Col- 
man's  request,  managed  the  affair  in  London  for  the  South 
Kingston  Church  and  the  New  England  Congregationalists.1 

.  At  a  Meeting  of  the  Brethren  by  Adjournment  Nov.  27  1738. 
Voted, 

I.  That  there  be  given  out  of  the  last  collection,  the  sum  of 
26.  8.  o.  towards  defraying  the  charge  of  defending  the  cause  of  the 
Ministerial  Lands  in  South  Kingston,  which  being  added  to  what  was 
then  appropriated  to  said  use,  makes  the  sum  of  Sixty  Pounds. 

II.  That  there  be  allowed  out  of  the  collection,  to  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Ezra  Carpenter,  the  sum  of  ten  pounds  towards  his  support  and  en- 
couragement in  preaching  the  Gospel  at  Hull. 

1  Foote's  Annals  of  King's  Chapel,  suits,  which  are  known  respectively  as 
vol.  i.  pp.  466,  467.  The  Prince  Library  Torrey  vs.  Gardner,  and  McSparran  vs. 
contains  the  documents  in   both   these     Hazzard. 


49Q 


HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 


III.  That  the  sum  of  ten  pounds  be  laid  out  in  Books  of  Piety,  to 
be  distributed  by  the  Pastors  to  proper  objects  of  such  a  charity. 

And  then  the  Meeting  was  adjourned  to  Monday,  the  18th  of 
December  next.  Joseph  Sewall. 

Deer  18.  1738.     At  a  Meeting  of  the  Brethren, — 

Voted, 

That  the  Report  of  the  Committee  appointed  by  the  Brethren  of 
this  church  and  congregation  to  consider  of  the  Proposals  to  estab- 
lish a  fund  for  charitable  and  pious  uses,  be  Accepted,  and  recom- 
mended to  the  South  Church,  in  order,  if  they  see  cause,  to  its  being 
voted  and  established.1  Joseph  Sewall. 

March  18.  1738-9.     Lord's  Day  P.  M, 

The  Brethren  of  the  Church  and  Congregation  stay'd,  and 

Voted, 

That  there  be  another  publick  collection  for  charitable  and  pious 
uses,  on  the  Anniversary  Fast,  March  29th  Current;  And  that  the 
rest  of  the  Congregation  be  notified  of  this  vote,  next  Lord's  Day, 
and  be  desired  to  concur  in  the  said  collection.        Joseph  Sewall. 


1  [The  following  has  been  preserved, 
which  we  suppose  to  be  the  draft  of  the 
report  referred  to  in  the  above  entry :  — 

Whereas  there  has  been  a  Proposal 
made  at  a  stated  Half  Yearly  Meeting  of 
the  Brethren  of  the  South  or  3d  Church 
and  Congregation  in  Boston  that  some 
Part  of  the  Unappropriated  moneies 
which  are  or  may  be  collected  or  Given 
for  Charitable  and  Pious  uses,  should  as 
we  find  ourselves  able  from  time  to  time 
be  made  a  stated  Fund,  the  Income 
whereof  to  be  Improved  for  said  uses  as 
the  said  Brethren  and  their  successors 
shall  from  Time  to  Time  determin  ; 

Voted,  That  the  said  General  Proposal 
be  accepted :  and  that  20/  in  Bills  of  the 
new  Tenour  or  equivalent  to  them  be 
now  Granted  out  of  the  monies  already 
collected  for  the  said  uses  and  settled  as 
the  Fundation  or  Beginning  of  the  Fund 
aforesaid,  and  for  the  further  establish- 
ment and  security  of  the  said  Fund  for 
the  said  uses,  It  is  more  Particularly 
voted  as  follows 

1.  That  there  be  5  of  the  said  Church 
and  Congregation  i.  e.  constant  attend- 
ants with  said  Church  and  Congregation 
in  their  Publick  worship,  chosen  by  the 


said  Brethren  as  their  Trustees  of  the 
said  Fund  for  the  said  uses  in  behalf  of 
the  said  Brethren,  to  continue  in  the  said 
Trust  till  the  said  Brethren  or  their  suc- 
cessors shall  see  cause  to  chuse  others 
in  their  Room,  and  to  be  accountable  to 
the  said  Brethren  and  their  successors 
or  their  committees  from  Time  to  Time. 

2.  That  the  Principal  of  said  Fund 
together  with  all  additions  that  shall  be 
made  thereto  by  charitably  or  Piously 
disposed  Persons,  shall  be  kept  perpetu- 
ally intire,  without  being  broken  in  upon 
on  any  occasion :  But  shall  be  either 
constantly  Let  out  to  Interest  on  double 
security,  or  Laid  out  in  some  Real  Estate 
bringing  in  some  Income,  or  building  on 
or  improving  the  Real  Estate  belonging 
to  the  said  Church  or  to  the  said  church 
and  congregation,  as  the  said  Brethren 
and  their  [successors]  shall  from  time  to 
Time  determin. 

3.  That  the  Bonds  for  monies  let  out 
to  Interest  by  the  said  Trustees,  be  made 
Payable  to  the  said  Trustees,  or  to  the 
Major  Part  of  them. 

4.  That  whenever  one  or  more  of  the 
said  Trustees  shall  be  disabled  or  remove 
his  constant  attendance  from  worship- 
ping with  the  said  Church  and  Congrega- 


DEATH  OF  SAMUEL   CHECK  LEY.  49 1 

March  29.  1739.     General  Fast.    Collected  for  charitable  and  pious 

uses, 

Unappropriated,        ......     .£83.  2.  2 

Appropriated,  towards  the  Fund  for  Ministers' 

Widows  &c 5.  10.  o 

To  the  Fund  for  pious  and  char,  uses,       .         .          5.  o.  o 

To  Revd.  Messrs  Bass, 1.  o.  o 

Torrey,  .  .  .  .  1.  o.  o 
To  Nurse  Kinney  .  .  .  .  •  .1.0.0 
Towards  defraying  the  charge  of  defending  the 

Ministerial  Lands  at  Kingston       .         .         .           1.  o.  o 

14.   10.  o 
Total £97.   12.  2 

At  a  Meeting  of  the  Church  and  Congregation  April  2.  1739. 

It  being  represented  by  the  Deacons  that  there  is  in  their  hands 
about  Eighty  Pounds  ; 

Voted  —  That  the  said  sum  be  equally  given  to  our  Revd.  Pastors 
to  encourage  them  in  their  labors  among  us. 

Voted  —  That  the  Hon.  Samuel  Welles,  Esq.  Capt.  Armitage  and 
Mr.  Thomas  Foster  be  a  committee  to  view  the  House  where  the  Rev. 
Dr.  Sewall  dwells,  to  consider  and  report  what  is  necessary  to  repair 
it,  with  an  estimate  of  the  cost. 

Voted  —  That  said  committee  consider  and  report  whether  it  be 
necessary  and  proper  to  make  a  cellar  in  the  front  of  said  House  at 
the  East  End,  and  the  Cost.    The  Report  to  be  made  on  next  Monday. 

Voted  —  That  for  the  time  to  come,  these  stated  Meetings  be  on 
the  2d- Mondays  of  October  and  April. 

The  Meeting  was  adjourned  to  next  Monday,  at  12  aclock. 

Joseph  Sewall. 

Deacon   Samuel  Checkley  died,  December  27,   1738,  in  his 

tion  or  be  removed  by  Death  or  Other-  ensuing,  for  the  said  Brethren  to  consider 

wise  that  the  said  Brethren  will  proceed  and  vote  upon,  as  they  shall  judg  proper, 

to  chuse  another  or  others  in  their  Room,  Unanimously  voted 

as  soon  as  may  be  conveniently,  not  ex-  by  the  com'tee 

ceeding  a  12  month.  T.  Prince 

5.  That  at  the  stated  meetings  of  the  May,  3.  1738. 

said  Brethren  in  every  spring  annually  Present 

they  shall  chuse  a  committee  to  stand  for  Honbl  E.  Lewis 

the   year  ensuing    to    examin   into   the  J.  Willard         Dr.  Sewall 

state  of  the  said  Fund,  both  as  to  Prin-  A.  Stoddard      T.  Prince 

cipal  and  Interest,  consider  what  addition  S.  Wells 

may  be  made  thereto,  and  how  to  dis-  E.  Winslow  ^  £sas 

pose  of  the  said   Incomes  for  the  said  J.  Winslow    \ 

uses  and  make  their  Report  to  the  said  D.  Henchman 

Brethren    at   their    stated    Half   Yearly  T.  Hubbard 
Meetings,  both  in  the  Fall  and  Spring 


492  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

eighty-sixth  year.1  Nearly  twenty-five  years  before,  Mr.  Pem- 
berton  had  called  the  attention  of  Judge  Sewall  to  the  broken 
condition  of  his  health,  when  suggesting  that  there  should  be 
one  or  more  additional  deacons  chosen,  but  he  survived  that 
pastor  twenty-two  years.  He  had  filled  many  responsible  posi- 
tions in  the  town  and  province,  —  selectman,  representative, 
justice  of  the  peace,  county  treasurer,  town  clerk.  "In  all 
which  Places,"  says  the  News  -  Letter,  "  He  behav'd  Himself 
with  such  Prudence,  Meekness  and  Fidelity  as  to  gain  the  gen- 
eral Esteem  and  Love  of  all  acquainted  with  Him."  It  was 
said  of  him  further :  "  His  greatest  Honour,  and  for  which  his 
memory  is  Blessed,  was  his  eminent,  unaffected  and  vital  Piety." 
For  fifty-three  years  he  was  a  member  of  the  South  Church. 
His  wife,  Mary,  daughter  of  Joshua  Scottow,  died  seventeen 
years  before  him.  Of  their  eleven  children,  only  two  survived 
their  parents,  Richard  and  Samuel,  the  latter  being  pastor  of  the 
New  South  Church.  There  were-  now  only  two  deacons  in  the 
Old  South,  Daniel  Henchman  and  Jonathan  Simpson ;  and 
Thomas  Hubbard  was  chosen  to  fill  the  vacancy.  Mr.  Hubbard 
joined  the  church  in  1730,  and  had  already  served  on  important 
committees.  He  was  born  in  Boston  in  1702,  and  graduated 
at  Harvard  College  in  1721,  in  the  same  class  with  Charles 
Chauncy,  Ebenezer  Pemberton,  Josiah  Winslow,  Stephen  Sewall 
and  others.  We  shall  have  occasion  to  speak  of  his  public  ser- 
vices when  we  come  to  the  mention  of  his  death  in  1773. 

At  a  church  Meeting  April  9.  1739. 

Thomas  Hubbard  Esq.  was  chosen  into  the  Deacon's  office  ;  And 
the  Pastors  and  Deacons  were  appointed  a  Committee  to  desire  his 
acceptance  of  said  office. 

And,  Whereas  Deer  18  1738,  At  a  Meeting  of  the  Brethren  of  the 
South  Church  and  Congregation,  there  was  a  Report  relating  to  a 
Fund  for  charitable  and  pious  uses  agreed  upon,  and  Recommended  to 
the  said  South  Church,  in  order  if  they  see  cause,  to  its  being  voted 
and  established  ;  said  Report  was  Read,  Voted,  and  Established  ac- 
cordingly, and  is  as  follows, 

1  1738.  Dec  26.  "Died  Col.  S.  Check-  funeral  I  went  to.  Dr.  Checkley's."  — 
ley,  Esq.,  at  Boston,  my  wife's  grand-  Lynde  Diaries,  p.  154. 
father,  and  was  buried  1st.  January  in  The  younger  Judge  Lynde  married 
the  tomb,  our  burying  Place  by  Common.  Mary  Bowles,  of  Roxbury,  a  grand- 
May  these  instances  of  mortality  put  us  daughter  of  Samuel  Checkley,  and  a 
on  preparing  for  our  own  great  change  !  "  great-granddaughter   of  Joshua  Scottow. 

1739.  Jan.   1.     "  Fair  cold  day.     Col.  She  was  also  descended  from  the  Rev. 

Checkley   buried,    aet.   84    years  ;    after  John  Eliot. 


A    CHARITABLE  FUND.  493 

At  a  Meeting  of  the  Committee  of  the  Brethren  of  the  South  or 
Third  Church  and  Congregation  in  Boston,  of  which  Messrs  Sewall 
and  Prince  are  Pastors,  to  consider  of  the  Proposals  to  establish  a  cer- 
tain stated  Fund  for  charitable  and  pious  uses,  as  well  as  for  the  sup- 
port of  the  Widows  and  Fatherless  Children  of  the  Pastors  of  said 
Church  from  time  to  time,  as  other  uses  of  a  Charitable  and  pious 
nature. 

The  said  Committee  after  diverse  consultations,  propose  that  the 
said  Fund  be  begun,  continued  and  established  under  the  following 
Regulations. 

I.  As  diverse  Brethren  of  the  said  Church  and  Congregation  have 
declared  that  they  contributed  at  the  last  general  collection  for  such 
uses,  with  a  view  to  put  their  monies  into  the  said  Fund  which  had 
been  a  little  before  moved  ;  The  committee  Propose  that  twenty  ounces 
of  Silver  be  purchas'd  with  part  of  the  monies  then  collected,  and  be 
appropriated  and  settled  as  the  beginning  of  said  Fund  for  said  uses  ; 
But  that  no  addition  shall  be  made  to  said  Fund  out  of  the  public 
collections  for  time  to  come,  but  by  the  particular  Appropriations  of 
persons  inclin'd  to  encourage  the  same,  express'd  by  writing  annexed 
to  their  monies  appropriated. 

II.  That  the  Pastors  and  Deacons  of  the  said  church,  for  the  time 
being,  be  the  Trustees  of  said  Fund,  to  manage  the  same  in  behalf  of 
the  said  church  ;  the  major  part  of  said  Trustees  to  have  Power  of 
acting,  and  all  and  each  of  them  to  be  accountable  to  the  said  church, 
or  their  committees  from  time  to  time. 

III.  That  the  principal  Stock  of  said  Fund,  together  with  all  Addi- 
tions that  shall  be  made  to  said  Principal,  by  Persons  disposed  thereto, 
either  by  Contributions,  Presents,  Deeds,  Wills,  or  otherwise,  shall  be 
kept  perpetually  intire,  without  being  broken  in  upon  on  any  occasion  : 
But  the  principal  monies  shall  be  either  constantly  let  out  to  Interest 
or  laid  out  in  some  real  Estate  bringing  in  some  Income,  or  building 
on,  or  improving  the  real  Estate  which  shall  belong  to  said  Church, 
as  the  said  Church  shall  at  their  Half  Yearly  Meetings  from  time  to 
time  determine. 

IV.  That  in  the  Bonds  for  monies  belonging  to  said  Fund,  let  out 
to  Interest  by  the  said  Trustees,  the  Principal  and  Interest  shall  be 
expressed  by  ounces  of  silver,  and  be  made  payable  to  the  Major  Part 
of  the  said  Trustees  ;  the  Borrower  and  two  sufficient  sureties,  to  be 
bound  both  jointly  and  severally  for  the  same ;  and  neither  the  Bor- 
rower nor  either  of  the  sureties  to  be  of  the  said  church  or  Congregation. 

V.  That  while  there  shall  be  no  widow  or  Fatherless  child  of  any 
of  the  Pastors  of  the  said  church,  the  Interest  and  Incomes  of  that 
part  of  the  Fund  raised  for  them  shall  be  added  to  the  principal  stock, 
not  to  be  divided  again  ;  But  when  there  shall  be  a  Widow  or  father- 
less child  or  more,  of  said  Pastors,  it  shall  be  left  to  the  said  church 


494  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

to  judge  and  order  how  much  of  the  Interest  and  Income  shall  be 
disposed  of  for  their  support  from  time  to  time ;  and  when  to  cease 
supporting  them  :  But  of  all  other  parts  of  said  Fund,  it  shall  be  left 
to  the  said  church  at  their  half  yearly  Meetings  to  dispose  both  of  the 
Interest  and  Incomes,  to  any  kind  of  charitable  and  pious  use  what- 
ever, as  they  shall  think  adviseable. 

VI.  That  there  shall  be  a  stated  half  yearly  meeting  of  the  Brethren 
of  said  church,  viz.  one  in  the  Spring,  and  another  in  the  Fall  annu- 
ally ;  that  at  their  said  Meeting  in  the  Spring  they  shall  chuse  a  com- 
mittee which  shall  consist  of  members  as  well  of  the  said  congregation 
as  of  the  said  church,  to  stand  for  the  year  ensuing,  and  continue  till 
others  shall  be  chosen  in  their  room,  to  examine  into  the  state  of  the 
said  Fund,  both  as  to  principal  Stock  and  Incomes  ;  consider  how  to 
order  the  same  according  to  the  preceeding  Articles,  and  make  their 
Report  to  the  said  Brethren  at  their  stated  half  yearly  Meetings,  both 
in  the  Fall  and  Spring  ensuing,  for  the  said  Brethren  to  consider  and 
vote  upon  as  they  shall  judge  proper. 

VII  and  lastly,  Whereas  there  are  stated  half  yearly  Meetings  of 
the  Brethren  both  of  the  said  South  Church  and  also  of  the  congre- 
gation with  them  ;  For  the  preservation  of  mutual  Harmony  and  good 
Agreement,  it  is  yet  further  proposed  that  the  said  committees  shall 
also  at  the  said  half  yearly  Meetings  last  mentioned,  from  time  to  time 
lay  their  aforesaid  Reports  before  the  said  Brethren  ;  that  the  said 
Brethren  may  express  their  minds  thereupon,  and  give  their  advice 
when  they  see  cause,  to  the  said  church  accordingly. 

October  18.  1738.  Unanimously  agreed  to  by  the  said  Committee 
present,  to  be  offered  as  their  Report  to  the  Brethren  of  the  said 
South  Church  and  Congregation  at  their  next  Meeting,  in  order  to  its 
being  agreed  upon  and  Recommended,  if  they  see  cause,  to  the  said 
South  Church,  to  be  voted  and  established.  Eze.  Lewis 

Pr.  order  of  the  Committee. 

December  18.  1738.  At  a  Meeting  of  the  Brethren  of  the  said 
South  Church  and  Congregation  this  Report  was  agreed  upon  and 
Recommended  to  the  said  South  Church,  in  order  if  they  see  cause,  to 
its  being  voted  and  established. 

Voted  and  established  by  the  said  church  at  their  Meeting  April  9 
1739.  Joseph  Sewall 

Thomas  Prince. 

We  have  abundant  evidence  that  from  its  earliest  days  the 
South  Church,  as  a  church,  met  in  a  generous  spirit  the  various 
claims  which  were  made  upon  its  Christian  liberality,  and  that 
it  felt  its  responsibility  for  the  advancement  of  religion  beyond 
its  own    parish    limits,   as    it    might   have   opportunity.     Soon 


ORGANIZED  BENEVOLENCE.  495 

after  the  settlement  of  Mr.  Prince  in  the  co-pastorate  with  Mr. 
Sewall,  its  liberality  took  on  a  more  systematic  and  definite  form. 
It  voted,  March  13,  1725-6,  "  that  there  be  a  publick  collection 
on  our  anniversary  Fasts  and  Thanksgivings,  to  be  bestowed  on 
pious  uses,  and  for  the  advancement  of  Christ's  Kingdom,"  and 
it  appointed  trustees  for  the  "evangelical  treasury"  thus  estab- 
lished.1 This  action  was  so  far  modified  the  following  year,  that 
a  special  vote  was  required  for  each  semi-annual  collection,  as 
the  occasions  came  round,  and  the  church  held  in  its  own  hands 
the  distribution  of  the  money.  The  votes  thus  made  necessary 
we  have  given  and  shall  continue  to  give,  as  they  are  recorded. 
To  some  of  our  readers  they  may  seem  monotonous  ;  but  we 
cannot  help  thinking  them  very  suggestive.  The  members  of 
the  church  were  brought  face  to  face  with  the  necessities  of  the 
poor  among  themselves,  and  with  the  struggles  of  other  churches 
and  their  ministers  in  outlying  and  destitute  neighborhoods.  The 
officers  must  have  had  plenty  to  do  in  carrying  out  the  wishes 
of  the  brethren  as  expressed  by  the  many  votes  appropriating 
money,  in' addition  to  what  devolved  upon  them  in  the  adminis- 
tration of  the  ordinary  temporalities.  The  day  for  the  combina- 
tion of  churches  in  organized  societies  was  not  yet  come. 
There  were  the  three  Propagation  societies  in  Great  Britain, 
which  were  represented  here  by  commissioners,  and  with  which 
the  churches  were  more  or  less  affiliated  ;  but  with  this  excep- 
tion, each  local  church  was  a  society  by  itself,  for  charitable  and 
missionary  work.  The  final  adoption  by  the  South  Church, 
April  9,  1739,  of  the  Report  of  Mr.  Ezekiel  Lewis  and  his  com- 
mittee, was  a  renewed  recognition  of  the  responsibilities  at 
home  and  abroad,  which  it  had  already  been  endeavoring  faith- 
fully to  meet,  and  was  a  step  forward  in  the  attainment  of 
steadiness  and  directness  in  aim  and  plan. 

May  24  Mr.  Edwards  of  Northampton  preach'd  my  Lecture  from 
1  Tim.  2.  5.  Lord  bless  the  labors  of  thy  Servant,  and  confirm  his 
health. 

May  31.  Revd  Mr.  Eels  preach'd  to  the  Rev'd  Convention.'2  1  Sam. 
4.  13.     Collected  about  173^. 

Aug.  12.  We  had  a  Collection  towards  defraying  the  charge  of  the 
case  relating  to  the  ministerial  Land  at  Kingston.3 

Sept  2.    I  preach'd  again  from  Deut.  5.  12-14  [the  fourth  command- 

1  See  ante,  p.  41S.  3  [See  ante,  pp.  488,  489.     This  collec- 

2  [This  is  the  first  time  Dr.  Sewall  tion  is  not  mentioned  in  the  records  of 
speaks  of  the  Convention  by  that  name.]     the  church.] 


496  HISTORY  OF   THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

ment].     Then  read  the  Proclamation  for  preventing  Disorders  on  the 
Lord's  day.     Deliver'd  a  word  or  two  after  reading  it. 

Oct  3.  The  Rev.  Mr.  T.  Prentice  (dismiss'd  from  the  Church  in 
Arundel)  receiv'd  the  Charge  of  the  Church  at  Charlestown  as  a  Col- 
league Pastor  to  the  Revd  Mr.  Abbot.  Mr.  Abbot  began  with  Prayr. 
Mr.  Prentice  preach'd  from  2  Cor.  6.  1.  I  gave  the  Charge,  (Hands 
were  not  imposed,)  Rev.  Mr.  Appleton,  the  Right  Hand  of  Fellow- 
ship. I  had  a  difficulty  in  my  own  mind  about  this  affair  ;  however  I 
engaged  in  it.  O  Lord  govern  it  in  mercy.  Make  thy  Servant  a 
Blessing  to  this  Flock.1     (J.  Sewall.) 

At  a  Meeting  of  the  South  Church  and  Congregation,  Octr  8.  1739. 

It  being  represented  by  the  Deacons,  that  there  is  now  in  their 
hands  about  seventy  two  Pounds,  arising  from  the  rents  of  the  cellar 
and  the  weekly  contribution, 

Voted  —  That  the  said  sum  of  72Z.be  equally  given  to  our  Revd 
Pastors,  further  to  encourage  them  in  their  labors  among  us. 

And  whereas,  there  has  been  laid  out  in  repairing  the  Ministerial 
Houses  more  than  one  hundred  Pounds,  and  the  allowance  made  to 
our  Revd  Pastors  hitherto,  has  been  represented  by  them  as  insuf- 
ficient for  the  necessary  support  of  their  Families,  therefore, 

Voted,  That  there  be  a  collection  on  Lord's  Day  the  21st  Instant, 
to  answer  these  occasions  ;  and  that  next  Lord's  Day  the  Deacons  be 
desired  to  acquaint  the  Church  and  Congregation  what  may  be  neces- 
sary for  said  uses.  Joseph  Sewall. 

Novr.  11.  1739.  The  Brethren  of  the  Church  and  Congregation 
stay'd  and  Voted  as  follows, 

Whereas,  not  long  time  since  there  was  a  publick  Collection,  both 
to  discharge  the  late  repairs  of  the  Church's  Houses,  and  for  the 
necessary  support  of  the  Pastors'  Families ;  but  the  said  collection 
amounted  to  no  more  than  was  sufficient  to  discharge  the  said  repairs  ; 
whereby  there  was  nothing  left  as  was  intended,  for  the  support  of 
their  Families  ;  and  whereas  the  stock  for  charitable  and  pious  uses 
is  like  to  suffice  for  the  relief  of  the  poor  through  the  following 
winter ; 

Therefore,  Voted,  that  there  be  a  publick  collection  for  our  Revd 
Pastors,  on  the  next  General  Thanksgiving  Day  Novr.  29,  and  the  rest 
of  the  Church  and  Congregation  are  desired  to  concur,  and  assist 
therein. 

Novr.  29.  1739.     Collected  ^93.  18.  2  Joseph  Sewall. 

1  [The  Rev.  Thomas  Prentice,  Harv.  town  until  after  the  Revolution.    We  do 

Coll.  1726,  was  pastor  of  the  church  in  not  know  what  caused  the  difficulty  in 

Arundel,  Maine,  until  1737,  when  it  was  Dr.  Sewall's  mind,  on  the  occasion  of 

dispersed  during  the  Indian  wars,  and  he  his  settlement.     It  may  have  had  refer- 

had  since  been  living  in  Cambridge.     He  ence  to  his  removal  from  Arundel;  or 

continued  in  the  pastorate   at  Charles-  the  call  may  not  have  been  unanimous.] 


FAST  DAY,  1740.  497 

March  16.  1739-40.  The  Brethren  of  the  Church  and  Congrega- 
tion stay'd  and  Voted, 

I.  That  there  be  given  out  of  the  stock  for  charitable  and  pious 
uses,  ten  Pounds  to  the  Revd  Mr.  Nathanl  [?  Ebenezer]  Goold,  and 
ten  Pounds  to  the  Revd  Mr.  Daniel  Elmer,  in  consideration  of  the 
loss  of  their  Houses  by  fire,  and  to  encourage  them  in  Preaching  the 
Gospel.1 

II.  That  there  be  another  Publick  Collection  for  charitable  and 
pious  uses  on  the  Anniversary  Fast  March  27.  Current ;  and  that  the 
Rest  of  the  Congregation  be  notified  of  this  Vote  next  Lord's  Day, 
and  be  desired  to  assist  in  the  said  collection.          Joseph  Sewall. 

March  27.  1740.     General  Fast. 

Collected  for  charitable  and  pious  uses 

Unappropriated ^76.  9.  5 

Appropriated 

To  the  Fund  for  char,  and  pious  uses,  .         .  £  5.  o.  o 

To  the  Fund  for  Ministers'  Widows  .         .         .  £  3.  o.  o 

To  the  Revd  Mr.  Daniel  Elmer  .         .         .         .  ^12.  o.  o 

To  Revd  Messrs  Bass £  1.  o.  o 

Carpenter  .         .         .         .  £  1.  o.  o 

Torrey £  1.  o.  o 

£23.  o.  o 
Total £99.  9.  5 

At  a  Meeting  of  the  Brethren  of  the  Church  and  Congregation, 
April  14.  1740. 

Forasmuch  as  there  are  considerable  deficiencies  in  our  weekly  con- 
tributions for  the  support  of  our  Revd  Pastors,  and  our  frequent 
Meetings  about  the  same  are  judged  inconvenient  and  not  reputable  ; 
Therefore, 

Voted,  That  Josiah  Willard  and  Samuel  Welles  Esqrs.  and  Mr. 
Thomas  Cushing,  be  a  Committee  to  find  out  some  proper  method  for 
raising  a  sufficient  allowance  for  our  Revd  Ministers. 

Voted,  That  ^26.  n.  4  now  remaining  in  the  hands  of  the  Deacons 
be  given  equally  to  our  Revd  Pastors. 

Voted,  That  .£50.  of  the  late  collections  for  charitable  and  pious 
uses,  be  disposed  of  by  the  Deacons  in  Wood  and  other  Necessaries 
for  the  Poor  of  this  Church  and  Congregation.     Adjourned. 

1  [The  Rev.  Ebenezer  Goold  or  Gould,  the  church  in   Fairfield   in    1728.     Both 

Yale  College,  1723,  was  settled  at  Green-  these  clergymen  were  settled  over  Pres- 

wich,  near  Fairfield,  New  Jersey.     Pro-  byterian  churches,  but  their  sympathies 

fessor  Dexter  says  that    his  parsonage  were  largely  with  New  England  Congre- 

was  burnt,  with  all  its  furniture,  about  gationalism.      Mr.    Goold    was    settled 

this   time.      The    Rev.    Daniel     Elmer,  afterward    at   Middletown,    Conn.      See 

Yale  College,   1713,  was  ordained  over  Yale  Biographies,  pp.  110,282.] 


498  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

After  several  Adjournments  the  Brethren  met  May  5th  1740,  and 
Voted  as  follows ; 

I.  Inasmuch  as  it  is  universally  acknowledged  by  us  that  a  decent 
and  honourable  support  is  justly  due  to  our  Revd  Pastors,  who  labor 
in  the  Word  and  Doctrine  among  us,  and  it  is  apprehended  that  the 
most  likely  method  to  obtain  a  sufficient  sum  for  that  end  is  to  come 
into  a  new  subscription,  what  each  one  is  willing  to  allow  weekly, 
especially  as  our  circumstances  since  our  last  subscription  are  so  much 
altered  by  the  death  of  some,  and  removal  of  others  from  us ;  that  so 
there  may  be  raised  with  more  certainty,  a  sufficient  sum  for  this  and 
all  other  necessary  charges,  and  that  the  stated  Meetings  twice  a  year 
to  consider  of  this  affair,  may  be  superceeded,  and  laid  aside  ; 

Therefore  Voted, 

That  there  be  a  new  subscription  taken  of  the  members  of  the 
church  and  congregation  as  soon  as  conveniently  may  be,  that  so  we 
may  allow  to  each  of  our  Revd  Ministers  nine  Pounds  pr  week  in  the 
present  Currency  of  Bills  of  Credit,  compared  with  silver  at  29  sh. 
pr  ounce,  besides  their  Wood  and  Houses  ;  and  in  order  thereunto,  it 
is  thought  necessary  that  the  weekly  contribution  should  arise  to  £22. 
pr  week,  or  thereabout ;  and  therefore  it  is  hoped  and  desired  that  all 
persons  as  they  are  favour'd  with  Estate  and  Income,  will  be  liberal 
and  enlarge  their  contribution  and  subscription,  that  so  there  may  be 
no  room  for  any  complaints  for  the  future. 

II.  That  Mr.  Benjamin  Clark,  Capt  Nathaniel  Vyal,  Mr.  John  Knee- 
land  and  Mr.  John  Simpson,  be  a  Committee  to  take  a  new  subscrip- 
tion of  the  members  of  the  church  and  congregation  who  doe  not 
now  subscribe,  as  soon  as  may  be  Anthony  Stoddard 

Modr. 

Mr.  Joseph  Gardner,  Harvard  College  1732,  was  ordained  at 
Newport,  May  14,  as  co-pastor  with  the  Rev.  Nathaniel  Clap, 
over  the  First  Congregational  Church  in  that  town.  Several 
of  the  Boston  ministers  took  part  in  the  services,  and  Mr.  Gee 
preached  the  sermon. 

May  9.  I  set  out  with  Mr.  Hubbard  for  Newport.  Lodg'd  at  Car- 
penter's. 

May  10.     Got  into  Newport  before  Sunset,  lodge  at  Mr.  Dehane's. 

May  11.  I  preach'd  for  Mr.  Gardner,  A.  M.  from  1  Pet.  2.  7.  Mr. 
Clap  from  Phil.  1.  27.  P.  M. 

May  14.  Mr.  Joseph  Gardner  was  ordain'd.  I  began  with  Prayr. 
Mr.  Gee  preached  from  John  10.  11.  Mr.  Webb  pray'd  before  and 
after  the  Charge  which  was  given  by  Mr.  Clap.    Mr.  Serring  *  gave  the 

1  [The  Rev.  James  Searing,  Yale  Col-  Congregational  Church,  Newport.  The 
lege,  1725,  was   pastor   of    the    Second     Rev.  Ezra  Stiles  was  his  successor.] 


ORDINATION  AT  NEWPORT. 


499 


Right  Hand  of  Fellowship.  The  People,  among  whom  were  several 
Quakers,  seem'd  to  attend  with  seriousness.  O  Lord  Bless  this  Flock 
and  in  the  United  Labors  of  thy  Servants,  grant  them  the  fulness  of 
the  Blessing  of  the  Gospel.  15.  We  set  out  for  Boston,  lodg'd  at 
Doggit's.  Got  well  home  16.  about  sun-set,  having  experienc'd  much 
of  God's  Goodness. 

May  29.     Revd  Mr.  Prince  preach'd  the  Convention-Sermon  from 
Isai.  9.  7.     Collected  232.  9.  3     (J.  Sewall.) 


CHAPTER    X. 

1740-1744- 

MR.    WHITEFIELD'S    FIRST    VISIT. THE    REVIVAL    PERIOD. 

THE  period  to  which  we  have  come  is  known  in  our  re- 
ligious annals  as  that  of  the  Great  Awakening.  During 
the  time  covered  by  the  last  chapter,  there  were  revivals  of 
religion  of  great  power  and  interest  in  the  central  part  of  Massa- 
chusetts and  in  Connecticut,  one  of  the  most  memorable  being 
that  which  took  place  at  Northampton  under  the  ministry  of  the 
Rev.  Jonathan  Edwards.  In  1739,  George  Whitefield,  who  had 
spent  four  months  in  Georgia,  and  who  had  returned  to  Eng- 
land for  full  ordination  as  a  presbyter  in  the  Established  Church 
there,  came  again  to  these  shores,  and  after  preaching  to  im- 
mense congregations  in  Philadelphia  and  New  York,  went  to 
Savannah,  to  enter  upon  the  living  to  which  he  had  been  pre- 
sented by  the  Trustees  of  Georgia.  The  pastors  of  Boston 
were  greatly  impressed  by  what  they  heard  of  his  remarkable 
endowments  and  great  success  as  a  preacher  of  the  gospel,  and 
were  anxious  that  he  should  visit  New  England ;  and  Dr.  Col- 
man  and  Mr.  Cooper,  the  ministers  of  Brattle  Street  Church, 
endeavored  to  prepare  the  way  for  his  coming  by  warmest  com- 
mendation of  himself  and  his  work  in  a  preface  written  by  them 
to  a  sermon  on  the  Character  and  Preaching  of  Mr.  Whitefield, 
by  the  Rev.  Josiah  Smith,  of  Charleston,  South  Carolina.1  In 
this  preface  it  was  said  :  As  to  the  person  referred  to  and 
named,  "  he  is  the  wonder  of  the  age ;  and  no  one  man  more 
employs  the  pens,  and  fills  up  the  conversation  of  people,  than 
he  does  at  this  day :  none  more  admired  and  applauded  by 
some,  contemned  and  reproached  by  others  :  the  common  lot  of 
the  most  excellent  men  the  world  has  ever  had  to  show  !  "  Of 
his  coming  to  Boston,  and  of  the  religious  condition  of  the  town 
at  that  time  and  during  the  twenty  years  immediately  preceding, 

1  Mr.    Smith    preached   a  sermon   in     ciples  —  which  was  printed  in  Boston  in 
1742  —  Jesus    Persecuted    in    His    Dis-     1745. 


MR.   PRINCE'S  RETROSPECT.  501 

we  have  an  account  by  Mr.  Prince,  the  substance  of  which  we 
shall  give,  for  the  most  part  in  his  words.1 

Going  back  to  the  time  of  his  return  from  Europe  in  171 7, 
Mr.  Prince  says  :  "  On  my  said  return,  there  were  five  congre- 
gational churches  settled  with  pastors  in  this  town,  though  now 
they  are  increased  to  five  more.  The  pastors  were  Dr.  Increase 
and  Cotton  Mather  of  the  North  Church  ;  Mr.  Wadsworth  with 
Mr.  Foxcroft  chosen  his  colleague  of  the  Old  Church  ;  Mr. 
Colman  and  Cooper  of  the  Church  in  Brattle  Street ;  Mr.  Sew- 
all  of  the  South  Church  ;  and  Mr.  Webb  of  the  New  North  : 
All  most  happily  agreeing  in  the  Doctrines  of  Grace,  as  laid 
down  in  the  shorter  and  larger  Catechisms  and  Confession  of 
Faith,  drawn  out  of  Scripture  'by  the  venerable  Assembly  of 
Divines  at  Westminster,  as  well  as  the  Confession  of  Faith 
agreed  to  by  our  New  England  Synods,  and  almost  the  same 
with  the  other.  And  this  Town  and  Country  were  in  great 
tranquility  both  civil  and  religious.  But  though  there  were 
many  bright  examples  of  piety  in  every  seat  and  order  ;  yet 
there  was  a  general  complaint  among  the  pious  and  elderly  per- 
sons, of  the  great  decay  of  Godliness  in  the  lives  and  conversa- 
tions of  people  both  in  the  town  and  land,  from  what  they  had 
seen  in  the  days  of  their  fathers.  There  was  scarce  a  prayer 
made  in  public  by  the  elder  ministers  without  some  heavy  lamen- 
tation of  this  decay :  In  their  sermons  also  they  frequently 
mourned  it :  And  the  younger  ministers  commonly  followed  their 
example  therein." 

"  In  the  spring  of  1721,  the  eight  ministers  who  carried  on  the 
public  Lecture,  taking  into  consideration  the  lamentable  defect 
of  piety  among  our  young  people,  agreed  to  preach  a  course  of 
sermons  at  the  Lecture  to  them.  The  audiences  were  consider- 
ably crowded :  And  while  the  Word  of  God  was  loudly  sound- 
ing, he  lifted  up  his  awful  Rod,  by  sending  the  small-pox  into 
the  town,  which  began  to  spread  to  our  general  consternation  : 
Scarce  a  quarter  of  the  people  being  thought  to  have  had  it ; 
and  none  of  the  numerous  youth  under  eighteen  years  of  age, 
it  being  so  many  years  since  that  fatal  pestilence  had  prevailed 
among  us.      The  sermons  were  quickly  printed,  with  another 

1  This  narrative  appears  in  the  second  etc.     The  idea  of  the  publication  origi- 

volume  of  the  Christian  History,  pub-  nated  with  the  Rev.  Jonathan  Edwards, 

lished    in    1743   and    1744,   "containing  The  form  was  probably  suggested  by  the 

accounts  of  the  revival  and  propagation  Weekly  History   of  the   Progress  of  the 

of  religion  in  Great  Britain,  America,"  Gospel,  printed  in  London. 


502  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

added  by  the  venerable  Dr.  Increase  Mather,  for  further  benefit. 
Many  of  the  younger  people  especially  were  then  greatly  awak- 
ened :  And  many  hundreds  of  them  quickly  after  swept  into 
eternity. 

"In  the  spring  of  1722,  the  distemper  left  us:  But  so  little 
reformed  were  the  surviving  youth,  that  at  the  end  of  the  sum- 
mer the  pastors  agreed  to  move  their  churches  to  keep  in  each 
successively  a  Day  of  Prayer  and  Fasting  to  ask  of  God  the 
effusion  of  his  Holy  Spirit,  particularly  on  the  rising  generation. 
And  the  churches  readily  received  the  motion.  But  though  a 
solemnity  appeared  on  many,  yet  it  pleased  the  holy  God  to 
humble  us  and  sparingly  to  give  the  blessing. 

"  And  though  in  the  spring  of  1726,  in  an  awakening  view  of 
the  deplorable  decay  of  Family-Religion,  as  a  principal  source 
of  all  other  decays,  the  pastors  went  into  a  course  of  public 
lectures  on  that  important  subject;  yet  they  had  the  further 
sorrow  to  see  those  lectures  too  thinly  attended  to  expect  much 
benefit  from  them.1 

"  But  after  all  our  endeavours,  both  our  security  and  degener- 
acy seemed  in  general  to  grow,  'till  the  night  after  the  Lord's 
Day,  October  29.  1727  ;  when  the  glorious  God  arose  and  fear- 
fully shook  the  earth  through  all  these  countries.  By  terrible 
things  in  righteousness  he  began  to  answer  us,  as  the  God  of 
our  Salvation. 

"  On  the  next  morning  a  very  full  assembly  met  at  the  North 
Church  for  the  proper  exercises  on  so  extraordinary  an  occasion. 
At  five  in  the  evening  a  crowded  concourse  assembled  at  the 
Old  Church ;  and  multitudes  unable  to  get  in,  immediately 
flowed  to  the  South,  and  in  a  few  minutes  filled  that  also.  At 
Lieutenant  Governor  Dummer's  motion,  who  was  then  our  Com- 
mander in  Chief,  the  Thursday  of  the  same  week  was  kept  as  a 
Day  of  extraordinary  Fasting  and  Prayer  in  all  the  churches  in 
Boston  ;  not  merely  to  intreat  for  sparing  mercy,  but  also  to 
implore  the  Grace  and  Spirit  of  God  to  come  down  and  help  us 

1  The  several  subjects  in  this  course  Ezek.  xvi.  20,  on  Improving  the  Cov- 
of  lectures  were  these:  Dr.  Cotton  enant  relating  to  Children;  Mr.  Fox- 
Mather,  Job  viii.  6,  on  Household  Piety  croft,  Col.  iii.  18, 19,  on  Conjugal  Duties  ; 
in  general;  Mr.  Colman,  2  Sam.  vi.  20,  Mr.  Checkley,  Col.  iii.  20,  22-24,  on  me 
on  Family  Worship ;  Mr.  Thacher,  Gen.  Duties  of  Children  and  Servants  ;  Mr. 
xviii.  19,  on  Family  Instruction;  Mr.  Waldron,  Prov.  xiv.  11,  on  the  Character 
Sewall,  1  Sam.  iii.  13,  on  Family  Gov-  and  Doom  of  Wicked  Houses ;  Mr.  Gee, 
eminent;  Mr.  Prince,  Lev.  xxiii.  3,  on  Eccl.  vii.  14,  on  Family  Providences, 
Family  Sabbatizing ;  Mr.  Webb,  Psalm  especially  afflictive,  Improved.  Mr. 
ci.  2,  on  Family  Example  ;  Mr.  Cooper,  Sewall's  sermon  was  preached  May  12. 


SPECIAL   SERVICES.  503 

to  a  sincere  repentance  and  returning  to  him.  And  as  the 
Houses  of  public  Worship  were  greatly  crowded,  the  people 
were  very  attentive. 

"  The  ministers  endeavoured  to  set  in  with  this  extraordinary 
and  awakening  Work  of  God  in  Nature,  and  to  preach  his  Word 
in  the  most  awakening  manner ;  to  show  the  people  the  vast 
difference  between  conviction  and  conversion,  between  a  forced 
reformation  either  in  acts  of  piety,  justice,  charity,  or  sobriety, 
by  the  mere  power  of  fear,  and  a  genuine  change  of  the  very 
frame  and  relish  of  the  heart  by  the  supernatural  efficacy  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  ;  to  lead  them  on  to  true  conversion  and  unfeigned 
faith  in  Christ,  and  to  guard  them  against  deceiving  themselves. 

"  In  all  our  congregations,  many  seemed  to  be  awakened  and 
reformed  :  And  professing  repentance  of  their  sins  and  faith  in 
Christ,  entered  into  solemn  covenant  with  God,  and  came  into 
full  communion  with  our  several  churches.  In  ours,  within 
eight  months  after,  were  about  eighty  added  to  our  communi- 
cants. But  then  comparatively  few  of  these  applied  to  me  to 
discourse  about  their  souls,  'till  they  came  to  offer  themselves 
to  the  Communion,  or  afterwards  :  The  most  of  those  who  came 
to  me  seemed  to  have  passed  through  their  convictions  before 
their  coming  to  converse  with  me  about  approaching  to  the 
Lord's  Table :  though  I  doubt  not  but  considerable  numbers 
were  at  that  time  savingly  converted."  * 

This  awakened  interest  in  spiritual  concerns,  however,  did 
not  long  continue,  and  "  a  spiritual  slumber  seemed  soon  to  seize 
the  generality,  even  the  wise  as  well  as  foolish  virgins."  During 
the  next  three  or  four  years  there  was  a  greater  declension  than 
ever,  and  so  dissatisfied  were  the  pastors  of  the  town  with  the 
condition  of  things,  that  in  the  summer  of  1734  they  agreed  to 
propose  another  course  of  days  of  prayer  and  fasting  among 
their  several  congregations,  to  humble  themselves  before  God 
for  their  unfruitfulness  under  the  means  of  grace,  and  to  ask 
the  effusion  of  his  Spirit  to  revive  the  power  of  Godliness  among 
them,  which  the  people  "  readily  complied  with  and  observed." 

The  20th  of  August  was  the  day  set  apart  for  the  purpose  by 
the  South  Church;2  "And  though  the  sovereign  God,"  says 
Mr.  Prince,  "  was  pleased  to  give  us  now  and  then  a  sprinkling, 

1  Among  those  who  joined  the  South  Alden,  Green, Oliver,  Franklin,  Fleet,  and 

Church  at  this  time  were  the    pastor's  Morse. 

daughter,  Deborah  Prince,  and  members  2  See  ante,  p.  469.     Both  the  pastors 

of    the    families   of    Dawes,   Kneeland,  preached. 


504  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD   SOUTH   CHURCH. 

for  which  his  Name  be  praised,  yet  the  parching  drought  con- 
tinued, and  he  made  us  wait  for  a  larger  effusion." 

The  pastors  who  were  thus  anxious  and  well-nigh  discouraged 
about  the  spiritual  life  of  their  churches  heard  with  the  deepest 
interest  of  the  work  of  grace  "  in  the  westerly  parts  of  the 
country,"  — at  Northampton  and  the  adjacent  towns,  and  in  "the 
neighbouring  colony  of  Connecticut."  "The  solemn  rumour  of 
that  surprizing  Work  of  God  resounding  through  the  country, 
was  a  special  means  of  exciting  great  thoughtfulness  of  heart 
in  many  irreligious  people;  and  great  joy  in  others,  both  in  the 
view  of  what  the  mighty  power  and  grace  of  God  had  wrought, 
and  in  the  hopeful  prospect  that  this  blessed  Work  begun  would 
go  on  and  spread  throughout  the  land.  And  as  this  excited  the 
extraordinary  prayers  of  many,  so  it  seemed  to  prepare  the  way 
in  divers  places  for  that  more  extensive  revival  of  religion 
which  in  five  years  after  followed."  In  the  mean  time,  how- 
ever, the  general  decay  of  piety  in  the  town  seemed  to  go  on. 
At  the  South  Church,  while  some  applied  for  membership,  a 
few  only  came  to  their  ministers  in  concern  about  their  souls  ; 
and  it  was  the  same  in  the  other  congregations. 

But  from  the  year  1738  the  pastors  had  "received  accounts 
of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Whitefield,  as  a  very  pious  young  minister  of 
the  Church  of  England,  rising  up  in  the  spirit  of  the  reformers, 
and  preaching  their  doctrines  first  in  England  and  then  in 
America,  with  surprizing  power  and  success,"  and  there  was  a 
general  desire  that  he  should  visit  New  England.  He  ac- 
cepted, as  soon  as  he  was  able,  the  invitation  to  come  hither, 
and  on  Thursday  evening,  September  18,  1740,  he  arrived  in 
Boston. 

We  learn  from  his  journals  that  he  was  met  four  miles 
from  the  town,  on  the  road  to  Bristol  and  Newport,  by  one  of 
Governor  Belcher's  sons  and  other  gentlemen,  by  whom  he 
was  conducted  to  the  house  of  Mr.  Staniford,1  a  brother-in- 
law  of  Dr.  Colman.  At  the  request  of  several  ministers  and 
others  who  had  called  upon  him,  he  led  their  united  devotions 
in  thanksgiving  for  his  safe  arrival  and  prayer  for  a  blessing  on 
his  labors.  Among  those  who  called  the  next  morning  was  Mr. 
Josiah  Willard,   the   secretary  of  the  province,  with  whom   he 

1  We  suppose  this  to  have  been  John  Cambridge  Street,  and  an  estate  on  what 

Staniford,  who  owned  five  or  six  acres  is   now    Tremont    Row,   near    Howard 

of   land  bounded  by    Bowdoin    Square,  Street.     See  the  "  Gleaner "  Articles  by 

Green    Street,    Chambers    Street,    and  N.  I.  Bowditch. 


MR.    WHITEFIELD'S  ARRIVAL.  505 

had  been  in  correspondence  for  some  time.  Governor  Belcher 
received  him  with  the  utmost  respect,  and  requested  fre- 
quent visits  from  him.  He  attended  service  at  King's  Chapel, 
and  afterward  had  an  interview  with  four  or  five  ministers 
of  the  Church  of  England,  who  began  to  discourse,  not  on  the 
moral  and  religious  condition  of  the  town,  but  on  the  validity  of 
Presbyterian  ordination,  and  to  question  him  on  some  of  the 
doctrines  which  he  preached.  He  did  not  give  them  an  oppor- 
tunity to  deny  him  their  pulpits  ;  it  should  be  said,  however, 
that  they  treated  him  with  more  civility  than  he  had  received 
from  other  ministers  of  his  own  church.1  In  the  afternoon  of 
the  same  day,  as  Mr.  Prince  tells  us,  Dr.  Sewall  and  he  made 
him  a  visit ;  "  found  several  ministers  and  other  gentlemen  of 
the  town  with  him,  and  that  Dr.  Colman  and  Mr.  Cooper 
had  engaged  him  to  preach  this  afternoon  in  their  House  of 
public  Worship  :  and  in  about  an  hour  we  went  to  the  place 
which  quickly  crowded  with  two  or  three  thousand  people.  He 
began  with  a  short  and'  fervent  prayer :  and  after  singing,  took 
his  text  from  John  xvii.  2.  ("  As  thou  hast  given  him  power 
over  all  flesh,  that  he  should  give  eternal  life  to  as  many  as 
thou  hast  given  him.")  Gave  us  a  plain,  weighty  regular  dis- 
course :   representing  that  all  our  learning  and  morality  will 

1  For  an  account  of  Mr.  Whitefield's  This  was  at  the  mansion  in  Medford,  then 
visit  to  New  England  from  an  Episcopa-  a  part  of  Charlestown,  which  Mr.  Royall 
lian  point  of  view,  see  Foote's  Annals  of  had  just  inherited,  with  a  large  fortune, 
King's  Chapel,  vol.  i.  pp.  503-514.  The  from  his  father.  In  1740  he  was  about 
letters  of  Dr.  Cutler,  of  Christ  Church,  twenty-one  years  of  age.  On  his  mother's 
could  have  been  written  only  by  one  who  side  he  was  a  descendant  of  Jacob  El- 
had  been  born,  brought  up,  and  ordained  iot,  one  of  the  founders  and  first  deacons 
in  the  Congregational  body,  and  then  had  of  the  South  Church.  His  grandfather, 
gone  over  to  another  denomination.  Mr.  Asaph  Eliot,  owned  the  covenant  there 
Commissary  Price's  sermon  on  Mr.  in  1679,  and  his  mother,  Elizabeth  Roy- 
Whitefield  was  not  unlike  the  generality  all,  became  a  member  in  1707.  He  was 
of  the  preaching  about  him  in  the  Eng-  a  man  of  high  character  and  devout 
lish  Church  at  home  at  the  time.  On  spirit.  He  was  perplexed  as  to  his  duty 
the  other  hand,  Mr.  Foote  points  out  at  the  time  of  the  Revolution,  but  was 
that  when  Mr.  Whitefield  came  to  Bos-  prevailed  upon  to  adhere  to  the  cause  of 
ton  in  1747,  he  visited  Mr.  Isaac  Royal,  the  Crown,  and  he  left  the  country,  to 
a  worshipper  at  King's  Chapel,  at  his  which  he  was  much  attached,  never  to 
residence  in  Charlestown  ;  and  that  when  return.  "  While  he  was  known  to  have 
he  died  at  Newburyport,  in  1770,  the  much  in  common  with  the  little  band  of 
Rev.  Edward  Bass,  afterward  bishop  of  loyalists  who  were  gathered  about  Bos- 
the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  Mas-  ton  and  Cambridge,  yet  he  was  still  faith- 
sachusetts,  was  one  of  the  pall-bearer.s.  ful  to  the  people's  church,  and  most  of 

The  journals  show  that  in   1740  Mr.  his  family  ties  held  him  to  the  popular 

Whitefield  passed  a  night  (October  10)  cause." — The  New  England  Royalls,  by 

at   Mr.    Royal's,    "  a  young   rich  man."  Edw.  D.  Harris,  p.  23. 


506  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

never  save  us  ;  and  without  an  experimental  knowledge  of  God 
in  Christ  we  must  perish  in  hell  forever.  He  spake  as  became 
the  Oracles  of  God,  in  demonstration  of  the  Spirit  and  of 
power.  And  especially  when  he  came  to  his  application,  he 
addressed  himself  to  the  audience  in  such  a  tender,  earnest  and 
moving  manner,  exciting  us  to  come  and  be  acquainted  with 
the  dear  Redeemer,  as  melted  the  assembly  into  tears. 

"Next  morning,  at  Dr.  Sewall's  and  my  desire,"  continues 
Mr.  Prince,  "  he  preached  at  the  South  Church  to  further  ac- 
ceptance. He  spake  with  a  mighty  sense  of  God,  eternity,  the 
immortality  and  preciousness  of  the  souls  of  his  hearers,  of 
their  original  corruption,  and  of  the  extreme  danger  the  unre- 
generate  are  in  ;  with  the  nature  and  absolute  necessity  of 
regeneration  by  the  Holy  Ghost ;  and  of  believing  in  Christ,  in 
order  to  our  pardon,  justification,  yielding  an  acceptable  obedi- 
ence and  obtaining  salvation  from  hell  and  an  entrance  into 
heaven.  His  doctrine  was  plainly  that  of  the  reformers :  De- 
claring against  putting  our  good  works  or  morality  in  the  room 
of  Christ's  Righteousness,  or  their  having  any  hand  in  our  jus- 
tification, or  being  indeed  pleasing  to  God  while  we  are  totally 
unsanctified,  acting  from  corrupt  principles,  and  unreconciled 
enemies  to  him :  which  occasioned  some  to  mistake  him  as  if 
he  opposed  morality.  But  he  insisted  on  it,  that  the  tree  of  the 
heart  is  by  original  sin  exceedingly  corrupted,  and  must  be 
made  good  by  regeneration,  that  so  the  fruits  proceeding  from 
it  may  be  good  likewise ;  that  where  the  heart  is  renewed,  it 
ought  and  will  be  careful  to  maintain  good  works ;  that  if  any 
be  not  habitually  so  careful,  who  think  themselves  renewed, 
they  deceive  their  own  souls  ;  and  even  the  most  improved  in 
holiness,  as  well  as  others,  must  entirely  depend  on  the  Right- 
eousness of  Christ  for  the  acceptance  of  their  persons  and  ser- 
vices. And  though  now  and  then  he  dropped  some  expressions 
that  were  not  so  accurate  and  guarded  as  we  should  expect 
from  aged  and  long  studied  ministers  ;  yet  I  had  the  satisfaction 
to  observe  his  readiness  with  great  modesty  and  thankfulness 
to  receive  correction  as  soon  as  offered." 

On  Sunday  morning  Mr.  Whitefield  attended  service  at  Brat- 
tle Street  and  listened  to  Dr.  Colman.  In  the  afternoon  he 
preached  "to  a  very  thronged  auditory,  and  with  great  and  vis- 
ible effect,  at  Mr.  Foxcroft's  meeting  house."  Immediately 
after,  he  addressed  twelve  or  fifteen  thousand  people  on  the 
Common.    On  Monday  morning  he  preached  at  the  New  North, 


MR.    WHITEFIELD  AT  CAMBRIDGE.  507 

Mr.  Webb's ;  and  in  the  afternoon  he  went  to  the  New  South, 
Mr.  Checkley's,  but  a  panic  had  struck  the  great  congregation 
there,  and  when  he  arrived  he  found  it  in  terrible  confusion. 
There  was  no  real  cause  for  alarm  ;  but  in  their  haste  to  escape 
from  the  building  some  threw  themselves  from  the  windows, 
others  from  the  galleries,  many  were  trodden  upon,  and  five 
persons  were  killed.1  Mr.  Whitefield  adjourned  the  service  to 
the  Common,  where,  although  the  weather  was  wet,  several 
thousands  listened  to  him.  On  Tuesday  he  went  to  Roxbury, 
accompanied  by  Dr.  Colman  and  Mr.  Secretary  Willard,  to  see 
Mr.  Walter,  the  colleague  and  successor  of  John  Eliot ; 2  on  his 
return  he  dined  with  the  secretary,  and  preached  in  the  Second 
Church,  Mr.  Gee's,  "but  not  to  a  very  crowded  auditory,"  be- 
cause the  people  were  in  doubt  as  to  where  he  was  to  preach  ; 
later  he  had  "a  thronged  auditory"  at  the  South  Church,  and 
after  this  he  exhorted  and  prayed,  as  he  did  every  day,  at  his 
lodgings. 

Wednesday  was  spent  at  Cambridge,  "  the  Chief  college  for 
training  up  the  sons  of  the  prophets  in  all  New  England."  The 
record  of  this  visit  led  to  important  results,  and  we  give  the  ac- 
count as  first  written  and  published  by  Mr.  Whitefield :  "  It  is 
scarce  as  big  as  one  of  our  least  colleges  at  Oxford  ;  and,  as  far 
as  I  could  gather  from  some  who  well  knew  the  state  of  it,  not 
far  superior  to  our  universities  in  piety  and  true  godliness. 
Tutors  neglect  to  pray  with  and  examine  the  hearts  of  their  pu- 
pils. Discipline  is  at  a  low  ebb.  Bad  books  are  becoming  fash- 
ionable among  them.  Tillotson  and  Clark  are  read,  instead  of 
Shepard,  Stoddard,  and  such  like  evangelical  writers ;  and, 
therefore,  I  chose  to  preach  from  those  words  —  '  We  are  not  as 
many,  who  corrupt  the  word  of  God  ; '  and,  in  the  conclusion  of 
my  sermon,  I  made  a  close  application  to  tutors  and  students. 
A  great  number  of  neighbouring  ministers  attended,  as  indeed 
they  do  at  all  other  times,  and  God  gave  me  great  freedom  and 
boldness  of  speech.  The  President  of  the  College  [Mr.  Hol- 
yoke3]  and  minister  of  the  parish  [Mr.  Appleton]  treated  me 

1  Dr.  Sewall  says :  "  There  was  a  vast  out  of  the  Window,  and  was  kill'd  by  the 

Assembly   at    Mr.   Checkley's,    to    hear  Fall.     Others  were  grievously  wounded." 

him ;  but  were  thrown  into  great  Confu-  2  Mr.  Walter  met  him  afterward  at  the 

sion  from  a  groundless  imagination  that  governor's  table,  and  complimented  him 

the  Gallery  gave  way.    Several  were  trod  by  calling  one  of  his  sermons  Puritanis- 

to  death  as  the  Crowd  press'd  out  of  the  mus  redivivus. 

House,  3  died  almost  presently,  2  since  3  President    Holyoke,  in  his   Conven- 

of  their  Wounds.     I  think  a  Lad  jump'd  tion  sermon,  May  28,  1741,  said  :  "And 


508  HISTORY  OF   THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

very  civilly.  In  the  afternoon  I  preached  again  in  the  College 
Yard  with  particular  application  to  the  students.  I  believe 
there  were  seven  thousand  hearers.  The  Holy  Spirit  melted 
many  hearts."  While  at  Cambridge  he  paid  his  respects  to  the 
lieutenant-governor,  Spencer  Phips. 

On  Thursday  Mr.  Whitefield  preached  the  lecture  in  Dr. 
Sewall's  place  at  the  First  Church,  and  afterward  dined  at  the 
governor's  with  most  of  the  Boston  pastors.  His  journal  says  : 
"  Before  dinner,  the  governor  sent  for  me  up  into  his  chamber. 
He  wept,  wished  me  good  success  in  the  name  of  the  Lord, 
and  recommended  himself,  ministers  and  people,  to  my  prayers. 
Immediately  after  dinner,  at  the  governor's  motion,  I  prayed 
explicitly  for  them  all."  The  governor  sent  him  in  his  carriage 
to  the  ferry  at  the  north  end  of  the  town,  where  he  crossed  to 
Charlestown  and  preached  there.  On  Friday  he  preached  at 
Roxbury,  and  later  in  the  day  spoke  from  a  scaffold  erected 
outside  Mr.  Byles's  meeting-house  in  Hollis  Street.1  On  Satur- 
day he  preached  in  the  morning  at  Mr.  Welsteed's,  and  in  the 
afternoon  on  the  Common,  both  times  with  very  great  effect. 
He  dined  this  day  with  Colonel  Wendell. 

On  Sunday  morning  he  preached  at  the  South  Church,  on  the 
story  of  Zaccheus,  "to  a  very  crowded  auditory,  with  almost  as 
much  power  and  visible  appearance  of  God  among  us  as  yester- 
day in  the  afternoon,"  and  collected  about  five  hundred  and  fifty 
pounds  currency  for  his  orphan   house  in  Georgia.      He  was 

though  religion  is  still   in  fashion  with  been  made  upon  it,  either  as  to  the  prin- 

us,  yet  it  is  evident  that  the  power  of  it  ciples  there  prevalent,  or  the  books  there 

is  greatly  decayed.     Indeed,  those  two  read  ;  and  though  such  as  have  given 

pious  and   valuable   men  of   God,  [Mr.  out  a  disadvantageous  report  of   us  in 

Whitefield  and  Mr.  Tennent,]  who  have  these  respects,  I  doubt  not,  have  done  it 

been  labouring  more  abundantly  among  in  a  godly  jealousy  for  the  Churches  of 

us,  have  been  greatly  instrumental,  in  the  Christ,  that  are  to  be  supplied  from  us, 

hands   of    God,   to   revive   this  blessed  yet,   blessed   be  God,  they  are  at  least 

work ;  and  many,  no  doubt,  have  been  mistaken  herein ;  nor   has   that   society 

savingly  converted   from   the    error    of  been   in   so  happy  a   state  as  to  these 

their  ways,  many  more  have  been  con-  things,  from  the  time  that  I  was  first  ac- 

victed,  and  all  have  been  in  some  meas-  quainted  with  the  principles  there,  which 

ure  roused  from  their  lethargy.     But  the  must  be  allowed  to  be  the  space  of  four 

power  of  religion  had  been  greatly  weak-  or  five  and  thirty  years  at  least,  as  it  is 

ened,  and  hath  for  a  long  time  been  too  at  this  day." 

much  in  show  and  profession  only."    Re-         1  In  his  journal  he  says  that  he  spent 

ferring  to  criticisms   upon   the    college,  Friday  evening  with  several  ministers  at 

he  said  :  "  I  can,  from  my  own  examina-  Mr.  H n's.    This  was  probably  at  Mr. 

tion  of  things,  assure  this  venerable  as-  Henchman's  ;  he  was  one  of  the  deacons 

sembly  that   that   society  hath   not   de-  of  the  South  Church,  and  lived  in  Court 

served  the  aspersions  which  have  of  late  Street,  near  Tremont. 


LECTURE  AT  THE  SOUTH  CHURCH.  509 

taken  very  ill  after  dinner,  but  was  able  to  preach  at  Brattle 
Street,  where  he  collected  four  hundred  and  seventy  pounds. 
"In  both  places,  all  things  were  carried,  on  with  great  decency 
and  order.  People  went  slowly  out,  as  though  they  had  not  a 
mind  to  escape  giving  ;  and  Dr.  Colman  said  it  was  the  pleas- 
antest  time  he  had  ever  enjoyed  in  that  meeting-house  through 
the  whole  course  of  his  life."  After  sermon  he  felt  refreshed, 
supped  early,  had  an  affectionate  visit  from  the  governor, 
preached  to  a  great  number  of  negroes,  at  their  request,  and 
with  great  effect,  on  the  story  of  the  Ethiopian  eunuch,  and  on 
his  return  to  his  lodgings  exhorted  the  crowd  which  was  await- 
ing his  arrival. 

Early  on  Monday  morning,  September  29,  he  left  Boston  on 
an  excursion  to  the  eastward.  He  preached  at  Marblehead, 
Salem,  Ipswich,  Newbury,  Hampton,  Portsmouth,  and  York. 
At  the  last-named  place  he  saw  the  venerable  Samuel  Moody, 
whom  he  had  been  anxious  to  meet.  On  his  return,  he  spent 
the  Sunday  at  Salem,  where  he  preached  twice,  and  in  the  Epis- 
copal church  read  prayers  and  assisted  at  the  sacrament.  On 
Tuesday  he  preached  "with  much  power,"  both  morning  and 
evening,  at  Brattle  Street,  and  on  Wednesday,  morning  and 
evening,  at  the  New  North.  Here  "  there  was  more  of  the 
presence  of  God  through  the  whole  ministration  than  ever  he 
had  known  at  one  time  through  the  whole  course  of  his  life." 
On  Thursday. he  preached  the  lecture  at  the  South  Church.1 
He  had  chosen  another  text,  but  it  was  much  impressed  on  his 
heart  that  he  should  preach  from  our  Lord's  conference  with 
Nicodemus.  A  great  number  of  ministers  were  present ;  and 
when  he  came  to  the  words  "  Art  thou  a  master  in  Israel,  and 
knowest  not  these  things  ?  "  he  says  :  "  The  Lord  enabled  me  to 
open  my  mouth  boldly  against  unconverted  ministers  ;  to  cau- 
tion tutors  to  take  care  of  their  pupils ;  and  also  to  advise  min- 
isters particularly  to  examine  into  the  experiences  of  candidates 
for  ordination.  For  I  am  verily  persuaded  the  generality  of 
preachers  talk  of  an  unknown  and  unfelt  Christ ;  and  the  rea- 
son why  congregations  have  been  so  dead  is,  because  they  have 
had  dead  men  preaching  to  them."  2     In   the  afternoon  he  ad- 

1  On    this    Thursday  there  were  two  whose  was  the  Lecture,  preach'd  in  the 

services ;    Mr.    Webb   preached    at   the  Old,  So  great  were  the  Numbers.    P.  M. 

usual  place,  and   Mr.  Whitefield  at  the  in  the  Common." 

South    Church.     Dr.  Sewall  says:  Oct.  2  He  dined  again  this   day  with   the 

7.     "  Mr.  Whitefield  preached    ...  in  governor,  who  told  one  of  the  ministers 

our  meeting-house,   while    Mr.    Webb,  present,  who  had  lately  begun  to  preach 


5IO  HISTORY  OF   THE    OLD   SOUTH   CHURCH. 

dressed  another  immense  audience  on  the  Common.  On  Fri- 
day he  preached  at  Charlestown  and  at  Reading,  and  on  Satur- 
day at  Cambridge,  from  the  meeting-house  steps,  to  a  great 
body  of  people,  who  stood  very  attentively,  though  it  rained, 
and  at  the  latter  part  of  the  sermon  were  much  affected.  The 
subject  was  "  Noah,  the  eighth  person,  a  preacher  of  righteous- 
ness." x 

The  morning  of  Sunday,  October  12,  was  spent  in  conversing 
with  those  who  came  for  spiritual  advice.  He  then  preached 
with  great  power  and  affection  at  the  South  Church,  which  was 
so  exceedingly  thronged  that  he  was  obliged  to  enter  at  one  of 
the  windows.  His  text  was  Jer.  xxxiii.  6,  "  And  this  is  his  name 
whereby  he  shall  be  called,  The  Lord  our  Righteousness." 2 
"  He  dined  with  the  governor,  who  came  to  him  after  din- 
ner, weeping,  and  desired  his  prayers.  He  heard  Dr.  Sewall  in 
the  afternoon  [on  Isai.  xlviii.  17,  18].  He  was  sick  during  and 
after  the  exercises,  but  went  with  the  governor  in  his  coach, 
and  preached  his  farewell  sermon  on  the  Common  to  near  thirty 
thousand  people.  Great  numbers  melted  into  tears  when  he 
spoke  of  leaving  them.  The  governor  then  went  with  him  to 
his  lodgings.  He  stood  in  the  passage  and  spoke  to  a  great 
company,  both  within  and  without  the  doors ;  but  they  were  so 
deeply  affected,  and  cried  out  so  loud,  that  he  was  obliged  to 

extempore,  that  he  was  very  glad  he  had  fault  with  them.     Before  the  questioner 

found  out  a  way  to  save  his  eyes.  had  well  begun  to  consider  what  hope  of 

1  Mr.  Secretary  Willard  wrote  to  him  acceptance  with  God  any  one  durst  cher- 
soon  after :  "  Mr.  Webb  tells  me  that  ish,  if  the  atonement  was  only  for  the 
divers  young  men  in  this  town,  who  are  elect,  his  soul  was  called  to  repent  and 
candidates  for  the  ministry,  have  been  believe ;  for  Whitefield  was  too  wise  at 
brought  under  deep  convictions  by  your  winning  souls  to  leave  his  '  application  ' 
preaching,  and  (as  he  hopes)  are  carried  to  the  last :  he  would  put  an  application 
off  from  the  foundation  of  their  false  to  every  paragraph  rather  than  fail  in 
hopes  (their  own  righteousness)  to  rest  getting  practical  results.  In  his  sermon 
only  on  Christ  for  salvation."  Dr.  Col-  on  '  The  Lord  our  Righteousness '  he 
man  wrote :  "  At  Cambridge  the  Col-  rushes  straight  in  among  his  hearers' 
lege  is  a  new  creature;  the  students  full  doubts  and  troubles  —  doubts  and  trou- 
of  God,  and  like  to  come  out  blessings  bles  which  his  own  rebukes  and  plead- 
in  their  generations,  and  to  be  so  now  to  ings  have  created,  and  exclaims,  '  Who 
each  other."  knows  but  the  Lord  may  have  mercy  on, 

2  "  Nor  was  it  so  much  the  theology  of  nay,  abundantly  pardon  you?  Beg  of 
the  sermons  as  the  spirit  of  the  preacher  God  to  give  you  faith  ;  and,  if  the  Lord 
which  won  the  people's  ear  and  heart,  gives  you  that,  you  will  by  it  receive 
Love  is  more  than  theology,  both  with  Christ  with  His  righteousness  and  His 
God  and  man,  and  that  was  never  absent  all.  You  need  not  fear  the  greatness  or 
from  any  sermon  of  Whitefield.  Con-  the  number  of  your  sins.'  "  —  Gledstone's 
gregations  had  no  time  to  settle  down  Life  and  Travels  of  George  Whitefield, 
upon  his  theological  mistakes,  and  find  pp.  346,  347. 


IMPRESSIONS   OF  BOSTON.  511 

leave  off  praying.  The  governor  was  highly  pleased  to  see  the 
power  of  God.  The  remainder  of  the  evening  was  mostly  spent 
in  conversation  with  inquirers."  It  was  at  the  close  of  the  rec- 
ord of  this  memorable  day  that  the  great  preacher  summed  up 
in  his  journal  his  general  impressions  of  Boston :  — 

Boston  is  a  large  populous  place,  very  wealthy  ;  has  the  form  kept 
up  very  well,  but  has  lost  much  of  the  power  of  religion.  I  have  not 
heard  of  any  remarkable  stir  in  it  for  these  many  years.  Ministers 
and  people  are  obliged  to  confess,  that  the  love  of  many  is  waxed 
cold.  Both,  for  the  generality,  seem  too  much  conformed  to  the 
world.  There  is  much  of  the  pride  of  life  to  be  seen  in  their  assem- 
blies. Jewels,  patches  and  gay  apparel  are  commonly  worn  by  the 
female  sex.  Little  boys  and  girls  I  observed  commonly  dressed  up  in 
the  pride  of  life  ;  and  the  little  infants  that  were  brought  to  baptism, 
were  wrapped  up  in  such  fine  things,  and  so  much  pains  taken  to  dress 
them,  that  one  would  think  they  were  brought  thither  to  be  initiated 
into,  rather  than  renounce,  the  pomps  and  vanities  of  this  wicked 
world.  .  .  .  One  thing  Boston  is  remarkable  for,  —  the  external  ob- 
servation of  the  Sabbath.  Men  in  civil  offices  have  a  regard  for  reli- 
gion. The  governor  encourages  them,  and  the  ministers  and  magis- 
trates seem  to  be  more  united,  than  in  any  other  place  where  I  have 
been.  Both  were  exceedingly  civil  to  me  during  my  stay.  I  never 
saw  so  little  scoffing ;  never  had  so  little  opposition.  But  one  might 
easily  foresee,  much  would  hereafter  arise,  when  I  come  to  be  more 
particular  in  my  application  to  particular  persons  ;  for,  I  fear,  many 
rest  in  a  head-knowledge,  are  close  Pharisees,  and  having  only  a  name 
to  live.  .  .  .  Boston  people  are  dear  to  my  soul.  They  were  greatly 
affected  by  the  word,  followed  night  and  day,  and  were  very  liberal  to 
my  dear  orphans.  I  promised,  God  willing,  to  visit  them  again,  and 
intend  to  fulfil  my  promise  when  it  shall  please  God  to  bring  me 
again  from  my  native  country.  In  the  mean  while,  dear  Boston  adieu. 
The  Lord  be  with  thy  ministers  and  people,  and  grant  that  the  rem- 
nant that  is  left  according  to  the  election  of  grace,  may  take  root 
downwards,  and  bear  fruit  upwards,  and  fill  the  land.1 

Dr.  Sewall  wrote  in  his  diary  :  — 

Oct.  13.  He  left  the  Town.  It  is  wonderful  to  behold  a  young 
man  (about  26)  Preaching  thus  twice  a  Day,  with  great  earnestness, 
the  Gospel  of  Christ.  Many,  partly  among  the  Youth,  seem  to  be 
affected.     O  let  good  Impressions  be   fix'd,  and    issue    in    a   sound 

1  In  preparing  this  account  of  Mr.  field,  M.  A.,  by  Robert  Philip ;  The 
Whitefield's  first  visit  to  Boston  we  Great  Awakening,  by  Joseph  Tracy ;  and 
have  consulted  his  Journals,  also  The  The  Life  and  Travels  of  George  White- 
Life  and  Times  of  the  Rev.  George  White-  field,  M.  A.,  by  James  P.  Gledstone. 


512  HISTORY  OF   THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

Conversion.  Let  not  our  Goodness  be  as  the  morning  cloud !  O 
God,  humble  and  quicken  me !  Enable  me,  thy  Ministers,  thy  people, 
to  Improve  aright  this  extraordinary  Dispensation !  O  revive  thy 
work  among  us  !  Save  thy  people !  I  hope  some  of  Mr.  W.'s  dis- 
courses were  very  affecting  to  me.  O  Lord,  teach  me,  thy  People,  to 
profit ! 

Dr.  Colman  wrote  to  Mr.  Parsons,  then  of  Lyme,  "We  have 
had  a  week  of  Sabbaths." 

Mr.  Prince,  two  or  three  years  later,  thus  spoke  of  Mr.  White- 
field's  going  away :  "  As  far  as  I  could  then  see  or  learn,  he 
parted  in  the  general  esteem  and  love  both  of  ministers  and 
people  ;  and  this  seemed  to  continue  'till  the  Journal  of  his 
travels  in  New  England  came  abroad,  wherein  some  passages 
offended  many,  and  occasioned  their  reflections  on  him." 

What  these  "  reflections  on  him"  were  we  shall  see  in  connec- 
tion with  his  next  visit  to  Boston.  He  himself  was  afterward 
brought  to  comprehend  and  frankly  to  acknowledge  what  a  seri- 
ous mistake  he  had  made  in  recording  his  opinions  upon  such 
slight  personal  acquaintance  with  the  country  and  the  people, 
and,  of  course,  largely  on  hearsay  testimony,  and,  still  more,  in 
publishing  them.  He  was  not  the  last  visitor  to  these  shores, 
however,  to  err  in  the  same  way.  It  should  be  remembered  in 
his  defence,  that  at  the  time  of  this  visit  he  had  not  completed 
his  twenty-sixth  year,  and  that  he  had  met  with  a  reception  in 
New  England  which  was  enough  to  turn  the  head  of  a  man 
many  years  older. 

When  he  left  Boston  on  Monday  morning,  on  his  way  to 
Northampton,  to  see  Mr.  Edwards,  Governor  Belcher  took  him 
in  his  carriage  to  the  ferry,  embraced  him,  and  with  tears  bade 
him  farewell.  But  this  did  not  satisfy  the  governor;  he  drove 
the  next  clay  to  Marlborough,  met  the  great  preacher  there,  and 
accompanied  him  to  Worcester.  On  finally  parting  with  him 
he  said  privately,  "  Mr.  Whitefield,  go  on  in  stirring  up  the 
ministers  ;  for  reformation  must  begin  at  the  house  of  God  :  and 
do  not  spare  rulers,  no,  not  the  chief  of  them,  any  more  than 
ministers."  He  asked  him  to  pray  for  him,  that  he  might  hun- 
ger and  thirst  after  righteousness,  and  again  took  leave  of  him 
with  tears.  "  I  have  often  thought,"  says  one  of  his  biographers, 
the  Rev.  Robert  Philip,  "  whilst  reviewing  the  sweeping  and  se- 
vere invectives  which  Whitefield  so  bitterly  repented,  that  no 
small  part  of  the  blame  lay  at  the  governor's  door.  A  charge 
like  this,  uttered  with  tears  and  entreaties,  was  enough  to  mis- 


MR.    WHITEFIELD'S  DEPARTURE.  513 

lead  a  cooler  man  than  George  Whitefield.  I  must,  therefore, 
say  of  it  what  he  said  of  his  own  conduct,  '  It  was  well  meant, 
but  it  did  hurt.'  '!  To  his  credit  for  impartiality,  it  should  be 
added  that  he  did  not  spare  the  governor  himself,  but  before 
leaving  New  England  thus  wrote  to  him  :  "  I  thought  your  ex- 
cellency wanted  a  more  clear  view  of  your  own  vileness,  and  of 
the  all-sufficiency  of  Jesus  Christ.  I  mean  a  more  experimental 
view  :  for  what  is  all  head-knowledge,  without  that  of  the  heart  ? 
It  only  settles  people  more  upon  their  lees.  May  God  give  you 
to  see  and  to  follow  the  simplicity  of  the  blessed  Jesus !  Hon- 
oured Sir,  I  make  no  apology  for  this  freedom  ;  your  excellency 
bade  me  not  spare  rulers  —  no  not  the  chief  of  them."  *  This 
plainness  of  speech  did  not  displease  Governor  Belcher,  who 
loved  him  almost  as  a  son,  and  the  two  were  afterward  to  meet 
on  intimate  terms  in  New  Jersey.2 

The  religious  interest  in  Boston  did  not  abate  on  the  depart- 
ure of  Mr.  Whitefield.  "  Great  numbers  in  the  town  were  so 
happily  concerned  about  their  souls  "  as  had  never  been  seen 
there  before,  except  at  the  time  of  the  earthquake  in  1727.  The 
people  wanted  to  hear  their  ministers  more  than  ever,  and  "  the 
assemblies  both  on  Sabbaths  and  Lectures  were  surprizingly 
increased."  It  was  decided  to  set  up  a  public  Lecture  "  at  Dr. 
Colman's  Church,  near  the  midst  of  the  town,  on  every  Tuesday 
evening.  Lord's-Day  afternoon,  October  19,  public  notice  was 
there  given  of  the  proposed  Lecture  to  be  on  Tuesday  Evening 
following  :  which  the  religious  people  in  general  received  with 
so  much  joy,  that  when  the  evening  came,  the  House  seemed 
to  be  crowded  as  much  as  if  Mr.  Whitefield  was  there.  It  was 
the  first  stated  Evening  Lecture  in  these  parts  of  the  world : 
and  the  venerable  Dr.  Colman  began  it  with  a  most  suitable  and 

1  He  was  no  more  stern  in  dealing  of  the  town  ;  containing  just  reproofs  of 
with    the   governor    than  with   himself,     our  backslidings,  and  in  a  most  moving 

Only  a  few  days  before,  he  had  written  and  affecting  manner,  making  use  of  our 

in  his  journal :  "  Went  in  his  [the  gov-  great  profession  and  great  mercies  as  ar- 

ernor's]  coach  to  the  end  of  the  town,  but  guments  with  us  to  return  to  God,  from 

had  such  a  sense  of  my  vileness  upon  whom  we   had   departed.     Immediately 

my  soul,  that  I  wondered  people  did  not  after  this,  the    minds   of  the   people  in 

stone  me."  general  appeared  more  engaged  in  reli- 

2  Of  Mr.  Whitefield's  preaching  at  gion,  showing  a  greater  forwardness  to 
Northampton  Mr.  Edwards  said  :  "  The  make  religion  the  subject  of  their  con- 
congregation  was  extraordinarily  melted  versation,  and  to  meet  frequently  to- 
by every  sermon  ;  almost  the  whole  as-  gether  for  religious  purposes,  and  to  em- 
sembly  being  in  tears  for  a  great  part  brace  all  opportunities  to  hear  the  word 
of  sermon  time.  Mr.  Whitefield's  ser-  preached." — Christian  History,  vol.  i. 
mons  were  suitable  to  the  circumstances  p.  367. 


514  HISTORY  OF   THE    OLD   SOUTH   CHURCH. 

moving  sermon,  forthwith  printed."  The  text  was,  "  Who  are 
these  that  fly  as  a  cloud,  and  as  the  doves  to  their  windows  ? " 
In  opening,  the  excellent  pastor,  speaking  for  his  brethren  and 
himself,  said  :  — 

Our  dear  people,  your  ministers  have  with  pleasure  seen  you  in  the 
weeks  past,  old  and  young,  parents  and  children,  masters  and  servants, 
high  and  low,  rich  and  poor  together,  gathering  and  passing  as  clouds 
in  our  streets,  and  as  doves  on  the  wing  in  flocks  flying  to  the  doors 
and  windows  of  our  places  of  worship  ;  and  hovering  about  the  same, 
those  that  could  not  get  in. 

The  fame  of  a  singular  fervent  and  holy  youth,  and  extraordinary 
servant  and  minister  of  Jesus  Christ,  (who  makes  his  angels  spirits, 
and  his  ministers  a  flame  of  fire,)  had  prepared  you  for  his  visit;  and 
with  raised  expectations  we  received  him,  even  as  an  angel  of  God 
for  Jesus  sake  ;  as  the  apostle  St.  Paul  was  received  by  the  churches 
in  Galatia. 

God  gave  him  a  wonderful  manner  of  entrance  among  us,  just  as  in 
other  places  before  us,  among  the  brethren  of  our  denomination ;  and 
we  were  sometimes  melted  together  in  tears,  ministers  and  people, 
parents  and  children,  under  the  commanding  addresses  of  love  to  his 
Saviour  and  our  souls.  We  led  you  with  a  visible  pleasure  in  our 
faces  to  the  solemn  and  great  assemblies,  and  looked  on  you  there 
with  great  satisfaction,  in  your  uncommon  regards  to  the  beloved  ser- 
vant of  Christ,  for  the  truth's  sake  that  dwelleth  in  him,  and  the  love 
of  the  Spirit  filling  him,  and  reigning  in  his  ministrations  to  us. 

And  now  our  beloved  brethren  and  sisters,  you  and  your  children, 
we  are  going  to  prove,  confirm  and  increase,  by  the  will  of  God,  the 
seeming  good  dispositions  begun  or  revived  in  you,  toward  Christ  and 
his  word,  in  a  just  and  reasonable  pious  care  and  solicitude  for  your 
salvation. 

On  Tuesday  evening,  October  28,  Dr.  Sewall  preached  in  the 
same  place,  from  Ezek.  xi.  19,  20.  "The  House  was  then  also 
greatly  crowded  with  attentive  hearers  :  and  so  it  continued  to 
be  on  these  Lectures  for  many  months  after." 

Novr.  2.  1740 
The  Brethren  of  the  Church  and  Congregation  stay'd  and  Voted  as 
follows,  viz ; 

I.  That  forty  six  pounds  be  given  out  of  the  Collection  for  chari- 
table and  pious  uses,  to  the  Poor  of  this  Church  and  Congregation,  to 
supply  them  with  Wood  and  other  Necessaries. 

II.  That  there  be  given  out  of  said  collection,  To  the  Revd  Mr. 
Richard  Pierce  10  pounds  to  encourage  him  to  continue  Preaching 
the  Gospel  at  Dartmouth. 


A   FAST-DAY  SERMON.  515 

III.  To  the  Revd.  Mr.  Timothy  White  10  pounds  towards  his  Sup- 
port in  Preaching  the  Gospel  in  Nantucket. 

IV.  To  the  Revd.  Mr.  Ezra  Carpenter  5  pounds  towards  his  Sup- 
port in  Preaching  the  Gospel  in  Hull. 

V.  The  Remainder  5/.  9.  5.  to  be  distributed  in  Books  of  Piety  by 
our  Pastors  to  proper  objects  of  such  a  Charity. 

Joseph  Sewall. 

On  the  29th  of  November,  the  House  of  Representatives, 
"taking  into  consideration  the  many  tokens  of  Divine  dis- 
pleasure upon  this  Province,  and  more  especially  the  pressing 
difficulties  which  have  long  attended  and  do  still  attend  the 
publick  affairs  thereof,  and  which  are  likely  to  increase  upon 
us,  unless  the  Government  be  led  into  some  measures  for  the 
speedy  remedy  thereof,"  asked  the  governor  to  appoint  a  day  of 
fasting  and  prayer  to  be  solemnized  by  the  General  Court,  "  as 
well  for  themselves  as  in  behalf  of  the  people  of  this  Province." 
The  council  concurred,  and  the  governor  appointed  Wednesday, 
December  3,  at  eleven  o'clock  in  the  forenoon,  for  a  service  to 
be  held  in  the  council  chamber.1  Dr.  Sewall  preached,  taking 
his  text  from  Jonah  iii.  10,  —  Nineveh's  Repentance  and  Deliver- 
ance. In  the  application  of  his  subject,  the  doctor  spoke  very 
plainly  to  his  distinguished  audience:  — 

"Let  the  Lord's  Day,"  he  said,  "be  strictly  observ'd ;  for  God  hath 
set  the  Sabbath  as  a  sign  between  him  and  his  people,  that  he  is  the 
Lord  who  sanctifieth  them.  Let  the  most  effectual  means  also  be 
used  that  the  great  abuse  of  taverns  may  be  reformed ;  that  these  be 
not  converted  into  tippling  and  gaming  houses  for  town-dwellers,  to 
the  dishonour  of  God  and  hurt  of  the  Common-Wealth.  Let  the  foun- 
tains of  justice  be  kept  open  and  pure,  that  judgment  may  run  down 
as  waters  ;  and  that  such  as  thirst  after  righteousness  may  come  freely 
and  be  refreshed.  And  whereas  the  present  difficulties  which  embar- 
rass our  affairs,  do  very  much  arise  from  the  want  of  a  suitable  medium 
of  trade,  and  different  apprehensions  in  the  Legislature  about  supply- 
ing the  Treasury,  whereby  the  publick  debts  are,  in  part  at  least,  left 
unpaid,  and  the  country  naked  and  defenceless,  in  this  day  of  calamity 
and  war :  I  can't  but  humbly  apprehend,  that  this  awful  frown  of 
Providence  calls  aloud  to  you  further  to  consider,  whether  there  has 
not  been  great  injustice  and  oppression  with  relation  to  the  Bills  of 
Publick  Credit  which  have  pass'd  among  us,  from  their  sinking  and 
uncertain  value  ;  and  to  use  your  best  endeavours  that  whatever  Bills 
shall  pass  for  time  to  come  in  lieu  of  money,  may  be  a  just  medium 

1  A  similar  service  was  held  December  10,  1736. 


$l6  HISTORY  OF   THE    OLD   SOUTH  CHURCH. 

of  exchange;  for  a  false  balance  is  abomination  to  the  Lord ;  but  a  just 
weight  is  his  delight.  Prov  xi.  i.  Whatever  methods  may  be  propos'd 
to  extricate  us  out  of  our  present  distress,  justice  and  equity  must  be 
laid  in  the  foundation  ;  or  we  may  expect  that  the  Lord  who  loves 
righteousness  and  hates  wickedness,  will  confound  our  devices,  and 
bring  them  to  nought.  But  then,  I  presume  not  in  the  least  measure 
to  determine  whether  this  or  that  way  is  right.  May  that  God  before 
whom  all  things  are  open  and  naked,  direct  your.  Excellency  and  the 
whole  Court,  into  such  paths  of  righteousness  as  shall  lead  to  our 
deliverance  and  safety ;  that  we  may  neither  oppress  one  another,  nor 
become  a  prey  to  an  insulting  enemy  !  May  you  be  fill'd  with  the 
most  tenderly  and  fatherly  compassion  for  your  people,  under  the 
present  distress  and  danger,  and  do  all  you  can  to  relieve  them  !  And 
if  there  should  be  a  difference  in  your  opinion  about  the  way,  may  you 
be  enabled  to  keep  the  unity  of  the  Spirit  in  the  bond  of  peace,  that 
the.  God  of  peace  maybe  with  you,  who  has  promis'd  to  guide  the 
meek  in  judgment !  " l 

A  vote  of  thanks  to  the  preacher  was  passed  in  the  council, 
and  was  concurred  in  by  the  House,  and  a  copy  of  his  sermon 
was  requested  for  publication.  The  committee  on  the  part  of 
the  council, — John  Osborne  and  Ezekiel  Lewis, — as  well  as 
the  secretary  who  attested  the  vote  and  the  governor  who  ap- 
proved it,  were  members  of  his  church.2 

On  the  13th  of  December,  the  Rev.  Gilbert  Tennent,  of  New 
Jersey,  whose  preaching  had  aroused  multitudes  and  been  the 
means  of  bringing  many  into  the  church,  arrived  in  Boston,  and 
began  his  labors  on  the  next  day,  being  Sunday,  at  the  New 
North,  preaching  morning  and  afternoon.  Mr.  Prince  says : 
"  He  did  not  indeed  at  first  come  up  to  my  expectation  ;  but 
afterwards  exceeded  it."  "  He  seemed  to  have  no  regard  to 
please  the  eyes  of  his  hearers  with  agreeable  gesture,  nor  their 

1  [Dr.    Sewall   had   preached   on  the  felt   in   prodigious    strength.     However 

currency  question  at  the  Thursday  Lee-  doubtful  the  legal  right  of   the  British 

ture,   in   December  of  the   year  before,  government    to    interfere,   there    is    no 

Judge  Lynde  says: —  doubt  of  the  disastrous  tendency  of  the 

1739.    Dec.   6.      "Fair.      Dr.    Sewall  course  which  the  Province  was  disposed 

preached  about  acco.  of  Emission ;  dined  to  pursue."  —  History  of  N.  Eng.,  vol.  iv. 

at  Mr.  Lewis's."  —  Lynde  Diaries,  p.  160.  pp.  548,  549.     The   paper  currency  had 

Palfrey   says  :    "  Throughout    the    ad-  depreciated  seventy-five  per  cent.] 
ministration    of    Governor    Belcher,   the         2  The  winter  of  1740-41  was  a  severe 

finances  of  the  Province  were  in  an  ex-  one,  and  to  mitigate  the  sufferings  of  the 

tremely    discouraging    condition.       The  poor  of  the  town,  collections  were  taken 

temptation  to  make  a  fictitious  currency,  in  February,  in    all    the    congregations, 

and  to  defer  the  times  for  payment,  was  The    amount    collected    at    the    South 

such  as  in  like  circumstances  is  always  Church  was  ^105. 


THE  REV.   GILBERT   TENNENT.  517 

ears  with  delivery,  nor  their  fancy  with  language  ;  but  to  aim 
directly  at  their  hearts  and  consciences,  to  lay  open  their  ruin- 
ous delusions,  shew  them  their  numerous,  secret,  hypocritical 
shifts  in  religion,  and  drive  them  out  of  every  deceitful  refuge 
wherein  they  made  themselves  easy,  with  the  form  of  godliness 
without  the  power.  And  many  who  were  pleased  in  a  good 
conceit  of  themselves  before,  now  found,  to  their  great  distress, 
they  were  only  self-deceived  hypocrites.  And  though  while  the 
discovery  was  making,  some  at  first  raged,  as  they  have  owned 
to  me  and  others  ;  yet  in  the  progress  of  the  discovery  many 
were  forced  to  submit ;  and  then  the  power  of  God  so  broke  and 
humbled  them,  that  they  wanted  a  further  and  even  a  thorough 
discovery  ;  they  went  to  hear  him,  that  the  secret  corruptions 
and  delusions  of  their  hearts  might  be  more  discovered ;  and 
the  more  searching  the  sermon,  the  more  acceptable  it  was  to 
their  anxious  minds."  1 

Mr.  Tennent  spent  more  than  two  months  in  Boston  and  the 
neighborhood.  He  preached  his  farewell  sermon  in  the  Brattle 
Street  meeting-house,  on  Monday,  March  2,  1741,  "  to  an  audi- 
tory extremely  crowded,  very  attentive  and  much  affected." 
His  text  was  Acts  xi.  23,  "  And  exhorted  them  all,  that  with 
purpose  of  heart  they  would  cleave  unto  the  Lord."  "It  was 
an  affectionate  parting,  and  as  great  numbers  of  all  conditions 
and  ages  appeared  awakened  by  him,  there  seemed  to  be  a  gen- 
eral sadness  at  his  going  away." 

"And  now,"  continues  Mr.  Prince,  "was  such  a  time  as  we 
never  knew.  The  Rev.  Mr.  Cooper  was  wont  to  say,  that  more 
came  to  him  in  one  week  in  deep  concern  about  their  souls,  than 
in  the  whole  twenty-four  years  of  his  preceding  ministry.  I  can 
also  say  the  same  as  to  the  numbers  who  repaired  to  me.  By 
Mr.  Cooper's  Letter  to  his  friend  in  Scotland,  it  appears,  he  has 
had  about  six  hundred  persons  in  three  months  time :  and 
Mr.  Webb  informs  me,  he  has  had  in  the  same  space  above  a 
thousand." 

"The  people  seemed  to  love  to  hear  us  more  than  ever." 
The  Tuesday  evening  Lecture  at  Brattle  Street  was  not  suf- 
ficient, and  it  was  decided  to  open  another  Lecture  on  Friday 
evenings  at  the  South  Church.  We  quote  now  from  the 
records :  — 

1  Dr.  Sewall  says :  Tuesday,  "  Jan.  There  were  Notes  for  about  54  under 
20.  I  preach'd  the  Evening  Lecture  from  Conviction.  .  .  .  Besides  several  young 
John  16.  8.     Reprove  the  world  of  Sin.     Children  concerned  for  their  Souls." 


518  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

April  12.  1741. 

The  Brethren  of  the  Church  and  Congregation  stay'd  and  Voted  — 

That  there  be  a  weekly  Evening  Lecture  opened  by  our  Pastors,  on 
Friday  next,  while  it  shall  please  God  to  continue  the  Desire,  which  at 
present  is  manifested  by  great  numbers  to  hear  the  Word  of  God. 

Voted,  That  there  be  another  public  Collection  for  charitable  and 
pious  uses  on  the  Anniversary  Fast,  April  23.  Current ;  And  that  the 
Congregation  be  "notified  of  this  Vote  the  next  Lords-Day,  and  be 
desired  to  assist  in  the  said  Collection. 

April  23  Collected  94/.  10.  o,  of  which  was  appropriated, 
To  the  fund  for  charitable  and  pious  uses,  .  5.  0.0. 
To  the  Rev.  Mr.  Pierce  of  Dartmouth,  .     1.   10.  o. 

Joseph  Sewall. 

Dr.  Sewall  preached  on  Friday  evening,  April  17,  from  Job 
xvi.  8  :  "  And  thou  hast  filled  me  with  wrinkles,  which  is  a  wit- 
ness against  me :  and  my  leanness  rising  up  in  me  beareth 
witness  to  my  face."  He  preached  three  other  discourses  from 
the  same  text,  and  the  four  were  printed,  with  a  preface,  in 
which  he  said  :  — 

It  hath  pleased  the  sovereign  and  gracious  God,  in  whose  hand  our 
times  are,  to  ordain  that  we  should  live  under  some  peculiar  advan- 
tages for  our  precious  souls.  For  to  the  ordinary  means,  we  have 
super-added  the  manifestation  of  the  Spirit,  in  extraordinary  works  of 
grace.  We  have  lately  heard  glad  tidings  from  one  place  and  another, 
that  many  are  enquiring  the  way  to  Zion,  with  their  faces  thitherward ; 
and  some  are  declaring  what  God  hath  done  for  their  souls.  Yea,  God 
hath  brought  this  work  home  to  our  own  doors,  and  we  hear  many 
crying  out,  What  must  we  do  to  be  saved !  And  there  are  a  number 
hopefully  rejoicing  in  God's  salvation.  Of  such  a  season  as  this  it 
may  well  be  said,  I  have  heard  thee  in  a  time  accepted,  and  in  the 
day  of  salvation  have  I  succoured  thee  :  Behold,  now  is  the  accepted 
time  ;  Behold  now  is  the  day  of  salvation.  I  hope  God's  people  are 
reaping  the  fruit  of  their  prayers,  particularly  on  extraordinary  days 
of  fasting  observed  with  an  especial  view  to  this  great  blessing,  the 
plentiful  effusion  of  the  holy  Spirit.  O  there's  great  reason  to  fear 
that  another  like  season  will  never,  never  return  upon  you. 

Soon  after,  another  lecture,  every  Tuesday  and  Friday  even- 
ing, was  opened  at  the  New  North,  so  that  "  three  of  the  most 
capacious  Houses  of  public  Worship  in  town  "  were  in  use  for 
this  purpose ; l    "  besides  the  ancient  Lecture  every  Thursday 

1  Referring  to  Brattle  Street,  the  Old  hold  three  thousand  people."  The  ca- 
South,  and  the  New  North,  Mr.  Prince  pacity  of  these  meeting-houses  could  not 
says,  "  The  least  of  which  I  suppose  will     have  been  very  closely  calculated. 


SOME   RESULTS   OF   THE   REVIVAL. 


519 


noon,  at  the  Old  Church."  "  Nor  were  the  people  satisfied  with 
all  these  Lectures :  But  as  private  societies  for  religious  exer- 
cises, both  of  younger  and  elder  persons,  both  of  males  and 
females  by  themselves,  in  several  parts  of  the  town,  now  in- 
creased to  a  much  greater  number  than  ever,  viz.  to  near  the 
number  of  thirty,  meeting  on  Lord's-Day,  Monday,  Wednesday 
and  Thursday  evenings  ;  so  the  people  were  constantly  employ- 
ing the  ministers  to  pray  and  preach  at  those  societies,  as  also 
at  many  private  houses  where  no  formed  society  met  ;  and  such 
numbers  flocked  to  hear  us  as  greatly  crowded  them,  as  well 
as  more  than  usually  filled  our  Houses  of  public  Worship  both 
on  Lords-Days  and  Lectures,  especially  Evening  Lectures  for 
about  a  twelvemonth  after." 

As  to  the  South  Church,  says  its  pastor  :  "  Within  six  months 
from  the  end  of  January  1 740-1,  were  three  score  joined  to  our 
communicants  :  the  greater  part  of  whom  gave  a  more  exact 
account  of  the  work  of  the  Spirit  of  God  on  their  souls  in 
effectual  calling,  as  described  in  the  Westminster  Assembly's 
Shorter  Catechism,  than  I  was  wont  to  meet  with  before  :  be- 
sides many  others  I  could  not  but  have  charity  for,  who  re- 
frained from  coming  to  the  Table  of  Christ  for  want  of  a 
satisfying  view  of  the  work  of  renovation  in  them.  Mr.  Ten- 
nent  being  so  exceeding  strict  in  cautioning  people  from  running 
into  churches,  taking  the  sacred  Covenant,  and  receiving  the 
Lord's  Supper  the  seal  thereof,  'till  they  had  saving  grace  ;  that 
diverse  brought  to  very  hopeful  dispositions,  yea,  some  I  doubt 
not,  to  embrace  the  Saviour  in  all  his  offices,  were  through  fear 
and  darkness  kept  from  coming  into  full  communion.  Or  other- 
wise, many  more  I  believe,  would  have  entered  ;  who  had  they 
the  like  experiences  a  year  before,  I  doubt  not  would  have 
readily  offered  themselves,  and  we  should  have  as  readily  re- 
ceived them,  and  would  now,  as  some  of  the  most  hopeful 
Christians.  So  far  did  Mr.  Tennent's  awakening  ministry 
shake  their  hopes  and  hinder  them,  that  those  whom  I  appre- 
hended to  be  thirsty,  and  thought  myself  obliged  to  encourage, 
I  found  the  impressions  of  his  preaching  had  discouraged.  Yea, 
some  who  had  been  in  full  communion  were  made  so  suspicious 
of  themselves,  as  to  refrain  partaking ;  and  I  had  no  small  pains 
to  remove  their  scruples."  1 

1  The  whole  number  received  into  not  equalled  and  surpassed  until  the 
the  membership  during  the  year  ended  year  1827.  Twenty-one  owned  the  cov- 
March,  1742,  was  sixty-nine.     This  was     enant  in  1741,  many  more  than  in  any 


520  HISTORY  OF   THE    OLD   SOUTH   CHURCH. 

"In  this  year  1741,"  says  Mr.  Prince,  "  the  very  face  of  the 
town  seemed  to  be  strangely  altered."  And  writing  to  Dr. 
Isaac  Watts,  in  the  autumn  of  the  same  year,  Dr.  Colman  said  : 
"  Thanks  be  to  God,  in  our  Province  the  impressions  of  religion 
grow  and  increase  in  a  happy,  wise,  sedate  manner,  such  as 
gives  a  joyous  prospect  relating  to  the  next  generation,  that  our 
young  ones  will  be  wise,  grave  devout  parents  to  their  children. 
I  know  not  how  to  admire  the  pleasant  gracious  work  of  God : 
our  Lectures  flourish,  our  Sabbaths  are  joyous,  our  churches 
increase,  our  ministers  have  new  life  and  spirit  in  their  work."1 
We  have  similar  testimony  from  a  prominent  layman.  Mr. 
Secretary  Willard  wrote  as  follows  to  Mr.  Whitefield  :  "  There 
has  been  so  evidently  the  finger  of  God,  in  directing  you  into 
this  Province,  and  (after  your  departure)  the  Rev.  Mr.  Tennent, 
through  your  earnest  and  importunate  request  to  him,  and  in 
the  wonderful  success  that  has  attended  both  his  and  your  min- 
istry, as  also  the  labours  of  our  own  ministers  for  some  months 
past,  that  many  that  like  not  the  work  are  sadly  put  to  it,  to  keep 
their  eyes  shut  against  the  evidences  of  it."  2 

There  had  been  a  terrible  fire  in  Charleston,  South  Carolina ; 
three  hundred  houses  in  the  best  part  of  the  town  had  been 
destroyed,  and  a  cry  for  help  reached  the  Northern  communities. 

year  since  that  time.     Among  them  was  participation  in  the  communion  was  as 

Thomas  Prince,  Jr.,  who  was,  no  doubt,  follows  :    "  It  seems  to   me  that  where 

one  of  those  to  whom  his  father  referred  there   is   a   thirst    for    Christ    and    his 

as   prepared   for   full   membership,   but  spiritual  benefits,  that  thirst  is  raised  by 

held  back  from  asking  for  it  by  the  dis-  the  Spirit  of  Christ :  And  in  raising  such 

couraging   character   of   Mr.   Tennent's  a  thirst,  he  qualifies  for  them,  shows  his 

preaching.     This  young  man  edited  and  readiness  to  satiate  it,  invites,  requires, 

published  the   Christian  History,  under  and  gives  sufficient  grounds  for  coming 

his   father's   supervision,  and   evidently  to  him  at  these  Pipes  of  Living  Waters ; 

took  the  deepest  interest  in  the  advance  though  we  may'nt  be  sure  whether  this 

of  the  kingdom  of  Christ  in  the  world,  thirst  arises  from  a  renewed  heart  or  no: 

He  died,  much  lamented,  September  30,  And  thither  therefore  should  we  come 

1748,  aged  twenty-six.     He  graduated  at  with  a  humble   sense    of  our  emptiness 

Harvard    College    in    1740,    and    in    the  and  unworthiness,  and  with  our  thirsty 

catalogue  his  name  stands  first  in  the  souls  reaching  forth  to  Him,  to  receive 

list.     The   class  had   twenty-two  mem-  from  his  open,  offered  and  overflowing 

bers,   and   among    them    were    Samuel  fulness.     If  I  am  mistaken,  I  desire  to 

Adams,  the  Revolutionary  patriot, George  see  it." 

Bethune,  Benjamin  Stevens,  and  Samuel         x  Mr.    Prince's   narrative   of   the   Re- 

Langdon,  president  of  Harvard  College  vivals  from  which  we  have  quoted,  is  to 

from  1774  to  1780.  be  found   in  the  Christian  History,  vol. 

The    Rev.   Mr.    Prince's    opinion    on  ii.  pp.  374-400. 
qualification   for   full   membership    and  2  Whitefield's  Journal. 


GOVERNOR  BELCHER   SUPERSEDED.  52 1 

At  a  Meeting  of  the  South  Church  and  Congregation,  May  20. 
1741. 

Upon  reading  the  Brief  emitted  by  His  Excellency  the  Governour 
with  the  advice  of  His  Majesty's  Council,  for  Exciting  to  a  charitable 
Contribution,  for  the  necessitous  sufferers  by  the  late  dreadful  Fire  in 
Charlestown,  South  Carolina  ; 

Voted, 

That  there  be  a  public  Collection  on  the  Lord's  Day,  the  31st  of 
this  Instant  May,  to  be  put  into  the  Hands  of  Francis  Foxcroft,  Jacob 
Wendell  and  Anthony  Stoddard  Esqrs.  and  invested  in  such  Things  as 
the  Governour  and  Council  shall  judge  to  be  most  for  the  service  and 
relief  of  the  most  necessitous  Sufferers  by  the  late  fire  in  Charlestown  : 
And  to  be  transmitted  to  Messrs.  Benjamin  Savage,  Thomas  Cooper 
and  Joseph  Moody,  of  said  Charlestown,  Merchants,  to  Distribute 
according  to  their  best  Discretion  to  the  said  necessitous  Sufferers 
only.  Joseph  Sewall. 

Soon  after  this,  Governor  Belcher  was  superseded  in  his  high 
office  by  Governor  Shirley.  The  position  of  a  royal  governor  in 
Massachusetts  was  always  a  trying  and  difficult  one ;  there  was 
a  perpetual  resistance  on  the  part  of  the  representatives  of  the 
people  to  the  prerogative  which  it  was  his  duty  to  maintain, 
and  Mr.  Belcher,  with  all  his  personal  influence  and  popularity, 
succeeded  no  better  in  harmonizing  the  differences  between  the 
crown  and  the  province  than  did  some  of  those  who  had  gone 
before  him  or  who  were  to  follow  him.  Palfrey  admits  that 
"  the  general  course  of  his  administration  had  been  not  other- 
wise than  advantageous  to  the  provinces  which  he  governed." 
He  had  made  bitter  enemies  in  Massachusetts  by  his  opposition 
to  the  Land  Bank,  and  in  New  Hampshire,  on  a  question  of 
boundary;  while  in  London  he  was  compromised  by  the  cir- 
cumstance that  his  brother-in-law,  Richard  Partridge,  who' 
sometimes  acted  as  his  agent  there,  was  agent  also  of  the  friends 
of  the  Land  Bank.  Intrigues  for  his  overthrow  at  court  had 
long  been  in  progress,  and  at  length,  by  a  combination  of  cir- 
cumstances, they  were  successful.1 

1  "  Whilst  Mr.  Belcher,  by  his  vigor-  affected  party  in  Massachusetts  who  had 

ous  opposition  to  the  Land  Bank,  was  been   using  what   interest   they  had   in 

rendering  himself  obnoxious  to  one  half  England  against  him.    Lord  Wilmington, 

the   people  of    the   province,   measures  President  of  the  Council,  the  Speaker  of 

were  pursuing  in  England  for  his  removal  the  House  of  Commons,  and  Sir  Charles 

from  the  government.      Besides  the  at-  Wager,  First  Lord  of  the  Admiralty,  all 

tempts  which  we  have  mentioned  from  had  a  favorable  opinion  of  Mr.  Belcher. 

New  Hampshire,  which  had  never  been  So  had  Mr.  Holden,  who  was  at  the  head 

laid  aside,  there  had  always  been  a  dis-  of   the   dissenters   in   England,  and   all 


522  HISTORY  OF   THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

Thomas  Hutchinson,  writing  from  London  to  Judge  Lynde, 
at  this  time,  said  that  several  incidents  had  concurred  to  pro- 
mote the  ultimate  success  of  these  schemes  ;  "  but,"  he  added, 
"  I  had  it  from  Lord  President's  own  mouth  that  Governor  Bel- 
cher's security  for  some  time  had  been  his  steady  conduct  in 
the  affair  of  the  money,  and  that  his  brother  Partridge's  patron- 
izing the  Land  Bank  when  before  the  House  of  Commons  had 
done  his  business."  l 

The  same  authority,  in  his  History,  says  :  — 

A  few  weeks'  longer  delay  would  have  baffled  all  the  schemes.  The 
news  arrived  of  his  negativing  thirteen  counsellors  and  displacing  a 
great  number  of  officers  concerned  in  the  Land  Bank,  and  his  zeal 
and  fortitude  were  highly  applauded  when  it  was  too  late.  Being  in 
London  at  this  time,  I  had  opportunity  of  fully  informing  myself  of 
these  facts.  Certainly,  in  public  employments  no  man  ought  to  be 
condemned  from  the  reports  and  accusations  of  a  party  without  a  suf- 
ficient opportunity  given  him  to  exculpate  himself,  —  a  plantation  gov- 
ernor especially,  who,  be  he  without  guile  or  a  consummate  politician, 
will  infallibly  have  a  greater  or  lesser  number  disaffected  to  him.2 

The  following  is  an  account  by  a  participant  in  the  proceed- 

upon  one  occasion   or  another  had  ap-  anonymous  letters  addressed  from  Mas- 

peared  for  him.     The  most  unfair  and  sachusetts   to   dissenting    clergymen    in 

indirect  measures  were  used  with  each  of  England."  —  Jacob   B.    Moore,   in   Am. 

these  persons  to  render  Mr.  Belcher  ob-  Quarterly  Register,  May,  1841. 

noxious  and  odious  to  them."  —  Hutch-  Governor    Belcher   wrote    to    Henry 

inson's  Hist,  of  Mass.,  vol.  iii.  pp.  355,  Sherburne,  July  20,  1741 :  "  The  change 

356.  in  this  province  was  certainly  the  most 

The    chief    points     of     the     intrigue  surprising    and   unexpected    to    all    my 

against  Governor  Belcher  have  been  thus  friends,  being  done  soon  after  the  most 

summed    up  :     "  His    enemies    charged  solemn  and  sacred  promises  to  the  con- 

him,  1.  With  being  friendly  to  the  Land  trary.     But   there   is   no   faith   in   man, 

Bank  scheme ;    2.  With  having  counte-  whose    '  heart    is    deceitful    above    all 

nanced  the  waste  of  the  king's  timber  ;  things,  and  desperately  wicked.'      God 

and  3.   With  contriving  the  ruin  of  the  alone  is  unchangeable,   and  there   must 

dissenting  church  in  New  England.    The  thy  trust  be  fixed."     He  also  wrote  to 

first  charge  was  so  far  from  being  true  Dr.  Watts,  March  2,  1743:  "If  the  late 

that  most  of  the  opposition  to  his  admin-  change  that  has  passed  over  me  from  a 

istration   in    Massachusetts   arose   from  glaring  public  station  to  an  obscure  pri- 

his  decided  opposition  to  the  Land  Bank,  vate  life  may  lead  me  to  a  more  close 

The  second  was  equally  false,  and  origi-  communion  with  God,  even  to  a  life  hid 

nated  with  the  adherents  of  Dunbar,  in  with    Christ   in    God,   happy,   for   ever 

New  Hampshire,  who  sent  a  forged  rep-  happy   and    glorious,   will    be    the    ex- 

resentation  to  London,  using  the  names  change." 

of  J.  Gilman,  Joseph  Lord,  George  Ger-  1   The  Diaries  of  Benjamin  Lynde  and 

rish,    Peter   Thing,    and   John    Hall,    of  of  Benjamin  Lynde,  Jr.,  p.  222. 

Exeter.     The  third  had  no  better  foun-  2    [Hutchinson's    History,   vol.   iii.   p. 

dation,  and  was  supported  only  by  forged  358.] 


GOVERNOR  SHIRLEY  SWORN  IN.  523 

ings  of  the  transfer  of  office  from  the  retiring  to  the  newly 
appointed  governor :  — 

Friday,  August  14.  The  procession  met  in  this  manner  —  a  com- 
mittee of  the  Council  and  Representatives,  viz  :  ...  to  the  number 
of  ...  ,  about  1 1  o'clock,  waited  on  the  Hon  William  Shirley  Esq. 
attending  till  12  at  his  house;  then  proceeded  in  order,  with  several 
of  the  old  Council  viz  :  Adam  Winthrop  Esq.  Judge  Dudley,  Lewis 
Wadsworth  etc  Esqs.  who  walk'd  in  company  with  Mr.  Shirley,  the 
High  Sheriff  Winslow  and  officers  marching  before,  till  they  joyned 
the  Guards  and  militia,  who  had  waited  and  drawn  up  before  Governor 
Belcher's  street  gates  ;  and  then  immediately  Governor  Belcher,  with 
several  gentlemen,  Justices  of  the  Peace,  etc.,  and  only  myself  of  the 
old  Council,  according  to  direction  (as  also  the  others  of  the  old 
Council  should)  joyned  Mr.  Shirley  in  his  Procession.  Thus,  after  a 
short  compliment,  Governor  Belcher  walked  in  the  middle,  Mr.  Shir- 
ley on  his  right  hand,  and  Lt.  Governor  Phipps  on  his  left ;  then  fol- 
lowed Lynde  and  Winthrop,  Dudley  etc.  In  the  Council  Chamber, 
the  Commission  in  form  was  read  by  Secretary  Willard,  and  then 
Governor  Shirley,  by  the  Secretary,  was  sworn,  viz  :  upon  the  Evan- 
gelists, the  usual  oath,  and  then,  to  his  Administration  oaths  as  usual. 
Upon  which  finished,  Governor  Belcher  rose  up  and  taking  Governor 
Shirley  by  the  hand,  surrendered  the  chair  to  him  with  a  very  friendly, 
cheerful  and  courteous  congratulation,  wishing  him  all  happiness  and 
prosperity  in  all  his  administrations  and  government ;  upon  which  Gov- 
ernor Shirley  from  the  Chair  returned  him  the  same  compliment  of 
thanks  for  his  good  wishes ;  and  after  the  Proclamation,  both  Gov- 
ernors and  the  Lt.  Governor,  Shirley  in  the  middle,  with  the  Council 
in  order,  proceeded  to  dinner  with  them  at  Withered's.1 

The  new  governor  was  a  worshipper  at  King's  Chapel,  and 
naturally  the  Episcopalians  in  the  town  were  much  pleased  with 
the  change.  The  Rev.  Roger  Price  thus  wrote,  when  the  first 
rumors  of  it  came  to  hand  :  — 

There  is  a  current  report  here  that  our  present  Governour,  Mr.  Bel- 
cher, who  is  a  rigid  Dissenter  and  a  bitter  enemy  to  the  Church,  is  in 
some  danger  of  being  put  out  of  his  Government  for  Male  administra- 
tion ;  which  is  matter  of  great  joy  to  the  Majority  of  the  people  here, 
and  in  particular,  you  may  judge,  to  every  true  member  of  the  Church, 
under  whose  despite  and  Oppression  we  have  long  groan'd.  It  is 
likewise  rumour'd  that  Mr.  Shirley,  an  Old  England  Gentleman,  not 
unknown  to  the  Duke  of  Newcastle,  is  like  to  succeed  him.  This 
doubly  adds  to  the  publick  satisfaction,  which  is  as  general  as  can  well 
be  imagin'd,  from  the  good  character  the  Gentleman  has  establish'd 

1  [The  Lynde  Diaries,  pp.  114,  115.] 


524  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD   SOUTH  CHURCH. 

here,  by  his  Generous  and  Courteous  behaviour  and  experienc'd  abili- 
ties ;  and  so  unexceptionable  will  this  change  be,  that  I  believe  Mr. 
Belcher's  own  Friends,  which  indeed  are  but  few,  would  scarce  mur- 
mur at  it.     I  must  own  I  heartily  wish  him  success.1 

When  Mr.  Belcher  went  to  England,  a  year  or  two  later,  he 
speedily  vindicated  his  character  and  conduct,  and  exposed  the 
baseness  of  the  means  which  had  been  employed  for  his  over- 
throw. He  was  restored  to  the  royal  favor,  and  was  promised 
the  first  vacant  government  in  America.  For  this  he  had  to 
wait  several  years.  In  1747  he  was  appointed  to  the  governor- 
ship of  the  province  of  New  Jersey,  and  he  took  the  oaths  at 
Perth  Amboy  on  the  10th  of  August.  Here  "  he  ruled  with 
success,  and  with  satisfaction  to  himself  and  the  people,"  2  un- 
til his  death,  which  took  place  at  Elizabethtown,  August  31, 
1757,  in  his  seventy-sixth  year.  His  body,  at  his  request,  was 
brought  to  Cambridge,  to  be  buried  with  his  father  and  grand- 
father. Princeton  College,  of  which  he  was  one  of  the  chief 
founders  and  promoters,  stands  as  his  most  enduring  and  illus- 
trious monument.3  President  Burr  said  of  him  in  his  funeral 
sermon :  — 

The  scholar,  the  accomplished  gentleman,  and  the  true  Christian 
were  seldom  more  happily  and  thoroughly  united  than  in  him.  His 
ears  were  always  open  to  real  grievances.  The  cause  of  the  poor,  the 
widow,  the  fatherless,  as  well  as  of  the  rich  and  great,  was  by  him 
favorably  heard,  and  the  wrongs  of  all  readily  and  impartially  re- 
dressed. He  was  indeed  a  minister  of  God  for  good  unto  his  peo- 
ple. 

In  the  autumn  of  1741,  the  Rev.  Eleazar  Wheelock,  one  of 

1  [Foote's  Annals  of  King's  Chapel,  second  charter  passed  the  great  seal  of 
vol.  i.  p.  529.]  the  province,  and  continues  to  be   the 

2  Palfrey's  History  of  Mass.,  vol.  iv.  fundamental  instrument  of  the  institu- 
P-  5^2-  tion  (modified  in  some  few  instances  by 

3  "Measures  were  taken  during  the  subsequent  legislation)  to  the  present 
administration  of  Governor  Morris  to  time."  Governor  Belcher  received  the 
obtain  a  charter  for  a  college,  but  with-  first  honorary  degree  conferred  by  the 
out  success,  and  not  until  October  22,  college,  that  of  A.  M.,  in  1748.  His  son 
1746,  was  there  one  obtained,  during  the  Jonathan  received  the  same  degree  from 
administration  of  President  Hamilton,  it  in  1756,  and  Mr.  Whitefield  in  1754. 
but  nothing  had  been  done  before  the  The  college  was  removed  from  Newark 
arrival  of  Governor  Belcher  to  perfect  to  Princeton  in  1756,  and  the  first  build- 
the  institution.  Soon  after  he  reached  ing  erected  there  was  named  by  Gov- 
New  Jersey  Governor  Belcher  interested  ernor  Belcher  Nassau  Hall.  —  New 
himself  to  secure  a  more  perfect  char-  Jersey  Archives,  First  Series,  vol.  vii. 
ter,  and  otherwise  to  promote  its  sue-  p.  116,  note.  Princeton  Triennial  Cata- 
cess.     On  the  14th  September,  1748,  the  logue. 


THE  REV.   MR.    WHEELOCK'S   VISIT.  525 

the  founders  of  Dartmouth  College,  visited  Boston,  and  the  fol- 
lowing is  from  his  private  journal  :  — 

Oct.  6.  Set  out  for  Boston.  Met  by  dear  Mr.  Prince  and  Mr. 
Bromfield  about  eight  miles  from  Boston.  Came  in  to  Mr.  Brom- 
field's.  Soon  after  my  arrival,  came  the  Hon.  Josiah  Willard,  Secre- 
tary, Rev.  Mr.  Webb  and  Mr.  Cooper,  and  Major  Sewall,  to  bid  me  wel- 
come to  Boston.  At  six  o'clock,  rode  with  Mr.  Bromfield  in  his  chaise 
to  the  north  end  of  the  town,  and  preached  for  Mr.  Webb  to  a  great 
assembly.  After  sermon,  returned  to  dear  Mr.  Webb's  ;  pleased  with 
the  conversation  of  dear  Mr.  Gee. 

Oct.  S.  Went  to  Dr.  Colman's  meeting ;  preached  with  considera- 
ble freedom.  Dined  with  the  Doctor.  Went  with  Mr.  Rogers  to  Mr. 
Prince's.  Preached  to  a  full  assembly.  After  meeting,  was  followed 
by  a  great  throng  of  children,  who  importunately  desired  me  to  give 
them  a  word  of  exhortation  in  a  private  house,  which  I  consented  to 
do,  though  I  designed  to  go  and  hear  Mr.  Prince,  who,  being  by,  de- 
sired that  I  would  have  it  publicly,  which  I  consented  to. 

Oct.  9.  Visited  this  morning  by  a  great  number  of  persons  under 
soul  trouble.  Refused  to  preach,  because  I  designed  to  go  out  of 
town.  Just  as  I  was  going,  came  Mr.  Webb,  and  told  me  the  people 
were  meeting  together  to  hear  another  sermon.  I  consented  to  preach 
again.  A  scholar  from  Cambridge  being  present,  who  came  to  get  me 
to  go  to  Cambridge,  hastened  to  Cambridge,  and,  by  a  little  after  six, 
a  great  part  of  the  scholars  had  got  to  Boston.  Preached  to  a  very 
thronged  assembly,  many  more  than  could  get  into  the  house,  with 
very  great  freedom  and  enlargement.  I  believe  the  children  of  God 
were  very  much  refreshed.  They  told  me  afterwards,  they  believed 
that  Mather  Byles  was  never  so  lashed  in  his  life.  This  morning,  Mr. 
Cooper  came  to  me,  in  the  name  of  the  Hon.  Jacob  Wendell  Esq., 
and  earnestly  desired  a  copy  of  my  sermon,  preached  in  the  forenoon 
of  the  Lord's  day  for  the  press.  O,  that  God  would  make  and  keep 
me  humble.1 

Novr  8.  1 741.  The  Brethren  of  the  Church  and  Congregation 
stay'd  and  Voted, 

I.  That  88  pounds,  the  whole  of  the  last  Collection  for  charitable 
and  pious  uses,  unappropriated,  be  given  to  the  Poor  of  this  Church 
and  Congregation  to  supply  them  with  Wood  and  other  Necessaries. 

II.  That  there  be  another  Public  Collection  for  Charitable  and 
pious  Uses  on  the  Anniversary  Thanksgiving  Novr  12.  Current. 

1  [The  Great  Azvakening,^.  203.   Colo-  22,  1765,  we  suppose  to  have  been  their 

nel  Jacob  Wendell  lived  on  the  corner  of  daughter.     Colonel  John  Wendell,  neph- 

School    and    Common    (now    Tremont)  ew  and  partner  of  Jacob  Wendell,  lived 

streets.    He  married  Sarah,  daughter  of  on    the   corner   of  Prison    Lane    (Court 

James  Oliver ;  and  Elizabeth  Wendell,  Street)  and  Tremont  Street,  next  door  to 

who  joined  the  South  Church  September  Deacon  Henchman.] 


526  HISTORY  OF   THE    OLD   SOUTH   CHURCH. 

Novr.  12.     Collected 93.  18.  o 

Appropropriated  to  the  Fund  for  Charitable  and  pious 

uses •         •         .       5.    o.  o 


98.  18.  o 
Joseph  Sewall. 

The  first  serious  division  in  any  of  the  Boston  churches, 
growing  out  of  the  recent  revivals,  took  place  this  winter.  Mr. 
Mather  was  dismissed  from  the  colleague  pastorate  of  the  Sec- 
ond Church,  December  21.  Thirty  men  and  sixty-three  women, 
members  of  the  church,  who  were  his  friends,  withdrew  with 
him  ;  the  number  that  remained  with  Mr.  Gee  were  eighty  men 
and  one  hundred  and  eighty-three  women.  Mr.  Mather  had 
caused  dissatisfaction  on  the  part  of  many  by  what  was  consid- 
ered by  them  to  be  a  want  of  explicitness  in  his  doctrinal  state- 
ments, and  it  is  evident  that  he  was  out  of  sympathy  with 
Mr.  Gee  on  the  subject  of  Mr.  Whitefield's  preaching  and  its 
results.1  Suspicions  and  charges  of  impropriety  of  conduct 
were  also  current  against  him.  "Mr.  Mather,  on  finding  that 
such  a  state  of  things  existed,  asked  a  dismission.  The  church 
refused  to  grant  it,  and  proceeded  to  an  investigation  of  the 
charges.  Not  being  able  to  agree  as  to  the  truth  of  the  accusa- 
tions, or  to  bring  about  any  satisfactory  issue,  they  called  in  the 
aid  of  an  ecclesiastical  council.  The  churches  invited  to  form 
the  council  were  the  Rev.  Dr.  Colman's,  Dr.  Sewall's,  Mr. 
Webb's,  Mr.  Foxcroft's,  and  Mr.  Checkley's.  So  far  as  can  be 
ascertained  from  various  sources,  —  for  the  matter  is  not  clearly 
stated  on  the  church  records,  — the  council  held  two  meetings. 
The  result  of  the  first  was  a  letter  of  advice  to  the  church,  on 
one  part,  and  Mr.  Mather,  on  the  other,  as  to  their  several  du- 
ties till  the  time  to  which  the  council  adjourned ;  perhaps 
with  the  hope  that,  before  the  adjourned  meeting,  the  difficulty 
might  be  healed."  Thereupon  the  church  voted  that  if  Mr. 
Mather  would  comply  with  the  advice  given  to  him,  it  would 
attend  upon  his  ministry  and  strive  to  effect  a  reconciliation 
until  the  time  to  which  the  council  was  adjourned.  Mr.  Mather, 
on  his  part,  promised  that  he  would  use  all  proper  means  to  en- 
lighten his  mind  on  certain  subjects  mentioned  by  the  council ; 
that  he  would   endeavor  to  be  more  frequent  and  distinct  in 

1  The  Rev.  Henry  Ware,  Jr.,  says  :  excitements  of  that  period,  about  which 
"This  was  in  1740  and  41,  and  possibly  his  colleague,  Mr.  Gee,  was  so  zealous." 
had  some  connection  with  the  religious     —  Two  Discourses,  p.  23. 


THE  REV.   SAMUEL  MATHER.  $27 

preaching  on  the  nature,  and  pressing  the  necessity,  of  regen- 
eration by  the  spirit  of  grace  ;  and  that  he  would  endeavor,  fur- 
ther, to  beware  of  anything  in  his  sermons  or  conversation 
which  might  tend  to  discourage  the  work  of  conviction  and 
conversion  then  in  progress.  Harmony,  however,  was  not  re- 
stored. The  church  voted  that  Mr.  Mather  had  not  satisfacto- 
rily fulfilled  his  engagement,  and  when  the  adjourned  meeting 
of  the  council  was  held  the  church  was  advised  to  dismiss  Mr. 
Mather,  and  to  continue  his  salary  for  one  year,  the  ministers 
promising  to  give  their  services  in  preaching  as  often  as  re- 
quested, in  order  to  encourage  and  help  the  church  under  the 
pecuniary  burden.  "  The  separated  party,  with  Mr.  Mather, 
afterwards  sent  a  letter  to  the  church,  offering  to  return  ;  or, 
if  not  allowed  to  do  so,  expressing  their  conscientious  purpose 
to  build  a  new  meeting-house.  The  church  voted  that  their 
return,  and  the  resettlement  of  Mr.  Mather,  would  not  be  con- 
sistent with  the  peace  and  edification  of  the  church."  They 
proceeded  to  erect  a  house  of  worship  in  Hanover  Street,  at 
the  corner  of  North  Bennet  Street,  a  site  occupied  in  later 
years  by  the  Universalists.1 

On  the  nth  of  January,  1 741-2,  most  of  the  associated  pas- 
tors of  the  town  agreed  on  a  course  of  days  of  prayer  in  their 
several  churches,  "  to  bless  the  name  of  God  for  spiritual  bless- 
ings already  received  in  the  remarkable  revival  of  his  work 
among  us  and  in  many  other  places  ;  to  seek  of  God  the  more 
plentiful  effusion  of  his  Holy  Spirit ;  that  the  Lord  would  pre- 
serve us  and  his  people  from  everything  that  hath  a  tendency 
to  quench  his  Spirit  and  obstruct  the  progress  and  success  of 
his  good  work ;  and  that  it  may  go  on  and  prosper,  'till  the 
whole  land  shall  be  filled  with  the  blessed  fruits  of  the  Spirit." 
The  action  of  the  South  Church  was  as  follows  :  — 

Feby  14.     Lord's  Day.     1 741-2 

The  Brethren  of  the  Church  stay'd  and  Voted,  That  the  26th  of 
this  Instant  be  observed  as  a  day  of  Prayer,  to  ask  of  God  the  more 

1  Robbins's     History    of    the    Second  the  period  of  his  dismission,  December 

Church,    pp.     120-  123.       Dr.    Robbins  21,  1741,  until  his   death,  June   27,  1785, 

adds  :  "  The  fact  that  so  many  persons  he  continued  to  be  the  minister  of  a  sep- 

of  good  character  supported  Mr.  Mather,  arate  congregation,  most   of    the  mem- 

and  undertook  the  arduous  and  expen-  bers  of  which,  at   his  decease,  returned 

sive  work  of  building  a  new  church  to  to  the  Second  Church."     Dr.  Joseph  S. 

sustain  him,  would  seem  to  afford  good  Clark  says  that  the  flock  returned  to  their 

reason  to  doubt  whether  the  charges  of  former  fold  in  accordance  with  the  dying 

impropriety  were  well  founded.     From  request  of  their  pastor. 


528  HISTORY  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

plentiful  effusions  of  his  Spirit,  particularly  on  this  church  and  con- 
gregation ;  and  to  Bless  his  Name  for  Spiritual  Blessings  already  re- 
ceived. Joseph  Sewall. 

Dr.  Sewall  preached  on  this  occasion,  and  in  the  course  of 
his  sermon  said  :  "  Let  the  success  which  God  hath  of  late 
given  to  the  ministers  of  the  word  above  what  we  have  known 
in  times  past,  animate  us  to  labour  more  abundantly.  .  .  .  And 
let  not  any  pervert  what  has  been  said,  to  prejudice  themselves 
or  others  against  that  wonderful  work  of  grace,  which  I  verily 
believe,  God  has  wrought  in  this  town  and  other  places."  In 
this  last  sentence  there  is  an  intimation  that  there  was  a  dispo- 
sition in  certain  quarters  to  misjudge  the  work,  and  that  a  dif- 
ference of  opinion  in  reference  to  it  was  beginning  to  manifest 
itself,  which,  as  we  shall  see,  developed  into  a  very  wide  diver- 
gence during  the  next  few  years. 

March  28.  1742.    Lord's  Day. 

The  Brethren  of  the  Church  and  Congregation  stay'd  and  Voted, 

I.  That  twenty  pounds  be  given  out  of  the  Collection  for  Charita- 
ble and  pious  uses  towards  the  encouragement  of  some  suitable  per- 
son or  persons  to  Preach  the  Gospel  at  Little  Compton  and  the  neigh- 
bouring towns. 

II.  That  ten  pounds  be  expended  in  Books  of  piety,  to  be  distrib- 
uted to  proper  objects  by  our  Revd  Pastors. 

III.  That  the  Deacons  be  empowered  to  distribute  the  remaining 
sum  of  £63.  18.  o  to  the  Poor  of  this  Church  and  Congregation. 

IV.  That  there  be  another  collection  for  Charitable  and  pious  uses 
on  the  Anniversary  Fast  approaching,  April  8.  ;  And  that  the  Congre- 
gation be  notified  of  this  vote,  and  be  desired  to  assist  in  said  collec- 
tion. 

April  8.     Collected  for  charitable  and  pious  uses  as  follows, 
Unappropriated    ........      68.  5.  o 

Appropriated  to  the  Fund  for  Charitable  and  pious  uses.     5.  o.  o 

73-  5-  o 
Joseph  Sewall. 

On  the  14th  of  April  Mr.  Andrew  Eliot  was  ordained  at  the 
New  North  Church  as  colleague  pastor  there  with  Mr.  Webb.1 
His  father,  of  the  same  name,  became  a  member  of  the  South 
Church  in  1701  ;  and  he  was  baptized  by  one  of  its  pastors  in 
1718.2  He  graduated  at  Harvard  College  in  1737.  At  the  or- 
dination Dr.  Sewall  offered  prayer,  Mr.  Eliot  preached  from   1 

1  The  Rev.  Peter  Thacher  died  Feb-  2  "  Andrew  of  Andrew  and  Ruth 
ruary  26,  1738.  Eliot,"  baptized  December  28,  1718. 


THE  REV.   JAMES  DAVENPORT.  529 

Cor.  iv.  2  ;  Mr.  Webb  gave  the  charge,  and  Mr.  Appleton,  of 
Cambridge,  the  right  hand  of  fellowship.  The  Rev.  Ebenezer 
Parkman,  of  Westborough,  who  was  present,  records  in  his 
journal  :  "  Avast  assembly,  and  a  glorious  time  of  God's  grace." 
Mr.  Prince  mentions  an  incident  which  shows  the  excitable 
state  of  the  public  mind  at  this  time  :  — 

On  Friday  Night  July  30,  1742,  at  the  Lecture  in  the  South  Church, 
near  nine  o'Clock,  being  very  dark,  there  came  on  a  very  terrible  Storm 
of  Thunder  and  Lightening :  And  just  as  the  Blessing  was  given,  an 
amazing  Clap  broke  over  the  Church  with  piercing  Repetitions,  which 
set  many  a  shrieking,  and  the  whole  Assembly  into  great  Consterna- 
tion :  God  then  appeared  "  terrible  out  of  his  high  Places  ;  they  heard 
attentively  the  Noise  of  his  Voice,  and  the  Sound  that  went  out  of 
his  Mouth  ;  he  directed  it  under  the  whole  Heaven,  and  his  Lighten- 
ing to  the  Ends  of  the  Earth  ;  after  it  a  Voice  roared,  he  thundered 
marvelously  with  his  Voice  :  and  at  this  the  Hearts  of  many  (as  Eli- 
hu's)  trembled,  and  were  moved  out  of  their  Places  "  for  near  two  Hours 
together.  And  yet  in  all  these  Displays  of  the  Majesty  of  God,  and 
terrifying  Apprehensions  of  Danger  of  sudden  Destruction,  neither  in 
this  surprizing  Night,  nor  in  all  the  Course  of  thirty  Years  have  I 
scarce  known  any  by  these  Kinds  of  Terrors  brought  under  genuine 
Convictions.  And  what  Minister  has  a  Voice  like  God,  and  who  can 
thunder  like  Him  ? 

A  few  weeks  before  this  the  Rev.  James  Davenport,  of  Long 
Island,  had  made  his  appearance  in  the  town,  "and  then,"  says 
Mr.  Prince,  writing  two  or  three  years  later,  "  through  the  awful 
Providence  of  the  Sovereign  God,  the  wisdom  of  whose  ways 
are  past  finding  out,  we  unexpectedly  came  to  an  unhappy  pe- 
riod, which  it  exceedingly  grieves  me  now  to  write  of."  Mr. 
Davenport  was  a  lineal  descendant  of  the  Rev.  John  Daven- 
port, whose  removal  from  New  Haven  to  Boston,  three  quarters 
of  a  century  earlier,  had  divided  the  First  Church  ;  and  his 
coming  at  this  time  was  to  be  followed  by  results  even  more 
disastrous.  He  "  early  caught  the  revival  spirit,  which,  in  him 
as  in  many  others,  soon  rose  to  enthusiasm,  and  ended  in  fanat- 
icism. In  the  progress  of  his  wild  career,  and  before  his  ex- 
travagances had  crippled  his  influence,  he  came  to  Charlestown." 1 
This  was  on  Friday  evening,  June  25.  On  Sunday  morning  he 
attended  public  worship  and  went  to  the  Lord's  Table,  but  re- 
mained at  his  lodgings  in  the  afternoon,  "  from  an  apprehension 
of  the  ministers  being  unconverted."     "  Monday  afternoon  he 

1  Clark's  Hist.  Sketch,  p.  167. 


530  HISTORY  OF   THE   OLD   SOUTH  CHURCH. 

came  over  the  ferry  to  Boston."  The  ministers  were  a  good 
deal  alarmed.  "  Instead  of  taking  no  notice  of  him,"  says  Dr. 
Wisner,  "  and  thus  effectually  discountenancing  his  irregulari- 
ties, the  ministers  of  Boston,  with  the  best  intentions,  but  most 
unhappily,  pursued  a  course  in  regard  to  him  which  at  once 
attracted  universal  attention  to  him,  awakened  a  general  de- 
sire to  see  and  hear  him,  and  contributed  to  procure  for  him 
sympathy  as  a  persecuted  man."  1  Being  together  in  a  meet- 
ing of  the  Association,  they  "  sent  to  signify  that  they  should 
be  glad  to  see  him  ;  whereupon  he  presently  came,  and  they 
had  long  and  friendly  conferences  with  him  about  his  con- 
duct on  that  and  the  following  day.  On  Thursday,  July  i,  they 
thought  themselves  obliged  to  publish  a  declaration  of  their 
judgment  concerning  him,"  in  which,  while  they  "  own'd  that 
he  appeared  to  them  to  be  truly  pious,  and  they  hoped  that  God 
had  used  him  as  an  instrument  of  good  to  many  souls,"  they 
bore  their  "  testimony  "  against  him  in  several  "  particulars,"  on 
account  of  which  they  declared  that  they  "judged  their  present 
duty  not  to  invite  him  into  their  places  of  public  worship."  2  The 
result  of  this  action  is  thus  given  by  Mr.  Prince  :  "  Upon  pub- 
lishing this  declaration  on  Friday,  many  were  offended  :  And 
some  days  after,  Mr.  Davenport  thought  himself  oblig'd  to  be- 
gin in  his  public  exercises  to  declare  against  us  also  ;  naming 
some  as  unconverted,  representing  the  rest  as  Jehosaphat  in 
Ahab's  army,  and  exhorting  the  people  to  separate  from  us  : 
which  so  diverted  the  minds  of  many  from  being  concern'd 
about  their  own  conversion,  to  think  and  dispute  about  the  case 
of  others,  as  not  only  seem'd  to  put  an  awful  stop  to  their 
awakening,  but  also  on  all  sides  to  roil  our  passions,  and  pro- 
voke the  Holy  Spirit,  in  a  gradual  and  dreadful  measure,  to 
withdraw  his  influence.  And  now  a  small  number  from  some 
of  our  churches  and  congregations  withdrew,  and  met  in  a  dis- 
tinct society.  The  cry,  What  shall  I  do  to  be  saved  ?  soon  ceased 
to  be  heard.  But  few  were  added  to  the  churches.  The  heav- 
enly shower  in  Boston  was  over." 

Mr.  Davenport's  case  was  not  left  to  the  action  of  the  minis- 
ters alone.     The  grand  jury  took  it  up,  and  in  their  presentment, 

1  Wisner's  History  of  the  Old  South  Abbot  and  Thomas  Prentice,  of  Charles- 
Church,  pp.  103,  104.  town.      Mr.    Chauncy    appears    to    have 

2  This  declaration  was  signed  by  all  been  present  at  the  conversations  with 
the  Boston  ministers  except  Mr.  Chaun-  Mr.  Davenport ;  he  probably  declined  to 
cy  (the  junior  pastor  of  the  First  sign  the  paper  because  it  bore  general 
Church),  and  by  the  Rev.  Messrs.   Hull  testimony  in  favor  of  the  revival. 


MR.   DAVENPORT  INDICTED.  53 1 

August  19,  set  forth  that  "one  James  Davenport,  of  Southold  — 
under  pretence  of  praying  preaching  and  exhorting,  at  divers 
places  in  the  towns  of  Boston  and  Dorchester,  and  at  divers 
times  in  July  last  and  August  current, — did  —  in  the  hearing 
of  great  numbers  of  the  subjects  of  our  Lord,  the  King,  ma- 
liciously publish,  and  with  a  loud  voice  utter  and  declare  many 
slanderous  and  reviling  speeches  against  the  godly  and  faithful 
ministers  of  this  province,  but  more  particularly  against  the 
ministers  of  the  gospel  in  the  town  of  Boston  aforesaid, — viz: 
that  the  greatest  part  of  said  ministers  were  carnal  and  uncon- 
verted men  ;  that  they  knew  nothing  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  that 
they  were  leading  their  people,  blindfold,  down  to  hell,  and  that 
they  were  destroying  and  murdering  souls  by  thousands  ;  the 
said  James  Davenport,  at  the  same  time,  advising  their  hearers 
to  withdraw  from  the  said  ministers,  and  not  to  hear  them 
preach ;  by  means  whereof,  great  numbers  of  people  have  with- 
drawn from  the  public  worship  of  God  and  the  assemblies  by 
law  required."1  The  indictment  was  sustained.  Davenport  was 
arrested  on  Saturday,  August  21,  and  refusing  to  give  bail, 
though  two  gentlemen  offered  to  be  his  sureties,  he  was  com- 
mitted for  trial.  "The  sheriff  offered  him  perfect  liberty  till 
the  day  of  trial,  if  he  would  promise  so  to  conduct,  that  he 
should  receive  no  damage ;  but  he  refused  to  promise,  and  was 
kept  in  comfortable  quarters."  "  On  Tuesday,  August  24,  the 
Rev.  Messrs.  Colman,  Sewall,  Checkley,  Welsteed,  Byles  and 
Gray,  addressed  a  note  to  the  court,  then  in  session,  entreating 
that  no  severity  might  be  used  on  their  account,  and  that  the 
matter  might  be  conducted  with  all  the  gentleness  and  tender- 
ness which  their  honors  might  judge  consistent  with  justice 
and  the  public  peace."  Davenport  was  declared  by  the  verdict 
to  have  been  non  compos  mentis  when  the  words  charged  against 
him  were  uttered,  and  therefore,  technically,  not  guilty.  This 
verdict  was  as  just  as   it  was   humane,  for  the  man  was  un- 

1  Among  the  witnesses  before  the  grand  since  1728,  had  been  a  member  of  the 
jury  was  H.  V.,  who  testified  that  Mr.  South  Church.  He  married  Mary  Pem- 
Davenport  said  in  July,  on  Copp's  Hill,  berton,  a  daughter  of  its  third  minister, 
"  Good  Lord,  (or  O  Lord),  I  will  not  the  Rev.  Ebenezer  Pemberton ;  and  one 
mince  the  matter  any  longer  with  thee  ;  of  his  daughters  became  the  second  wife 
for  thou  knowest  that  I  know,  that  most  of  its  deacon,  Jonathan  Mason.  He  had 
of  the  ministers  of  the  town  of  Boston  nine  children  baptized  between  1728  and 
and  of  the  country  are  unconverted,  and  1743,  three  of  whom,  Mary,  Katharine, 
are  leading  their  people  blindfold  to  and  Elizabeth,  afterward  became  mem- 
hell."  This  witness  was  undoubtedly  bers  of  the  church.  His  sons  were  John, 
Hugh  Vans,   a    Scotch  merchant,  who,  Ebenezer,  William,  and  Samuel. 


532  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

doubtedly  insane  during  this  period  of  his  life.1  But  his  insanity 
did  incalculable  mischief,  for  all  his  wild  words  and  deeds  were 
laid  to  the  charge  of  the  revival  spirit  then  prevalent  in  the 
churches  ;  and  although  he  made  a  solemn  retractation  in  1744, 
the  echo  of  his  words  and  the  sweep  of  his  influence  had  passed 
far  beyond  his  control.  This  retractation  was  sent  to  Mr. 
Prince,  for  publication  in  Boston,  by  the  Rev.  Solomon  Wil- 
liams, of  Lebanon,  Connecticut,  who,  in  a  letter  enclosing  it, 
said  :  "  He  is  full  and  free  in  it,  and  seems  to  be  deeply  sen- 
sible of  his  miscarriages  and  misconduct  in  those  particulars, 
and  very  desirous  to  do  all  he  possibly  can  to  retrieve  the  dis- 
honour which  lie  has  done  to  religion,  and  the  injustice  to  many 
ministers  of  the  gospel.','  2 

At  a  Meeting  of  the  Brethren  of  the  Church  and  Congregation 
Novr.  1.  1742 

Voted  —  I.  That  the  Deacons  give  thirty  pounds  out  of  the  last 
collection  for  Charitable  and  pious  uses  to  the  Poor  of  this  Church 
and  Congregation  to  supply  them  with  wood  and  other  necessaries. 

II.  Whereas  there  is  a  considerable  deficiency  in  the  Church  Stock 
to  pay  the  necessary  charges  arisen  :  Voted  —  That  there  be  a  collec- 
tion on  the  Thanksgiving  approaching  for  that  purpose,  and  that  the 
rest  of  the  Congregation  be  notified  of  this  vote,  and  be  desired  to 
assist  in  said  collection. 

III.  The  Committee  for  Seating  having  acquainted  the  Brethren 
of  a  Petition  of  sundry  persons,  praying  that  the  seats  next  the  wall 
of  the  Men's  front  Gallery  may  be  turned  into  Pews  :  It  was  Voted, 
That  said  Committee  be  desired  to  take  the  care  of  that  affair,  and 
order  it  according  to  their  Discretion, 

IV.  That  Messrs.  John  Trail,  Andrew  Eliot,  Isaac  Walker  and 
William  Ireland,  be  a  committee  to  take  subscriptions  of  the  church 
and  congregation  for  the  weekly  contribution.  Joseph  Sewall. 

Novr.  11.  General  Thanksgiving,  collected  .£115  for  the  use  above 
said. 

1  He  organized  a  company  of  his  fol-  jewels,  and    necklaces   was    ordered  by 

lowers  into   a  church  in  New  London,  him  to  cure  his  followers  of  their  idola- 

Conn.,  and,  March  6,  1743,  in  imitation  trous  love  of  such  objects.     John  Lee,  of 

of  the  "  pyramid  of  vanities  "  of  Savona-  Lyme,  according  to  Trumbull,  said  that, 

rola  at  Florence,  two  hundred  and  fifty  for  himself,  his  idols  were  his  wife  and 

years  before,  be  caused  a  bonfire  to  be  children,  whom  he  could  not  burn,  as  the 

made  of  wigs,  clothing,  and  jewelry,  and  word  of  God  forbade  it,  and  that  idolatry 

to  the  burning  heap  were  added  copies  could  only  be  suppressed  by  a  change  of 

of   the   writings    of    Beveridge,    Flavel,  heart. 

Increase   Mather,  Colman,  and   Sewall.  2  See  The  Great  Awakening,  pp.  241- 

The   destruction  of  fine  clothing,  rings,  255. 


THE  ANNUAL   CONVENTION,   1743.  533 

March  13.  1742-3.  The  Brethren  of  the  Church  and  Congregation 
stay'd  ;  and  voted  as  follows  — 

I.  That  ten  pounds  be  given  out  of  the  last  collection  for  Charitable 
and  pious  uses  to  the  poor  of  this  Church  and  Congregation  in  Books 
of  Piety. 

II.  That  the  remainder  of  said  Collection,  about  twenty  pounds,  be 
given  to  the  Poor  of  this  Church  and  Congregation  to  supply  them 
with  the  Necessaries  of  life. 

III.  That  there  be  another  Collection  for  Charitable  and  pious  uses 
on  the  Anniversary  Fast  March  24  Instant,  and  that  the  congregation 
be  notified  of  this  vote  and  be  desired  to  assist  in  said  collection. 

Joseph  Sewall. 

March  24  1742-3.     Collected  as  follows 

Unappropriated ^86.  2.  9 

Appropriated  to  the  fund  for  charitable  and  pious 
uses     ...... 

To  Dr.  Sewall 

To  Mr.  Prince         .... 
To  Mr.  Byles 


5- 

0. 

0 

2. 

0. 

0 

. 

2. 

0. 

0 

2. 

0. 

0 

97- 

2. 

9 

Joseph  Sewall. 

At  a  Meeting  of  the  Brethren  of  the  S.  Church  and  Congregation 
April  3.  1743. 

Voted  —  That  thirty  Pounds  be  given  to  Mr.  Simeon  Brown  out  of 
the  last  Collection  for  Charitable  and  pious  uses,  towards  his  support 
under  the  great  Loss  which  he  has  sustained  lately  by  Fire. 

Joseph  Sewall. 

The  controversy  between  the  friends  and  the  opposers  of  the 
recent  revivals  was  becoming  more  and  more  heated,  and  the 
churches  and  ministers  were  gradually  separating  into  two  fac- 
tions. At  the  annual  convention  of  the  pastors  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts churches,  held  in  Boston,  May  25,  a  "Testimony"  was 
promulgated  "  against  several  errors  in  doctrine  and  disorders 
in  practice,  which  have  of  late  obtained  in  various  parts  of  the 
land."  It  had  been  drawn  up  by  a  committee,  was  read  and 
accepted  paragraph  by  paragraph,  and  the  moderator,  the  Rev. 
Nathaniel  Eells,  of  Scituate,  by  a  majority  vote  of  thirty-eight 
ministers,  was  directed  to  sign  it  in  the  name  of  the  convention.1 

1  This  paper  magnified  the  errors  in  the  revival,  and  would  not  have  con- 
doctrine  and  disorders  in  practice  which,  tained  one  word  in  recognition  of  the 
in  some  places,  had  attended  or  followed     revival   itself  but  for  the  strenuous  in- 


534  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

The  manner  in  which  this  paper  had  been  introduced  and  adopted 
occasioned  much  dissatisfaction  and  some  angry  correspondence. 
It  was  questioned  whether  there  would  have  been  a  majority  in 
its  favor  but  for  the  votes  of  ministers  from  other  provinces,  and 
whether  more  than  "  one  fifth  of  the  ministers  in  Massachusetts 
would  have  subscribed  their  names,  if  the  proposal  for  a  per- 
sonal subscription  had  prevailed."  Another  convention  was 
called,  therefore,  by  those  who  had  been  in  sympathy  with  the 
revival,  to  meet  in  Boston  on  the  day  after  commencement 
at  Cambridge.  Those  who  could  not  be  present,  and  who  were 
opposed  to  the  testimony  issued  in  May,  were  asked  to  "  send 
their  attestations,  and  communicate  their  thoughts  seasonably 
in  writing:."  Dr.  Colman  was  chosen  moderator  of  this  second 
convention,  with  Dr.  Sewall  as  assistant,  and  Mr.  Prince  and 
Mr.  Hobby  were  chosen  scribes.  Dr.  Colman  excusing  himself, 
Dr.  Sewall  acted  as  moderator.  On  the  first  day,  after  "decla- 
rations, discourses  and  debates,"  the  following  vote  was  passed, 
without  objection:  — 

We,  pastors  of  churches  in  the  provinces  of  the  Massachusetts 
Bay  and  New  Hampshire  in  New  England,  met  at  Boston  this  seventh 
day  of  July  1743,  being  persuaded  there  has  of  late  been  a  happy 
revival  of  religion,  through  a  remarkable  divine  influence,  in  many 
parts  of  this  land,  and  apprehending  it  our  duty  to  give  an  open  con- 
junct testimony,  to  the  glory  of  God,  to  an  event  so  surprising  and 
gracious,  as  well  as  against  those  errors  in  doctrine  and  disorders  in 
practice,  which,  through  human  frailties  and  corruptions  and  the  per- 
mitted agency  of  Satan,  have  attended  it,  and  in  any  measure  blemished 
its  glory  and  hindered  its  advancement ;  came  to  the  following  reso- 
lution :  that  a  committee  be  chosen  to  consider  the  premises  and  make 
a  report  tomorrow  morning  at  nine  o'clock. 

The  committee  consisted  of  Dr.  Sewall  ;  Mr.  Wigglesworth, 
of  Ipswich  ;  Mr.  Prince  ;  Mr.  Adams,  of  Newington,  New  Hamp- 
shire ;  Mr.  Cooper ;  Mr.  Rogers,  of  Ipswich  ;  Mr.  Leonard,  of 
Plymouth  ;  and  Mr.  Hobby,  of  Reading.  The  paper  reported 
next  morning  is  admirable  in  expression,  fervid  and  evangelical 
in  tone,  and  thoroughly  frank  in  its  discriminations.  Two  or 
three  paragraphs  will  illustrate  its  general  tenor  :  — 

If  it  is  the  duty  of  every  one  capable  of  observation  and  reflection, 
to  take  a  constant  religious  notice  of  what  occurs  in  the  daily  course 

sistence  of  Dr.  Sewall,  and  the  only  sen-  of  pure  religion  in  any  parts  of  our  land 
tence  he  was  able  to  insert  in  it  was  this :  at  this  time,  we  would  give  unto  God  all 
"  and  where  there  is  any  special  revival     the  glory." 


A    SECOND   CONVENTION.  535 

of  common  Providence ;  how  much  more  is  it  expected  that  those 
events  in  the  divine  economy,  wherein  there  is  a  signal  display  of  the 
power,  grace  and  mercy  of  God  in  behalf  of  the  church,  should  be 
observed  with  sacred  wonder,  pleasure  and  gratitude  !  Nor  should 
the  people  of  God  content  themselves  with  a  silent  notice,  but  publish 
with  the  voice  of  thanksgiving,  and  tell  of  all  his  wondrous  works. 

More  particularly,  when  Christ  is  pleased  to  come  into  his  church 
in  a  plentiful  effusion  of  his  Holy  Spirit,  by  whose  powerful  influences 
the  ministration  of  the  word  is  attended  with  uncommon  success,  sal- 
vation-work carried  on  in  an  eminent  manner,  and  his  kingdom,  which 
is  within  men,  and  consists  in  righteousness  and  peace  and  joy  in  the 
Holy  Ghost,  is  notably  advanced,  this  is  an  event  which,  above  all 
others,  invites  the  notice  and  bespeaks  the  praises  of  the  Lord's  peo- 
ple, and  should  be  declared  abroad  for  a  memorial  of  the  divine 
grace  ;  as  it  tends  to  confirm  the  divinity  of  a  despised  gospel,  and 
manifests  the  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  the  application  of  redemp- 
tion, which  too  many  are  ready  to  reproach ;  as  it  may  have  a  happy 
effect,  by  the  divine  blessing,  for  the  revival  of  religion  in  other  places, 
and  the  enlargement  of  the  kingdom  of  Christ  in  the  world ;  and  as  it 
tends  to  enliven  the  prayers,  strengthen  the  faith,  and  raise  the  hopes, 
of  such  as  are  waiting  for  the  kingdom  of  God,  and  the  coming  on 
of  the  glory  of  the  latter  days. 

But  if  it  is  justly  expected  of  all  who  profess  themselves  the  dis- 
ciples of  Christ,  that  they  should  openly  acknowledge  and  rejoice  in 
a  work  of  this  nature,  wherein  the  honour  of  their  divine  Master  is  so 
much  concerned  ;  how  much  more  is  it  to  be  looked  for  from  those  who 
are  employed  in  the  ministry  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  and  so  stand  in  a  spe- 
cial relation  to  him,  as  servants  of  his  household,  and  officers  in  his 
kingdom  !  These  stand  as  watchmen  upon  the  walls  of  Jerusalem  ; 
and  it  is  their  business  not  only  to  give  the  alarm  of  war  when  the 
enemy  is  approaching,  but  to  sound  the  trumpet  of  praise  when  the 
King  of  Zion  cometh,  in  a  meek  triumph,  having  salvation. 

For  these  and  other  reasons,  we,  whose  names  are  hereunto  annexed, 
pastors  of  churches  in  New  England,  met  together  in  Boston,  July  7, 
1743,  think  it  our  indispensable  duty,  (without  judging  or  censuring 
such  of  our  brethren  as  cannot  at  present  see  things  in  the  same  light 
with  us,)  in  this  open  and  conjunct  manner  to  declare,  to  the  glory  of 
sovereign  grace,  our  full  persuasion,  either  from  what  we  have  seen 
ourselves,  or  received  upon  credible  testimony,  that  there  has  been  a 
happy  and  remarkable  revival  of  religion  in  many  parts  of  this  land, 
through  an  uncommon  divine  influence  ;  after  a  long  time  of  great 
decay  and  deadness,  and  a  sensible  and  very  awful  withdraw  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  from  his  sanctuary  among  us. 

The  report  proceeds  to  show  that  the  recent  work  was  re- 
markable  and    extraordinary,    "  on    account    of    the    numbers 


53^  HISTORY  OF   THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

wrought  upon,"  "  with  regard  to  the  suddenness  and  quick  prog- 
ress of  it,"  and  "  in  respect  of  the  degree  of  operation,  both  in 
a  way  of  terror  and  in  a  way  of  consolation."  That  there  were 
imperfections  in  it  is  admitted  ;  but  sorrow  is  expressed  that 
accounts  should  be  published  abroad  representing  it  as  "  all  en- 
thusiasm, delusion  and  disorder." 

It  is  not  to  be  denied,  that  in  some  places  many  irregularities  and 
extravagances  have  been  permitted  to  accompany  it,  which  we  would 
deeply  lament  and  bewail  before  God,  and  look  upon  ourselves  obliged, 
for  the  honour  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  of  his  blessed  operations  on  the 
souls  of  men,  to  bear  a  public  and  faithful  testimony  against ;  though 
at  the  same  time  it  is  to  be  acknowledged  with  much  thankfulness,  that 
in  other  places,  where  the  work  has  greatly  flourished,  there  have  been 
few,  if  any,  of  these  disorders  and  excesses.  But  who  can  wonder,  if 
at  such  a  time  as  this,  Satan  should  intermingle  himself,  to  hinder  and 
blemish  a  work  so  directly  contrary  to  the  interests  of  his  own  king- 
dom ?  Or  if,  while  so  much  good  seed  is  sowing,  the  enemy  should 
be  busy  to  sow  tares  ? 

"  After  solemn,  repeated  prayer,  free  inquiry  and  debate,  and 
serious  deliberation,"  the  report  was  adopted.  The  first  to  sign 
it  were  the  venerable  Samuel  Moody,  of  York,  and  John  White, 
of  Gloucester,  who  were  at  college  together  nearly  half  a  cen- 
tury before.  The  Boston  pastors  who  signed  it  as  it  was 
adopted  were  Dr.  Sewall,  Mr.  Prince,  Mr.  Webb,  Mr.  Cooper, 
Mr.  Foxcroft,  Mr.  Gee,  and  Mr.  Moorhead,  minister  of  the 
Presbyterian  church  in  Long  Lane.  Others  approved  of  the 
testimony  for  the  substance  of  it,  but  were  not  satisfied  with 
what  was  said  about  itineracy  or  the  intrusion  of  ministers  and 
others  into  the  parishes  of  ministers  without  the  consent  of  the 
latter,  which  disorder  they  thought  was  not  sufficiently  testified 
against.  Among  these  were  Dr.  Colman,  Mr.  Checkley,  and 
Mr.  Eliot,  of  Boston ;  Mr.  Abbot  and  Mr.  Prentice,  of  Charles- 
town  ;  Mr.  Eells,  of  Scituate  ;  Mr.  Parkman,  of  Westborough ; 
and  Mr.  Maccarty,  of  Kingston.  On  the  other  hand,  Mr.  Prince, 
and  a  few  with  him,  objected  to  the  clause  relating  to  itinerat- 
ing ministers,  because,  as  adopted,  there  was  danger  of  its 
being  "construed  and  perverted  to  the  great  infringement  of 
Christian  and  human  liberty  of  conscience."  The  number  of 
signers  at  the  meeting  was  sixty-eight ;  attestors  by  letter,  forty- 
five  :  total,  one  hundred  and  thirteen.  Dr.  Chauncy  (he  had 
recently  received  a  diploma  from  Edinburgh),  Mr.  Mather,  Mr. 


A  SECOND  «  testimony:' 


537 


Byles,  Mr.  Welsteed,  and  Mr.  Gray  1  took  no  part  in  the  pro- 
ceedings ;  Mr.  Appleton,  of  Cambridge,  sent  his  attestation,  and 
no  doubt  was  in  full  sympathy  with  Dr.  Sewall  and  Mr.  Prince 
in  their  estimate  of  the  revival.2 

Lord's  Day  Novr  13,  1743 

The  Brethren  of  the  Church  and  Congregation  stay'd ;  and  Voted 
as  follows  — 

I.  That  what  remains  in  stock  be  expended  by  the  Deacons  to  sup- 
ply the  Poor  of  this  church  and  Congregation  with  the  Necessaries  of 
life. 

II.  That  there  be  another  collection  for  charitable  and  pious  uses 
on  the  Anniversary  Thanksgiving  Nov  24  Instant. 

III.  That  the  rest  of  the  congregation  be  notified  of  this  vote  and 
be  desired  to  assist  in  said  collection.  Joseph  Sewall. 

having  a  plausible  appearance,  yet  of 
a  dangerous  tendency :  ministers  go- 
ing from  place  to  place  ;  illiterate  per- 
sons exhorting  publicly ;  claims  to  im- 
mediate impulses  of  the  Spirit ;  false 
notions  about  saving,  justifying  faith ; 
and  freedom  and  uncharitableness  in  the 
judgment  of  others.  These  and  other 
things  he  mentioned  as  stumbling-blocks 
to  be  apprehended  and  avoided ;  "  but 
then,"  he  added,  "  there  are  stumbling- 
blocks  on  the  other  hand,  yea,  most  dan- 
gerous rocks,  which  ministers,  if  they 
would  be  as  lights  unto  the  world,  must 
point  out,  and  warn  seasonably  and  ear- 
nestly against.  Thus,  the  denial  of  there 
having  been  a  glorious  work  of  God  in 
the  land  of  late  ;  and  the  speaking  dis- 
paragingly of  those  convictions,  and  all 
that  serious  concern  that  has  been  stirred 
up  in  multitudes,  as  if  there  was  nothing 
of  the  Spirit  of  God  in  any  of  them;  and 
as  if  all  the  religious  commotions  had 
been  the  work  of  the  devil,  or  had  been 
wrought  in  a  mere  mechanical  way ;  and 
the  ridiculing  and  reproaching  such  per- 
sons in  general  and  without  distinction, 
and  discouraging  rather  than  encourag- 
ing any  concernedness  of  soul,  and  so 
the  lulling  men  asleep  in  their  carnal  se- 
curity again,  that  began  to  be  roused  up, 
and  the  settling  them  in  their  natural, 
unconverted  state  ;  these,  I  say,  are  dan- 
gerous things,  and  ministers  must  hold 
up  the  light  of  God's  word,  and  show 
people  the  danger  hereof." 


1  "  The  two  pastors  were  not  among 
the  most  distinguished  in  town,  though 
faithful  and  highly  respectable  men. 
During  the  great  religious  excitements  of 
this  period,  they  appear  to  have  fallen 
in  with  the  current.  I  find,  however, 
from  a  well-written,  serious,  animated 
sermon,  delivered  in  1742,  at  an  ordina- 
tion, by  Mr.  Gray,  that  he  was  fully 
aware  of  the  dangers  and  evils  of  that 
period,  and  did  not  hesitate  to  speak  of 
the  'discord,  division,  bitterness,  clam- 
our, wrath,  evil  speaking,  groundless 
surmises  and  jealousies  '  which  prevailed 
in  the  churches.  Neither  of  the  minis- 
ters, however,  were  among  the  leaders 
on  either  side,  though  possibly  it  was  to 
his  opinion  on  this  subject  that  Welsteed 
alluded,  when  he  said,  in  his  last  illness, 
'  I  have  in  some  things  thought  different- 
ly from  my  brethren,  but  I  thank  God 
I  have  constantly  meant  well.' "  Mr.  Wel- 
steed confined  himself  in  preaching  to 
the  doctrines  of  religion  which  are  not 
disputed  amongst  sound  Protestants,  and 
the  "  impressive  duties  of  repentance, 
faith,  love  and  universal  and  constant 
obedience." — Ware's  Two  Discourses, 
pp.  29,  31. 

2  We  have  quoted  from  Mr.  Hol- 
yoke's  Convention  Sermon  of  1741. 
Mr.  Appleton  preached  before  the  Con- 
vention in  1743.  He  was  "a  man  fa- 
mous for  his  extreme  care,  if  any  care 
can  be  extreme,  always  to  speak  the  ex- 
act truth."    He  referred  to  certain  things 


538  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

Anniversary  Thanksgiving  Nov  24  1743- 
Collected  as  follows  for  charitable  and  pious  uses. 

Unappropriated 

Appropriated 

To  the  Rev  Mr.  Prince 

For  three  Widows     .... 
Towards  the  fund  for  charitable  and  pious  uses    . 

Lord's  Day,  Novr.  27.  1743. 

A  Letter  was  read  the  second  time  from  the  Rev'd  Mr.  Othniel  Cam- 
bel,  Pastor  of  the  Second  Church  in  Plimpton,  and  from  twenty-two 
Brethren  desiring  our  assistance  in  Council  under  their  present  Diffi- 
culties :  In  answer  to  which  the  Brethren  Voted,  that  there  should  be 
a  letter  sent  to  them,  giving  the  reasons  why  we  did  not  send,  and 
offering  some  advice  to  them ;  which  was  drawn  up  and  sent  accord- 
ingly. Joseph  Sewall. 

Mr.  Campbell  was  ordained  over  the  Second  Church  in 
Plympton,  now  Carver,  in  1734,  and  was  dismissed  in  1744.  A 
contemporary  account  says  that  he  was  dismissed  "  for  giving 
way  too  much  to  itinerants,  though  it  is  doubtful  whether  his 
friends  or  his  enemies  are  the  greater  number.  It  is  thought 
he  has  had  hard  measure,  being,  in  the  main,  an  honest  and  good 
man."  He  removed  to  Tiverton,  Rhode  Island,  where  he  re- 
ceived an  annual  appropriation  from  the  South  Church  for  more 
than  twenty  years.  His  wife  was  Katharine,  daughter  of  Simon 
Willard,  and  granddaughter  of  the  Rev.  Samuel  Willard.1 

As  one  of  the  results  of  Mr.  Davenport's  coming  to  Boston, 
we  have  seen,  in  Mr.  Prince's  statement,  that  a  small  number 
withdrew  from  some  of  the  churches  and  met  in  a  distinct  so- 
ciety. We  find  two  other  references  to  this  separatist  move- 
ment in  the  Christian  History,  and  the  records  of  the  South 
Church  throw  light  upon  it. 

And  now  a  small  number  from  some  of  our  churches  and  congrega- 
tions (some  had  been  communicants  formerly,  and  some  added  lately,) 
withdrew  and  met  in  a  distinct  Society :  whereof  four  males  and  two 
or  three  females  were  of  our  communion.  .  .  . 

Some  time  after,  a  man  of  the  separate  Society  became  a  Saturday- 
Baptist  :  who  being  dip'd  in  the  country,  and  having  hands   laid  on 

1  Mr.  Campbell  was  born  in  Bridge-  Grindall    Rawson,  Nathaniel  Eells,  and 

water,  and  it  is  said  that  he  was  nearly  Andrew  Croswell.    He  signed  the  Testi- 

thirty  years  old  when  he  entered  college,  mony  of  July  7, 1743.     According  to  the 

He  graduated  in  1728,  in  the  same  class  Harvard    Catalogue,  he    died   in    1778. 

with  Jonathan  Belcher,  Simon  Bradstreet,  See  Willard  Memoir,  p.  400. 


A   SEPARATIST  CHURCH.  539 

him,  thought  himself  a  minister,  drew  five  women  after  him  and  pro- 
ceeded to  dip  them  :  yet  they  all  have  since  deserted  him.  But  six 
males  of  the  said  Society  with  one  of  Brookline,  a  town  about  five 
miles  off,  went  on  to  associate  as  a  church,  owning  the  Assembly's 
Confession  of  Faith,  and  professing  themselves  congregational  ac- 
cording to  our  New  England  Platform  :  And  have  not  yet  returned 
[November,  1744]  to  the  several  churches  whence  they  went.  .  .  .  Be- 
sides the  aforesaid  four  Males  and  two  or  three  females  of  the  South 
Church,  I  know  not  any  who  have  left  our  communion  But  the  rest 
of  our  said  numerous  and  former  additions  continue  with  us ;  and  as 
far  as  I  know,  their  conversation  is  as  becomes  the  Gospel.  Nor  do 
I  hear  of  more  than  one  of  those  who  have  left  our  church  that  has 
fallen  into  other  censurable  evil,  nor  in  the  other  churches  in  town, 
except  a  few  of  the  New  North.1 

The  four  male  members  of  the  South  Church  referred  to 
above  were  John  Gridley,  who  became  a  member  in  1722  ;  Wil- 
liam Story,  in  1738;  and  William  Richie  Love  and  Nathanael 
Wardell,2  who  joined  in  1741.  It  was  the  last  named  who  had 
been  immersed,  and,  without  suitable  preparation,  had  entered 
upon  the  work  of  the  Christian  ministry.  A  few  years  later,  as 
we  shall  see,  he  was  cut  off  from  the  church  for  the  sins  of  pro- 
fanity and  intoxication. 

At  a  Church  Meeting,  Deer  25.  1743.     Lord's  Day. 

Our  Brother  Nathanael  Wardel  junr  was  called  for,  and  appear'd 
owning  and  justifying  the  Articles  of  charge  brought  against  him, 
saving  that  he  so  far  declar'd  his  meaning  relating  to  his  bold  pretence 
to  Inspiration,  that  the  Brethren  saw  meet  to  drop  that  Article  ;  And 
he  being  desired  to  withdraw  to  an  house  near,  when  sent  for  could 
not  be  found. 

1  [Dr.  Pierce,  in  one  of  his  historical  hackney  coach  in  Boston.  He  died  De- 
discourses,  mentions  Mr.  Elhanan  Win-  cember  18,  i72i,and  his  widow,  Frances, 
Chester  as  a  separatist  or  "  new  light "  was  licensed  by  the  selectmen,  July  10, 
in  Brookline  in  1744,  who  afterward  be-  1722,  as  an  innholder  in  room  of  her 
came  in  turn  a  Baptist,  an  Universalist,  husband.  (See  the  Sewall  and  Lynde 
and  a  Shaker.  His  son,  of  the  same  Diaries.)  At  a  town  meeting,  September 
name,  was  one  of  the  earliest  preachers  21,  1737,  we  find  that  the  "proposals  of 
in  the  United  States  of  the  doctrine  of  Nathanael  Wardal  Junr.  for  erecting  an 
final  restoration.]  engine   for  weighing   hay,"   were   read ; 

2  The  admissions  to  the  South  Church  and,  in  1746,  Nathanael  Wardell's  term 
recorded  under  the  name  of  Wardell  are,  for  using  "  the  engine  erected  for  weigh- 
1721,  Jonathan;  1741,  Nathaniel  ;  1743,  ing  hay  at  the  south  part  of  the  town" 
Frances.  Jonathan  had  wife  Katharine,  having  expired  in  May,  persons  wishing 
who  died  December  28,  1705,  and  after-  to  take  a  lease  of  it  were  requested  to 
ward  wife  Frances.  He  kept  the  Orange  apply  to  the  selectmen.  In  the  town 
Tree  Inn,  near  the  head  of  Hanover  records  the  names  Wardell  and  Ward- 
Street,   and    in    1712    set  up    the    first  well  are  used  interchangeably. 


54°  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

The  Admonition  and  suspension  drawn  up  in  writing  was  then  read 
and  voted  as  also  that  said  Admonition  and  suspension  should  be  sent 
in  a  letter  sign'd  by  the  Pastors  and  read  to  him,  which  was  done 
accordingly  the  next  day  and  is  as  follows, 

Brother  Nathanael  War  del, 

Whereas  you  have  for  some  time  withdrawn  in  a  disorderly  manner 
from  the  communion  of  this  Church,  after  you  had  solemnly  promised 
to  walk  with  us  in  a  due  Submission  to  and  attendance  upon  all  the 
Orders  and  Ordinances  of  the  Gospel ;  and  whereas  to  some  hurtfull 
errors  which  you  have  persisted  in,  you  have  added  a  bold  intrusion 
into  the  Pastoral  Office,  without  any  regular  Call  or  due  Qualifications, 
and  have  presumed  to  administer  the  Seals  of  the  Covenant  to  some 
that  have  been  misled  by  you,  by  which  sacred  things  have  been  pro- 
faned, and  contempt  cast  on  the  Ordinances  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ ; 
And  when  admonished  by  your  Pastors,  have  still  persisted  in  your 
offensive  conduct ;  Yea  when  your  Pastors  and  a  number  of  the 
Brethren  sent  for  you,  being  appointed  by  the  Church  to  treat  with 
you,  you  refused  to  come.  And  lately  in  the  publick  Assembly,  when 
one  was  admitted  to  our  Communion,  you  openly  renounced  the  Church 
as  Idolatrous. 

And  when  after  all  this,  the  Pastors  with  a  Committee  of  the 
Brethren  from  the  Church  reasoned  with  you  about  your  offences,  and 
offered  matter  of  conviction  to  you,  instead  of  retracting  them,  and 
promising  amendment,  you  still  renounced  Communion  with  the  Church, 
declaring  that  you  looked  upon  us  as  a  synagogue  of  Satan  :  Upon 
the  account  of  these  offences,  We  Doe,  in  the  Name  of  our  Lord  Jesus, 
rebuke  and  admonish  you  ;  and  we  suspend  you  from  the  Communion 
of  this  Church,  till  you  shall  manifest  repentance. 

We  pray  God  to  sanctify  this  Censure  which  is  now  passed  upon 
you,  to  awaken  you  to  due  consideration,  and  recover  you  from  your 
Strong  Delusions  ;  That  you  may  repair  to  the  Blood  of  Jesus  for 
cleansing,  and  to  the  Holy  Spirit  for  effectual  conviction  and  Humili- 
ation, and  thus  return  to  God  by  Christ,  confessing  and  forsaking  your 
sins ;  Upon  which,  we  shall  with  joy  restore  you  to  our  Charity  and 
Communion ;  which  may  God  grant  of  his  great  mercy  in  Christ  Jesus 
our  Lord.     Amen. 

Joseph  Sewall 
Thomas  Prince. 

Lord's  Day  April  i.  1744. 

The  Brethren  of  the  Church  and  Congregation  stayed  and  voted, 
That  the  Deacons  supply  the  Poor  of  the  Church  and  congregation 
with  wood  and  other  necessaries  as  shall  be  found  needful  out  of  the 
remainder  of  the  last  collection  for  charitable  and  pious  uses. 

J.  Sewall. 


LETTER   TO    THE  SEPARATISTS.  54 1 

April  22  1744. 

The  Brethren  of  the  Church  were  stay'd. 

The  Pastors  with  the  Committee  appointed  by  this  Church  to  Dis- 
course with  the  three  Brethren  who  lately  sent  a  letter  to  the  church 
signifying  they  had  embodied  into  a  church  state  with  others,  and 
asking  a  Dismission  from  the  Church  &c  ;  and  to  offer  our  Thoughts 
to  the  church  concerning  them,  make  our  Report  as  follows  — 

That  we  have  met  several  times  about  this  affair,  and  have  en- 
deavour'd  to  convince  and  reclaim  them,  but  in  vain  ;  And  therefore 
humbly  propose  that  such  a  letter  as  this  be  sent  in  the  Name  of  the 
Church  to  the  said  Brethren  in  answer  to  theirs,  if  the  Church  see 
cause  : 

Which  proposed  letter  is  as  follows, 

Brethren 

Whereas  you  have  for  a  considerable  time  separated  yourselves  from 
us,  after  you  had  solemnly  promised  to  walk  with  this  Church  of 
Christ  in  due  submission  to,  and  attendance  upon  all  the  Orders  and 
Ordinances  of  the  Gospel ;  and  have  lately  informed  us  by  a  Letter 
that  you  had  proceeded  to  embody  with  others  into  a  Church  State, 
and  then  not  only  asked  a  Dismission  from  us,  but  also  our  approba- 
tion of  the  work  you  were  engaged  in  : 

These  are  to  signify  unto  you,  that  we  are  grieved  and  offended  with 
you  for  this  your  Conduct,  apprehending  it  to  be  contrary  to  the  word 
of  God.  Rom.  14.  19.  Let  us  therefore  follow  after  the  things  that 
make  for  peace  ;  and  things  wherewith  one  may  edifie  another.  16.  17. 
Now  I  beseech  you,  brethren,  mark  them  which  cause  Divisions  and 
Offences,  contrary  to  the  Doctrine  which  ye  have  learned  ;  and  avoid 
them.  1  Cor.  12.  25.  That  there  should  be  no  Schism  in  the  body, 
but  that  the  members  should  have  the  same  care  over  one  another. 
Eph.  4.  1.  23.  I  therefore  the  prisoner  of  the  Lord,  beseech  you  that 
ye  walk  worthy  of  the  vocation  wherewith  ye  are  called,  with  all  low- 
liness and  meekness,  with  long  suffering,  forbearing  one  another  in 
love  ;  endeavouring  to  keep  the  unity  of  the  Spirit  in  the  bond  of 
peace.  Heb.  10,  25.  Not  forsaking  the  assembling  of  ourselves 
together,  as  the  manner  of  some  is .  And  contrary  to  our  Plat- 
form of  Discipline  Chap  13.  S.  1.  2.  5.  and  opposite  to  that  spirit  of 
Christian  Charity  and  meekness,  watchfull  care  over,  and  tender  con- 
cern for  the  welfare  of  this  Church,  which  our  glorious  Head  and 
Lord  requires  of  all  the  Members,  and  accordingly  we  judge  that  your 
Departure  from  us  is  unsafe  and  sinfull,  and  may  not  consent  unto  it : 
But  earnestly  exhort  and  advise  you  to  search  your  Hearts  and  Ways, 
and  return  to  your  Duty. 

And  we  beseech  our  most  mercifull  God  to  humble  you  for,  and  for- 
give the  sins  committed  in  an  Hour  of  Temptation  ;  and  turn  you  from 


542  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

the  Error  of  your  ways  ;  as  also  to  over-rule  all  events  to  the  Honour 
of  his  Name,  and  advancement  of  the  Kingdom  of  our  Lord  Jesus,  to 
whom  be  glory  for  ever  Amen. 

This  Letter  was  voted  and  sent  to  our  said  Brethren 
April  24  1744 

Sign'd 

Joseph  Sewall 
Thomas  Prince 
Pastors  of  the  South  Chh  in  Boston 
in  the  Name  of  the  said  Chh. 
Superscribed  to 

Messrs.  John  Gridley 

William  Storey 
William  Ritchie  Love. 

The  Committee  above  mentioned  are,  The  Hon'ble  Ezekiel  Lewis, 
Josiah  Willard,  Anthony  Stoddard,  Samuel  Welles,  Thomas  Cushing 
Esqs  and  the  Deacons.1 

May  6.  1744 

The  Church  stay'd. 

A  Letter  was  read  from  several  Brethren  of  the  first  Church  in  New- 
bury desiring  our  assistance  in  council  under  their  present  difficulties  : 
Upon  which  some  of  the  Brethren  observed  that  we  were  not  suf- 
ficiently informed  that  all  proper  means  had  been  used  to  heal  their 
differences  among  themselves  ;  and  it  was  then  Voted  —  that  the  Pas- 
tors with  the  Committee  above  named  should  write  to  them  to  obtain 
further  light  as  to  their  affairs,  which  was  done  accordingly  ;  Upon 
which  they  signified  to  us  by  Letter,  that  they  would  not  have  us  take 
the  trouble  of  sending  untill  we  should  hear  further  from  them. 

Joseph  Sewall. 

In  1743  several  members  of  the  First  and  Third  churches  in 
Newbury,  of  which  the  Rev.  Christopher  Toppan  and  the  Rev. 
John  Lowell 2  were  the  respective  pastors,  seceded,  and  soon 

1  [This  separatist  church   appears  to  the  negative."     Mr.  Ephraim  Clark  was 

have  been  formed  July  18,  1743.      In  a  ordained  pastor  of  this  church  in  1748. 

narrative  to  which  we  shall  refer  again  Mr.  John  Cleaveland  preached  for  it  for 

in  the  next  chapter,  it  is  said  :    "  After  a  time,  soon  after  leaving  Yale  College, 

we  had  thus  embodied,  we  thought  it  our  and   received  a  call  from   it,  which  he 

duty  to  seek  some  faithful  minister  to  go  declined.     He  was  settled,  in  1747,  over 

before  us  as  a  pastor,  and  accordingly  the  church  in  what  is  now  Essex,  formed 

applied  to  several,  who  from  time  to  time  by  a  secession  from  the  parish,  of  which 

preached  with  us,  till  at  length  we  invited  the  Rev.  Theophilus  Pickering  was  min- 

and  called  the  Rev.  Mr.  Andrew  Croswell,  ister.] 

to  take    the   pastoral    care  of   us ;   who  -  Grandfather   of    the    Rev.    Charles 

finally  gave  us  an  unexpected  answer  in  Lowell,  of  the  West  Church,  Boston. 


TROUBLES  IN  NEWBURY.  543 

after  formed  another  church.1  On  the  24th  of  July,  1744,  an  ex 
parte  council,  consisting  of  eight  churches,  met  at  the  call  of  the 
seceding  brethren  of  the  First  Church.  This  was  the  council  to 
which  the  South  Church  was  invited,  and  in  reference  to  the 
objects  of  which  it  wanted  further  light.  In  its  Result  the  coun- 
cil justified  the  brethren  who  had  appealed  to  it,  and  condemned 
Mr.  Toppan  ;  it  advised  these  brethren  to  hearken  to  any  reason- 
able  method  whereby  their  final  separation  from  the  church  and 
parish  might  be  prevented,  and  concluded  by  saying  :  "  However 
we  utterly  disapprove  of  unnecessary  separations  as  partaking 
of  great  guilt  and  accompanied  with  great  scandal,  yet  looking 
upon  your  circumstances  as  extraordinary  and  deplorable,  we 
cannot  think  you  blameworthy,  if  with  good  advice  you  seek 
more  wholesome  food  for  your  souls  and  put  yourselves  under 
the  watch  of  a  shepherd  in  whom  you  can  confide." 

Another  ex  parte  council  met  August  31,  at  the  call  of  Mr. 
Toppan's  friends,  which  acquitted  the  pastor  of  nearly  all  the 
allegations  brought  against  him  by  the  aggrieved  brethren,  cen- 
sured these  brethren,  and  advised  them  to  return  to  the  bosom 
of  the  church,  and  to  the  pastoral  care  of  him  who  had  been  so 
faithful  and  useful  a  pastor  over  them  for  nearly  fifty  years.2 
This  advice  was  not  taken ;  and  the  brethren,  nineteen  in  num- 
ber, formed  a  church,  January  3,  1746,  which  is  now  the  First 
Presbyterian  Church  of  Newburyport.  Two  or  three  months 
later,  thirty-eight  brethren  of  the  Third  Church,  having  been  un- 
able to  obtain  letters  of  dismission  and  recommendation,  were 
received  without  letters  into  the  new  church,  of  which  the  Rev. 
Jonathan  Parsons,  of  Lyme,  Connecticut,  had  become  the  min- 
ister.3 Mr.  Parsons  was  a  warm  personal  friend  of  Mr.  White- 
field,  who  died  at  his  house  in  1770. 

Lord's  day,  May  10,  1744. 

The  Brethren  of  the  church  stay'd. 

A  Letter  was  communicated  from  the  Church  in  Newport  of  which 

1  The  Rev.  Thomas  Smith  wrote  in  his  nent.     The  consequence  of  this  state  of 

journal    (see  Coffin's  History),  February  things,  was  divisions  and  contentions  in 

2,    1745  :  all  the  churches,  and  many  years  elapsed 

"  The     enthusiasm   in    favor    of    the  before  the  storm  became  a  calm." 

expedition    against    Louisburg    was    ex-  2  Coffin's  History  of  Newbury,  p.  214. 

traordinary,     and      almost     unanimous,  3  In  1749,  the  petition  of  one  hundred 

whilst   on    the  subject   of  the   religious  and  seventy-nine   persons,   belonging  to 

tenets  and  practices    of  Whitefield  and  Mr.  Parsons's  congregation,  asking  to  be 

his   adherents,   the   community   was  di-  freed  from  paying  taxes  to  the  First  and 

vided,  and  almost  every  man  was  either  Third  parishes,  was    dismissed    by  the 

an  ardent  advocate  or  a  decided  oppo-  General  Court.     Ibid.,  p.  218. 


544  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD   SOUTH   CHURCH. 

the  Rev'd  Mr.  Nathanael  Clap  is  Pastor,  desiring  our  Assistance  at  the 
Ordination  of  Mr.  Jonathan  Helyer  to  the  Pastoral  Office. 

The  Pastors  declared  that  they  could  not  conveniently  attend  the 
service  at  the  time  proposed,  which  Excuse  was  accepted,  and  they 
were  desired  to  signify  it  to  said  church  in  a  Letter  which  was  done 
accordingly.1 

June  17.  1744. 

The  church  stay'd  :  And  upon  reading  a  Letter  to  us,  signed  John 
Gridley,  William  Story,  William  Richie  Love, 

Voted  —  that  the  former  committee  (above  named)  be  appointed  to 
join  with  our  Pastors  in  considering  said  Letter,  and  make  Report  to 
the  church  so  soon  as  conveniently  may  be.  J.  Sewall. 

At  a  Meeting  of  the  Brethren  of  the  Church  and  Congregation 

June  18.  1744. 

The  Report  of  the  Committee  appointed  to  view  the  Ministerial 
Houses  and  other  Estate,  Read. 

The  Fences  ordered  to  be  repaired,  but  not  so  high  as  now,  except 
in  the  front,  next  the  street. 

Voted  —  That  there  be  a  committee  of  five  persons  viz.  S.  Welles, 
A.  Oliver  Esqrs.  Capt  J.  Armitage,  Mr.  T.  Foster  and  Mr.  J.  Kneeland, 
to  view  Mr.  Prince's  House,  make  an  estimate,  and  report  to  the  Breth- 
ren, how  much  money  will  be  necessary  to  repair  the  House  for  next 
Winter,  and  what  it  will  cost  to  repair  it  so  as  to  last  for  ten  or  twenty 
years ;  this  report  to  be  made  this  day  three  weeks.  And  the  Dea- 
cons are  desired  to  take  care  to  repair  the  slating,  fences  and  steeple, 
and  provide  a  Ladder. 

The  meeting  then  adjourned  to  this  day  three  weeks. 

Then  met  Monday,  July  9.  1744. 

And  the  Report  of  the  Committee  being  read,  Voted 

That  said  committee  be  desired  to  procure  ground  cells  and  other 
things  necessary  to  lay  open  Mr.  Prince's  House,  so  as  to  put  in  new 
cells,  and  close  it  up  again,  if  they  find  studs,  Joyce,  and  summers  in 
such  a  condition  as  that  it  may  be  worth  while  to  come  into  the 
larger  repair.  And  make  report  to  the  Brethren  for  further  direc- 
tion. 

1  [Mr.  Clap  was  the  first  minister  to  rejoiced  much  in  spirit  at  the  sight  of 
welcome  Mr.  Whitefield  on  his  arrival  me,  and  prayed  most  affectionately  for  a 
in  New  England,  September  14,  1740,  blessing  on  my  coming  to  New  England." 
who  says  of  him,  he  was  "  the  most  ven-  Mr.  Clap  graduated  at  Cambridge  in 
erable  man  I  ever  saw  in  my  life.  He  1690,  and  died  in  1745. 
looked  like  a  good  old  Puritan,  and  gave  Mr.  Helyer  graduated  at  Cambridge 
me  an  idea  of  what  stamp  those  men  in  1738,  in  the  same  class  with  Oxen- 
were  who  first  settled  New  England,  bridge  Thacher,  Josiah  Crocker,  and 
His  countenance  was  very  heavenly.    He  Benjamin  Adams.     He  died  in  1745.] 


A    SECOND   LETTER.  545 

N.  B.  The  Report  of  the  Committee  in  several  articles,  was,  that 
the  expense  of  repairing  the  House  in  which  the  Rev'd  Mr.  Prince 
dwells,  would  amount  to  £325.  o.  o.  O.  Tenor.  And  that  £$0.  O.  T. 
will  make  said  House  habitable  till  next  summer. 

July  16.  1744 

At  a  Meeting  etc.  Voted  —  The  larger  Report  of  the  Committee  be 
accepted  —  and  that  Messrs  Jer.  Belknap,  John  Comrin,  Jos.  Jackson 
and  John  Scollay  be  a  committee  to  collect  the  money  for  repairing 
the  Ministry  Houses  etc  and  that  Sam.  Welles  Esq.  Edw.  Winslow 
Esq.  and  Capt.  J.  Armitage  be  a  committee  to  see  the  repairs  as  above 
effected  ;  and  that  John  Hunt  Esq.  be  Treasurer  to  receive  the  money 
that  shall  be  collected,  and  pay  it  according  to  the  order  of  said  com- 
mittee. Joseph  Sewall. 

The  Pastors  with  the  Committee1  met  accordingly  [see  June  17]  con- 
sider'd  said  letter,  and  drew  up  an  answer  which  was  offered  at  a 
church  Meeting  July  15  1744,  accepted,  and  voted  to  be  sent  to  said 
Brethren  signed  by  the  Pastors  in  the  name  of  the  Church,  And  is 
as  follows, 

Brethren 

We  have  received  your  Second  Letter  and  are  grieved  to  find  that  you 
continue  to  justify  your  conduct  in  separating  from  us,  and  embody- 
ing as  you  say  into  a  church  state  with  others ;  though  you  were  under 
prior  Obligation  to  us  by  your  Church  Covenant,  which  you  could 
not  be  released  from  by  such  a  confederation  without  our  consent  or 
knowledge. 

Indeed  you  say  that  you  moved  to  the  Revd  Pastors  again  and 
again  for  a  Dismission  —  But  then,  when  in  this  peculiar  case,  they 
required  your  reasons  for  such  a  proceeding  in  writing,  that  they 
might  lay  them  before  the  Church  ;  You  refused  till  such  time  as 
you  embodied  with  others,  by  which  action  you  declare  that  you  did 
not  think  yourselves  bound  in  conscience  to  give  the  reasons  of  your 
conduct  to  this  church,  as  was  justly  desired  of  you,  and  so  in  an 
orderly  manner  to  seek  a  Dismission. 

And  whereas  you  have  given  us  no  reasonable  satisfaction  for  your 
unwarrantable  Separation  from  us,  and  we  apprehend  that  this  sepa- 
ration is  not  likely  to  serve  your  Spiritual  Edification,  but  much  the 
contrary ;  We  abide  by  our  Judgment  and  Advice  given  you  in  our 
first  Letter,  and  can  by  no  means  doe  any  thing  to  encourage  your 
irregular  Proceedings.  We  again  Beseech  our  merciful  God  to  turn 
you  from  the  Error  of  your  Ways,  and  Forgive  you  for  Christ's  sake  ; 
and  it  is  our  repeated  and  earnest  prayer  that  God  would  overrule  all 

1  [For  the  names  of  this  committee  see  ante,  p.  542.] 


546  HISTORY  OF   THE    OLD   SOUTH   CHURCH. 

events  to  the  Honour  of  his  Name  and  advancement  of  the  Kingdom 
of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  to  whom  be  glory  forever  Amen. 
Boston  July  17.  1744 

Joseph  Sewall 
Thomas  Prince 
Pastors  of  the  chh  in  the  name 
of  said  chh. 
To  Messrs.  John  Gridley,  William  Story  and  Wm  Richey  Love 

Joseph  Sewall. 
Lords  Day  Septr.  2.  1744. 

A  Letter  desiring  our  assistance  in  Council,  from  the  Brethren  that 
have  separated  from  the  church  in  New  Haven,  under  the  Pastoral 
care  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Noyes  ;  was  readd,  and  after  Discourse  had  upon 
it,  Voted,  that  a  Letter  be  sent  signifying  that  we  have  not  light  to 
grant  their  Request. 

A  Letter  was  sent  accordingly,  signed  by  the  Pastors,  in  which  the 
great  Distance  of  the  way  and  our  small  acquaintance  with  their  affairs, 
were  hinted  as  considerations  discouraging  our  sending  to  the  Council 
proposed.  Joseph  Sewall. 

This  separatist  movement  in  New  Haven  was  the  result  of 
Mr.  Davenport's  teaching  there.  On  his  arrival  in  the  town  in 
the  autumn  of  1741,  "  his  descent  from  the  famous  John  Daven- 
port, the  first  pastor  of  that  church,  his  consanguinity  with 
several  reputable  families,  and  especially  his  reputation  for 
uncommon  sanctity  and  usefulness,  procured  him  a  favorable 
reception.  Mr.  Noyes,  the  pastor  of  the  church,  admitted  him 
to  his  pulpit,  and  there  appears  to  have  been  no  visible  oppo- 
sition till  he  pronounced  Mr.  Noyes  an  unconverted  man.  On 
this,  Mr.  Noyes  called  a  meeting  of  several  friends,  September 
21,  among  whom  were  the  principal  officers  of  Yale  College,  to 
whom  Davenport  gave  some  very  frivolous  reasons  for  believing 
that  Mr.  Noyes  was  unconverted.  The  result  was  that  he  was 
thenceforth  excluded  from  the  pulpit.  How  long  he  continued 
there  is  uncertain  ;  but  after  his  departure,  and  before  the  end 
of  the  year,  his  followers  organized  a  separate  church,  which, 
after  several  years  of  controversy,  numerous  councils,  and  some 
confessions,  came  to  be  acknowledged  as  a  regular  church,  and 
still  subsists  and  flourishes."  1 

Lord's  Day,  Novr.  11.  1744. 

The  Brethren  of  the  Church  and  Congregation  were  stay'd  and 
Voted, 

That  there  be   a  collection  for  charitable  and  pious  uses  on  the 

1   TAe  Great  Awakening,  p.  237.     Bacon's  Historical  Discourses,  pp.  212-220. 


DEBORAH  PRINCE.  $47 

Anniversary  Thanksgiving  Nov  22.  Instant;  And  that  the  rest  of  the 
Congregation  be  notified  of  this  vote,  and  desired  to  assist  in  said 
collection.  Joseph  Sewall. 

Anniversary  Thanksgiving  Novr.  22  1744 

Collected.     Unappropriated         .         .         .  114.  2.  2 

Appropriated  to  the  pious  and  charit.  Fund  .  5.  o.  o 

To  buy  Necessaries  for  the  Poor  .         .         .       24.  o.  o 

To  widow  Mary  Alden 1  .         .         .         .  .  4.  o.  o 

147.  2.  2 

We  have  quoted  freely  from  Mr.  Prince's  narrative  of  these 
times.  It  will  be  interesting,  we  think,  to  insert  here  part  of  a 
letter  written  by  his  gifted  daughter  Deborah  to  her  English 
relatives,  under  date  of  March  4,  1743.  In  it  she  gives  an 
intelligent  account  of  the  extent  and  power  of  the  revival,  and 
of  the  opposition  which  it  encountered.2 

In  my  last  letter  to  my  grandmother,  which  was  above  two  years 
ago,  I  gave  some  account  of  the  revival  of  religion  in  this  town.  Since 
which  it  has  spread  from  one  end  of  the  land  unto  the  other ;  and 
that  cry,  What  must  we  do  to  be  saved  ?  has  been  made  almost  uni- 
versally in  many  places. 

Without  doubt  you  have  heard  various  reports  concerning  this 
glorious  appearance,  some  perhaps  greatly  to  its  disadvantage.  For 
it  is  represented  in  the  most  odious  colours  by  its  enemies,  from  the 
pulpit  and  press.  Some  call  it  the  work  of  the  Devil ;  others,  who 
deny  revelation,  call  it  Distraction ;  and  others  represent  it  as  mere 
Mechanism.  And  they  spare  neither  cost  nor  pains  to  bring  others 
to  their  various  opinions.  But  He  that  sits  in  the  heavens  laughs  at 
their  vain  attempts,  and  often  discovers  their  deep  laid  plots,  and 
makes  them  turn  out  to  the  advancement  of  that  cause  which  they  so 
violently  oppose. 

But  how  much  soever  you  have  heard  of  the  errors  and  disorders,  L 
believe  the  one  half  of  the  glory  appearing  in  this  land  has  not  been 
told  you.  Indeed  it  is  inexpressible;  so  great,  that  it  is  the  opinion 
of  many  eminent  divines,  that  it  is  the  dawning  of  that  glorious  day, 

1  [Mary  Alden  was  the  wife  of  Wil-  Dr.  Wisner's  History,  p.  ill.  Mr. 
Ham,  son  of  the  second  John  Alden,  who  Prince's  other  daughters  were,  Mercy, 
died  in  1702.]  who   joined    the    church    November   6, 

2  Deborah  Prince  became  a  member  1743,  and  died  December  18,  1752,  aged 
of  the  South  Church  August  19,  1739,  twenty-seven;  Sarah,  who  joined  the 
and  died  July  20,  1744,  in  her  twenty-  church  April  21,  1745,  married  Moses 
first  year.  Her  father  obtained  the  Gill  in  1759,  and  died  August  5,  1771, 
above  letter  from  England  after  her  aged  forty-three ;  and  Grace,  who  died  in 
death.     It  is  printed  in  the  Appendix  to  1743,  in  infancy. 


548  HISTORY  OF   THE   OLD   SOUTH   CHURCH. 

when  the  whole  earth  shall  be  filled  with  the  knowledge  of  the  Lord 
as  the  waters  cover  the  sea.  It  seems  as  if  the  Lord  was  hastily 
calling  in  his  elect.  Sometimes  a  new  face  of  things  spreads  over  a 
whole  town  in  a  week  or  two's  time.  Sometimes  there  has  been  an 
hundred  struck  with  convictions  together  in  one  sermon.  Yea,  at 
Portsmouth,  it  was  reckoned  there  was  a  thousand  awakened  to  a  deep 
concern  about  their  souls,  in  about  three  days  time.  And  great  num- 
bers have  come  out  of  their  distress,  lively,  zealous,  meek  and  humble 
Christians. 

It  has  been  very  remarkable  at  Middleborough,  where  my  uncle 
Thacher l  lives ;  who,  before  this,  was  so  discouraged  with  his  un- 
successfulness  that  he  was  upon  the  point  of  leaving  his  people. 
Sometimes  there  would  not  be  above  two  or  three  in  a  year  join  to 
the  church  :  and  now,  in  a  little  more  than  half  a  year,  he  has  taken 
in  an  hundred  and  fifty ;  the  most  of  whom  give  a  very  satisfactory 
account  of  the  work  of  God  upon  their  souls.  It  has  been  as  remark- 
able in  many  other  places.  One  minister  in  the  country  told  my 
father,  that  there  was  not  one  family  in  his  parts  but  had  one  or  more 
in  it  awakened.  Another  writes  him  word  that,  in  another  town,  there 
were  two  hundred  hopefully  converted  in  two  months  time.  Vast 
numbers  of  Indians  have,  to  all  appearance,  been  called  out  of  dark- 
ness into  his  marvellous  light. 

In  this  day  of  great  grace,  in  one  place,  where  great  numbers  of 
them  live,  who  would  hear  nothing  of  the  Gospel,  but  were  most  obsti- 
nately bent  against  it,  and  zealous  for  the  worship  of  their  false  gods, 
when  one  of  our  zealous  ministers  went  to  preach,  at  first  they  were 
very  surly  and  would  hear  nothing,  but  told  the  minister  they  did  not 
want  him  there.  But  he,  inspired  with  a  divine  courage  and  a  most 
ardent  love  to  Christ  and  their  perishing  souls,  would  not  leave  them 

1  [The  Rev.  Peter  Thacher,  of  Middle-  course,  which  was  on  the  8th  of  the 
borough,  was  a  son  of  the  Rev.  Peter  month,  by  telling  his  people  that  he  did 
Thacher,  of  Milton,  cousin  of  the  Rev.  not  know  whether  he  should  ever  see  or 
Peter  Thacher,  of  Weymouth  and  Bos-  speak  to  them  again.  Returning  home, 
ton,  and  grandson  of  the  Rev.  Thomas  he  told  his  wife  he  did  not  know  but  his 
Thacher,  first  minister  of  the  South  work  was  done.  He  was  restless  that 
Church.  He  married  Mary,  daughter  of  night,  and  rapidly  declined  till  his  death, 
Samuel  Prince,  and  sister  of  the  Rev.  which  was  on  the  Sabbath,  April  22d. 
Thomas  Prince.  He  was  ordained  at  '  On  Wednesday  afternoon,'  says  the 
the  age  of  twenty-one,  the  church  at  that  Rev.  Mr.  Prince,  '  was  such  an  extraor- 
time  having  only  twenty  members.  He  dinary  confluence  from  the  neighbour- 
did  not  long  survive  the  great  revival  of  ing  towns,  as  was  never  seen  in  the  place 
1 741  and  1742.  "In  his  own  spirit,  the  before,  to  attend  the  funeral.  When  the 
revival  never  suffered  any  abatement,  but  coffin  was  carried  out,  there  was  great 
rather  grew  brighter,  till  its  light  was  lost  weeping.  —  When  set  on  the  edge  of  the 
among  the  glories  of  the  heavenly  world,  grave,  it  lay  there  some  time,  and  they 
During  the  first  week  in  April,  1744,  he  seemed  to  be  loath  to  let  him  down  ;  nor 
preached  to  his  own  people  and  at  Plym-  did  I  ever  see  so  many  weepers  before.'  " 
outh  eight  times;    closing  his   last    dis-  —  The  Great  Awakening,  pp.  175,  176.] 


DEBORAH  PRINCE'S  LETTER.  549 

so ;  but,  when  night  came  on,  laid  him  down  to  sleep  upon  the  ground 
in  one  of  their  wigwams.  And  though  he  was  in  danger  of  being  mur- 
der'd,  and  only  one  Englishman  with  him,  such  was  his  confidence  in 
God,  that  he  slept  very  securely;  and  when  waked  in  the  middle  of 
the  night,  by  the  Indians  getting  up  and  coming  into  the  wigwam  with 
their  large  sticks,  only  said  to  his  companion,  "  Brother,  if  the  Lord 
has  any  work  for  us  to  do,  we  are  immortal  till  it  is  done,  and  if  he 
has  not,  they  will  only  give  us  a  sweet  push  into  eternal  rest."  But 
the  Lord  suffered  them  not  to  hurt  them.  And  in  the  morning,  the 
minister  fell  to  exhorting  and  pleading  with  them,  with  so  much 
earnestness  and  affection  as  something  moved  them  ;  and  they  told 
him,  if  he  would  go  on  the  side  of  a  hill  where  there  was  no  snow  (it 
being  winter)  they  would  hear  him.  So  he  did ;  and  they  sent  and 
gathered  a  great  number  together.  And  while  he  was  saying  the  cxv 
Psalm,  of  the  vanity  of  the  idols  of  the  heathen,  they  were  convinced 
that  the  idols  which  they  and  their  fathers  had  worshipped  from  time 
immemorial,  were  no  gods,  and  asked  the  minister  what  they  must  do 
with  them.  He  told  them  they  must  burn  them  immediately.  Some 
of  them  ran  and  fetched  four  images,  which  they  said  they  and  their 
fathers  had  worshipped,  and  burnt  them,  with  indignation  at  their  own 
stupidity.  By  this  they  were  prepared  to  receive  the  Gospel ;  at  the 
preaching  of  which  great  numbers  were  brought  under  deep  conviction 
of  their  lost  condition  by  nature,  and  of  their  absolute  need  of  Christ. 
And  numbers  have  attained  to  a  joyful  discovery  of  his  all-sufficiency 
and  readiness  to  save  even  them,  and  give  a  clear  and  satisfying 
account  of  their  closing  with  him  by  faith  :  They  discover  a  great  dis- 
trust of  themselves  ;  and,  sensible  of  their  own  ignorance,  are  glad  of 
instruction,  and  very  earnest  to  learn  to  read,  that  they  may  know  the 
will  of  God  in  his  word.  This  is  the  Lord's  doing,  and  it  is  marvellous 
in  our  eyes.  I  could  not  forbear  giving  you  a  particular  account  of 
this  remarkable  occurrence,  it  was  so  pleasing.  But  I  must  conclude. 
So  numerous  are  the  triumphs  of  our  glorious  Redeemer  over  his 
enemies  in  this  day  of  his  power  and  grace,  it  would  fill  volumes  to  be 
particular. 

On  the  29th  of  May,  1744,  Deborah  Prince  was  "seized  on  a 
sudden  with  a  slow  fever,  and  upon  going  up  to  her  chamber 
drop'd  a  word,  as  if  she  should  never  come  down  alive."  She 
died  on  the  20th  of  July,  and  on  the  Lord's  day  after  her  funeral, 
her  father  preached  a  most  affecting  sermon,  which  was  printed, 
with  the  title,  "  The  Sovereign  God  Acknowledged  and  Blessed, 
both  in  Giving  and  Taking  away." 


CHAPTER   XI. 

1744-1749. 

MR.    WHITEFIELD'S    SECOND    VISIT.  THE     FRENCH    WARS.  THE 

SEPARATISTS. 


MR.  WHITEFIELD,  on  his  second  arrival  in  New  Eng- 
land, landed  at  York,  Maine,  October  19,  1744.  He  was 
accompanied  by  his  wife.  Mr.  Moody  called  upon  him,  and  said, 
"  Sir,  you  are,  first,  welcome  to  America  ;  secondly,  to  New 
England  ;  thirdly,  to  all  faithful  ministers  in  New  England  ; 
fourthly,  to  all  the  good  people  in  New  England  ;  fifthly,  to  all 
the  good  people  of  York  ;  and  sixthly,  and  lastly,  to  me,  dear  sir, 
less  than  the  least  of  all."  The  Christian  History  announced 
his  arrival,  and  added  "  that  his  intention  was,  to  pass  on  to 
Georgia  ;  and,  as  he  goes  on,  to  meddle  with  no  controversies, 
but  only  to  preach  up  the  parts  of  vital  piety  and  the  pure 
truths  of  the  gospel,  to  all  that  are  willing  to  hear  them."  He 
preached  at  York  and  at  Portsmouth  ;  at  the  latter  place  he  was 
taken  very  ill,  and  both  he  and  his  friends  thought  he  was  going 
to  die.     As  he  was  getting  ready  for  his  journey  to  Boston,  the 


MR.    WHITEFIELD'S  ARRIVAL.  55 1 

Rev.  William  Shurtleff,  a  classmate  of  Dr.  Sewall  and  Mr. 
Prince,  and  one  of  those  whose  names  had  been  appended  to 
the  Testimony  of  July  7,  1743,  wrote  :  "The  prejudices  of  most 
that  set  themselves  against  him  before  his  coming,  seem  to  be 
in  a  great  measure  abated,  and  in  some,  to  be  wholly  removed  ; 
and  there  is  no  open  opposition  made  to  him.  I  have  frequent  op- 
portunities of  being  with  him,  and  there  always  appears  in  him 
such  a  concern  for  the  advancement  of  the  Redeemer's  King- 
dom and  the  good  of  souls,  such  a  care  to  employ  his  whole 
time  to  these  purposes,  such  sweetness  of  disposition,  and  so 
much  of  the  temper  of  his  great  Lord  and  Master,  that  every 
time  I  see  him,  I  find  my  heart  further  drawn  out  towards 
him." 

In  the  Christian  History  we  have  the  following  announcement 
of  his  arrival  in  Boston  :  — 

Saturday,  November  24,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Whitefield  was  so  far  revived 
as  to  be  able  to  take  coach,  with  his  Consort,  and  set  out  from  Ports- 
mouth to  Boston  ;  Whither  he  came,  in  a  very  feeble  state,  the  Mon- 
day Evening  after :  since  which  he  has  been  able  to  preach  in  several 
of  our  largest  houses  of  public  Worship,  particularly  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Colman's,  Dr.  Sewall's,  Mr.  Webb's,  and  Mr.  Gee's,  to  crowded  as- 
semblies of  people,  and  to  great  and  growing  acceptance.  At  Dr. 
Colman's  desire,  and  the  consent  of  the  Church,  on  the  Lord's  day 
after  his  arrival,  he  administred  to  them  the  Holy  Communion.1 
And  last  Lord's  day  he  preached  for  the  venerable  Mr.  Cheever,  of 
Chelsea,  and  administred  the  Holy  Supper  there.  The  next  day 
preached  for  the  Rev.  Mr.  Emerson  of  Maiden.  Yesterday  he  set  out 
to  preach  at  some  towns  to  the  Northward  ;  proposes  to  return  hither 
the  next  Wednesday  Evening,  and,  after  a  few  days,  to  comply  with 
the  earnest  invitations  of  several  ministers,  to  go  and  preach  to  their 
congregations,  in  the  southern  parts  of  the  Province. 

1  [As  this  communion  service  was  af-  after  Sermon,   on   their   coming  to  the 

terward  the  occasion  of  severe  criticism,  Communion  Table,  only  address'd  them 

the  following  explanation  of  the  circum-  in  such  Terms  as  these — The  Rev.  Mr. 

stances  was  printed  in  the  Christian  His-  Whitefield  being  providentially  with  us, 

tory  (vol.  ii.  p.  376)  :"  The  Doctor  having  I  have  ask'd  him  to  administer  the  Or- 

such  an  Opinion  of  the  Catholick  Spirit  dinance.     And  the  Doctor  says,  that  by 

of  his  Church,  like  his  own,  had  desir'd  the    Countenances    of     the    People,    it 

Mr.  Whitefield  to  administer  for  him :  seem'd  to  him  to  be  universally  agreea- 

and  comformable  to  a  common  Practice  ble  to  them.     And  no  Objection  being 

of  getting  other  Ministers  to  join  in  the  made,  it  was  constructed  by  our  Inform- 

Administration,  he  thought  it   unneces-  ers    that  the    Church  consented    to    it, 

sary  in  a  formal  Manner  to  ask  the  Con-  and  which   we   think    was    constructed 

sent  of  the  Church,  and  having  plainly  justly.     However  this  we  leave  to  every 

intimated    his  Intention   in    his    Prayer  Reader's  Judgment."] 


552  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

He  comes  with  the  same  extraordinary  spirit  of  meekness,  sweetness, 
and  universal  benevolence  as  before  :  in  opposition  to  the  spirit  of  sep- 
aration and  biggotry,  is  still  for  holding  communion  with  all  Protestant 
Churches.  In  opposition  to  enthusiasm,  he  preaches  a  close  adher- 
ence to  the  Scriptures,  the  necessity  of  trying  all  impressions  by  them, 
and  of  rejecting  whatever  is  not  agreeable  to  them,  as  delusions.  In 
opposition  to  Antimonianism,  he  preaches  up  all  kinds  of  relative 
and  religious  duties,  though  to  be  performed  in  the  strength  of  Christ ; 
and,  in  short,  the  doctrines  of  the  Church  of  England,  and  the  first 
Fathers  of  this  Country.  As  before,  he  first  applies  himself  to  the 
understandings  of  his  hearers,  and  then  to  the  affections  :  and  the 
more  he  preaches,  the  more  he  convinces  people  of  their  mistakes 
about  him,  and  increases  their  satisfaction. 

We  attach  great  importance  to  this  testimony,  coming  from 
such  a  man  as  Mr.  Prince,  so  learned,  so  judicious,  so  thoroughly 
—  in  the  best  sense  —  a  man  of  the  world,  and  so  free  from  any 
tendency  to  fanaticism.  The  popular  enthusiasm  was  perhaps 
nearly  as  great  as  it  had  been  four  years  before  ;  yet  the  atmos- 
phere into  which  Mr.  Whitefield  had  now  come  was  very  differ- 
ent from  that  which  he  breathed  during  his  earlier  visit.  Death 
had  made  some  changes.  At  Brattle  Street  he  must  have 
missed  the  excellent  William  Cooper,  who  had  been  one  of  his 
first  and  most  faithful  friends ; :  and,  in  the  older  of  the  South 
Church  parsonages,  the  chair  of  Deborah  Prince  had  recently 
been  made  vacant.  Political  changes,  also,  had  taken  place. 
Jonathan  Belcher  was  not  now  in  the  Province  House,  and  his 
powerful  influence  was  no  longer  available  to  give  to  the  visitor 
the  highest  social  recognition  and  support.      How  valuable  this 

1  "On  Tuesday  Morning  the  13th  In-  1  Thess.  iv.  14,  and  Dr.  Colman  in  the 

stant,  [December  1743,]  died  in  the  50th  afternoon.     Mr.  Prince  preached  on  the 

Year  of  his  Age,  after  a  few  Days  Illness  next  Lord's   Day,  from    2  Timo.  iv.  7; 

of  an  Apoplectick  Paralytick  Disorder,  and  "  the  rest  of  the  ministers  followed, 

the  Rev.  Mr.  William    Cooper,  one    of  in   their    course,   preaching    with    great 

the  Pastors  of    the  Town,  to  the  inex-  affection." 

pressible  Grief    of    his    venerable    Col-  We  have  before  us  a  sermon  by  Mr. 

league,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Colman,  those  of  Cooper,  the  title  of  which  is  "  One  shall 

his  immediate  Charge,  and  indeed  of  all  be  taken  and  another  left,"  and  which, 

thro'  the  Town  and   Land,  who  have  a  the  title-page  tells  us,  was  preached  "  to 

Savour  for  experimental    Religion,  and  the  Old  South  Church  in  Boston,  March 

know  how  to  prize  the  godly  Man,  and  22,  1740-1,  A  Season  wherein  there  was 

the  faithful  Minister."  —  Christian  His-  a  remarkable  Display  of  the  sovereign 

tory,  vol.  i.  p.  337.  Grace  of  God  in  the  Work  of  Conver- 

Mr.  Prince  was  one  of  the  bearers  at  sion,  Publish'd  by  the  Request,  and  at 

Mr.  Cooper's    funeral.    Dr.  Sewall,    his  the  Expence  of  an  Honourable  Person 

brother-in-law,  preached  at  Brattle  Street  belonging  to  that  Church."    This  person, 

on  the  following  Sunday  morning,  from  as  we  suppose,  was  the  governor. 


DISCUSSIONS   AND   DIVISIONS.  553 

influence  had  been  previously  we  infer  from  a  paragraph  in  one 
of  his  letters  :  — 

He  honoured  me  with  great  honour,  and  the  clergy  paid  the  nod, 
and  obeyed.  In  many,  I  then  perceived,  it  was  quite  forced ;  and,  I 
think,  when  at  his  table,  I  whispered  to  some  one  and  said,  "  If  ever  I 
come  again,  many  of  those  who  now  seem  extremely  civil  will  turn  out 
my  open  enemies."  The  event  has  proved  that  in  this  respect,  I  have 
been  no  false  prophet.  You  know  where  it  is  written,  "  There  arose  a 
king  who  knew  not  Joseph."  But,  many  or  all,  my  poor  labours  are 
yet  attended  with  the  usual  blessings. 

It  was  inevitable  that  Mr.  Whitefield's  reappearance  in  New 
England  should  prove  to  be  the  occasion  of  warm  discussions 
and  sharp  divisions  among  the  clergy.  The  leading  men  had 
already  taken  sides  for  or  against  him  and  the  measures  which 
he  was  supposed  to  represent.  Testimonies  and  counter-testi- 
monies had  been  signed  and  published  ;  and  now  that  he  was 
come  hither  again,  the  practical  question  presented  itself  to 
every  minister  of  a  parish  as  to  the  kind  of  reception  that 
should  be  accorded  to  him.  Should  he,  or  should  he  not,  be  in- 
vited to  the  pulpit  ?  This  question  was  promptly  answered  in 
the  affirmative  by  several  of  the  Boston  pastors,  and  some  of  the 
largest  meeting-houses  in  the  town  were  opened  to  him.  The 
Boston  pastors  were  not  unanimous  ;  but  there  was  such  a  de- 
cided majority  of  them  in  his  favor  that  the  influence  of  the 
town,  as  a  whole,  was  felt  to  be  on  his  side.  Hence  a  remon- 
strance was  addressed  to  the  associated  ministers  of  Boston 
and  Charlestown  by  two  "  neighboring  associations  of  ministers 
in  the  country."  It  was  dated  December  26,  1744,  and  the  first 
signatures,  representing  the  two  bodies,  were  those  of  Caleb 
Cushing,  of  Salisbury,  and  John  Barnard,  of  Andover.1  The 
signers  disclaimed  all  desire  to  dictate  to  the  Boston  ministers 

1  The  members  of  the  first  of  these  The  members  of  the  second  were :  John 

associations  were:  Caleb  Cushing  (1692),  Barnard  (1709),  of  Andover;  Joseph  Par- 

of  Salisbury ;  Joseph  Whipple  (1720),  of  sons  (1720)  and  William  Balch  (1724),  of 

Hampton  Falls  ;  John  Lowell  (1721),  of  Bradford;     James    Cushing    (1725),   of 

Newbury;     Paine    Wingate     (1723),    of  Haverhill;  Christopher  Sargeant  (1725), 

Amesbury;    Jeremiah    Fogg  (1730),  of  of   Methuen ;    William  Johnson  (1727), 

Kensington;    Nathaniel    Gookin   (1731),  of   Newbury;  John    Cushing    (1729),   of 

of  North  Hampton,  N.  H. ;  Elisha  Od-  Boxford;    Thomas    Barnard    (1732),    of 

lin   (1731),  of  Amesbury;    Peter  Coffin  Newbury;  and  Edward  Barnard  ( 1736), 

(I733).  of    Kingston;    William  Parsons  of    Haverhill.     We   give   the    years    of 

(r735).  of  South  Hampton,  N.  H. ;  and  their  graduation  at  Cambridge,  to  show 

Samuel    Webster    (1737),   of  Salisbury,  approximately  their  age  at  this  period. 


554  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

as  to  what  preachers  they  should  receive  or  refuse,  but  justified 
their  public  remonstrance  in  this  instance  by  saying  that  the 
consequences  of  Mr.  Whitefield's  reception  would  not  be  con- 
fined to  the  congregations  which  he  might  address,  but  would 
be  general  and  far  reaching,  affecting  the  interests  of  many 
other  ministers  and  churches.  They  assumed,  as  an  undisputed 
truth,  that  great  and  grievous  disorders  had  prevailed  among  the 
churches,  through  the  influence  of  itinerant  preachers,  and  they 
asked  whether  Mr.  Whitefield  approved  of  these  disorders, 
whether  he  were  against  separations,  whether  he  were  an  enemy 
to  enthusiasm.  Further,  they  avowed  their  belief  that  his  former 
visit  had  done  more  harm  than  good.  In  the  expression  of 
this  opinion  they  were  consistent  with  themselves,  for  several 
of  them  had  been  opposers  of  the  revival  in  all  its  stages,  and 
the  name  of  no  one  of  them  had  appeared  among  its  friends. 

On  the  28th  of  December,  the  faculty  of  Harvard  College 
issued  a  Testimony  against  Mr.  Whitefield.  In  this  paper  he 
was  charged  with  being  an  enthusiast ;  that  is,  "  one  that  acts 
either  according  to  dreams,  or  some  sudden  impulses  and  im- 
pressions upon  his  mind,  which  he  fondly  imagines  to  be  from 
the  Spirit  of  God,  persuading  and  inclining  him  thereby  to  such 
and  such  actions."  He  was  criticised  for  the  harshness  of  his 
judgments,  as  expressed  in  his  published  journals,  for  example,  — 
that  "  the  generality  of  preachers  "  talked  of  "  an  unknown  and 
unfelt  Christ,"  and  that  "  as  for  the  universities  "  at  Cambridge 
and  New  Haven,  "  their  light  is  now  become  darkness,  darkness 
that  may  be  felt ; "  his  extempore  manner  of  preaching  was 
pronounced  "  by  no  means  proper  ;  "  and,  lastly,  the  faculty  said, 
"  We  think  it  our  duty  to  bear  our  strongest  testimony  against 
that  itinerant  way  of  preaching,  which  this  gentleman  was  the 
first  promoter  of  amongst  us,  and  still  delights  to  continue  in," 
and  they  quoted  against  him  his  own  remark :  "  God  seems  to 
show  me  it  is  my  duty  to  evangelize,  and  not  to  fix  in  any  par- 
ticular place."  Pastors  were  recommended,  therefore,  to  advise 
with  each  other  in  their  several  associations,  and  to  consider 
whether  it  were  not  high  time  to  make  a  stand  against  the  mis- 
chiefs which  seemed  to  be  threatening  the  churches. 

Two,  at  least,  of  the  faculty  of  Harvard  College  —  President 
Holyoke  and  Professor  Wigglesworth  —  had  been  favorable  to 
the  revival,  and  we  may  fairly  assume  that  they  did  not  intend, 
in  this  Testimony,  to  place  themselves  in  hostility  to  it.  Nor 
need  their  action   and  that  of  their  colleagues   be   attributed 


ACTION  AT   CAMBRIDGE.  555 

altogether  to  Mr.  Whitefield's  injudicious  strictures  upon  the 
colleges  and  the  clergy ;  for  President  Holyoke,  in  defending 
his  own  college  against  these  strictures,  after  their  first  publica- 
tion, had  courteously  said  that  he  doubted  not  those  who  had 
given  out  a  disadvantageous  report  had  done  it  "in  a  godly 
jealousy  for  the  churches  of  Christ,"  which  were  to  be  supplied 
from  the  colleges  with  their  future  ministers. 

At  an  association  meeting  at  Cambridge,  January  i,  1745, 
Mr.  Appleton  asked  his  ministerial  brethren  to  advise  him  with 
reference  to  a  request  made  to  him  by  a  number  of  his  church 
and  congregation  that  he  would  invite  Mr.  Whitefield  to  his 
pulpit.  Among  those  present  were  Mr.  Williams,  of  Weston, 
Mr.  Cotton,  of  Newton,  and  Mr.  Turell,  of  Medford,  who,  as 
well  as  Mr.  Appleton  himself,  had  not  hesitated  to  declare  that 
a  great  work  of  grace  had  been  witnessed  in  the  land.  "  After 
supplications  to  God,  and  mature  consideration  of  the  case  pro- 
posed, and  the  several  pleas  made  in  favor  of  said  request,  and 
the  state  of  the  town,  as  also  the  many  weighty  objections 
which  lie  against  the  said  Mr.  Whitefield  with  respect  to  his 
principles,  expressions  and  conduct,"  it  was  voted  unanimously 
that  it  was  not  advisable,  "  under  the  present  situation  of  things," 
that  Mr.  Appleton  invite  Mr.  Whitefield  to  preach  in  Cambridge, 
"  and  they  accordingly  declared,  each  of  them  for  themselves, 
that  they  would  not  invite  the  said  gentleman  into  their 
pulpits."  1 

For  the  changed  attitude  towards  Mr.  Whitefield  of  such  men 
as  Mr.  Holyoke,  Mr.  Appleton,  and  Mr.  Turell,  and  of  the  ven- 
erable Mr.  Walter,  of  Roxbury,  who  had  been  so  warm  in  his 
commendations  at  Governor  Belcher's  table,  but  who  gave  in 
his  adhesion  to  the  views  of  the  three  associations  and  of  the 
college  faculty,  we  find  an  explanation,  which  seems  reason- 
able, in  the  following  sentences  of  a  careful  and  conservative 
writer  :2  — 

When  Whitefield  first  arrived  at  Boston,  he  came  at  the  invita- 
tion of  several  of  the  leading  pastors  and  others,  to  labor  a  few  weeks 

1  The  members  of  the  association  who  Medford;    Nicholas    Bowes    (1725),    of 

united  in  this  vote  were  :  John  Hancock  Bedford  ;  Samuel  Cooke  (1735),  of  Cam- 

(1689),  of  Lexington  ;  William  Williams  bridge.     We  give  here  also  the  years  of 

(1705),  of  Weston;  John  Cotton  (1710),  graduation  from  college. 

of  Newton;  Nathaniel  Appleton  (1712),  2  The   Rev.  Joseph  Tracy,  author  of 

of  Cambridge;  Warham  Williams  (17 19),  The  Great  Awakening,  whose  narrative, 

of   Waltham  ;    Seth    Storer    (1720),    of  as  well  as  the  various  "  Lives  "  of  White- 

Watertown;  Ebenezer  Turell  (1721),  of  field,  we  have  followed  in  the  text. 


556  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

with  them  and  for  them.  This  kind  of  "  itinerancy,"  if  it  might  be 
called  by  that  name,  had  always  been  practised  and  approved  in  New 
England.  It  continued  to  be  practised,  without  objection,  during  this 
revival,  by  Edwards  and  others.  After  Whitefield's  return  to  Eng- 
land, he  published  the  declaration  already  quoted  from  his  journal: 
"  God  seems  to  shew  me  it  is  my  duty  to  evangelize,  and  not  to  fix  in 
any  particular  place."  At  first,  partiality  for  its  author  prevented  any 
unfavorable  interpretation  of  this  language ;  but  experience  at  length 
taught  the  public  what  it  meant.  The  evangelizing  was  to  be  per- 
formed, not  in  regions  where  Christ  had  not  been  named,  or  where 
there  was  a  destitution  of  the  means  of  grace,  but  among  old  and 
established  churches,  even  if  supplied  with  able  and  faithful  pastors. 
A  divine  command  to  evangelize  in  such  places,  evidently  implied  a 
divine  command  to  pastors  and  people  in  such  places,  to  welcome  his 
evangelical  labors  •  so  that  whenever  he  should  come,  none  could  re- 
fuse him  without  being  guilty  of  rebellion  against  God.  Whitefield 
may  not  have  been  fully  aware  of  the  import  of  his  claim ;  but  Daven- 
port and  his  associates  understood  it,  and  felt  equally  sure  that  God 
had  called  them  also  to  evangelize  in  the  same  style.  They  went 
forth  accordingly,  and  demanded  admission  into  churches  where  they 
had  not  been  invited.  If  the  pastor  refused  to  welcome  them,  they 
appealed  at  once  to  his  people,  denounced  him  as  an  enemy  of  the 
work  of  God  and  a  child  of  the  devil,  who  was  leading  them  blindfold 
to  hell,  and  called  upon  them  to  separate  from  him.  Regard  for  eccle- 
siastical order  being  thus  trampled  under  foot,  there  was  nothing  to 
hinder  laymen  from  receiving  and  obeying  the  same  "  impressions."  A 
swarm  of  unordained  exhorters  accompanied  and  followed  the  ordained 
itinerants,  and  penetrated  into  still  other  parishes  and  neighbourhoods, 
spreading  enthusiasm  and  confusion  wherever  they  went.  And  for  all 
this,  both  the  itinerants  and  exhorters  quoted  Whitefield's  authority. 
This  led  to  a  reconsideration  of  the  whole  subject.  It  was  found  that 
Whitefield's  language  and  conduct  would  bear  the  construction  which 
his  enthusiastic  friends  had  put  upon  them.  His  extravagant  com- 
mendations of  Davenport  were  remembered.  His  regard  for  dreams 
and  impulses  were  called  to  mind.  And  then,  he  was  a  clergyman  of 
the  Church  of  England,  and  could  not  be  supposed  to  have  any  spe- 
cial regard  for  Congregational  church  order.  Though  he  must  have 
been  informed  of  the  disorders  committed  under  the  sanction  of  his 
name,  he  had  never  denounced  them,  or  authorized  any  of  his  corre- 
spondents to  do  it  for  him  ;  and  since  his  return,  though  frequently 
called  upon  to  speak,  he  preserved  an  unbroken  silence,  and  even 
allowed  the  Christian  History  to  announce  that  he  intended  to  take 
no  part  in  any  of  these  controversies.  From  all  this,  many  inferred 
that  he  approved  the  disorders  that  had  been  committed,  and  would 
labor  to  promote  them  ;  and  others  believed  that  they  grew  naturally 


THE    VA  RIO  US  "  TES  TI MONIES. "  557 

out  of  faults  of  which  he  had  been  guilty,  so  that  he  was,  in  an  im- 
portant sense,  "  the  blamable  cause  "  of  their  occurrence  ;  and  that,  as 
he  intended  to  continue  the  practice  of  the  same  faults,  his  labors 
would  promote  the  same  evils. 

On  the  15th  of  January,  the  "Sentiments  and  Resolution" 
of  an  association  at  Weymouth  were  ordered  to  be  printed. 
The  Rev.  Mr.  Eells,  of  Scituate,  was  a  member  of  this  body. 
Its  utterance  was  in  "  a  better  spirit,  or  at  least  in  a  better 
style,"  than  that  of  some  of  the  other  bodies.  The  signers  said 
in  reference  to  Mr.  Whitefield's  itinerancy  :  "  Whatever  charity 
may  prompt  us  to  think  of  the  honesty  of  his  design,  yet  we 
cannot  but  disapprove  of  him  as  an  itinerant  preacher.  We 
know  not  any  such  officer  appointed  by  Christ,  the  Head  of  the 
church,  nor  what  warrant  Mr.  Whitefield  can  plead,  besides  his 
own  impulses  and  impressions,  for  his  acting  in  that  capacity." 
They  were  surprised  and  grieved,  also,  that  he,  a  priest  of  the 
Church  of  England,  should  administer  the  Lord's  Supper  in 
Congregational  churches. 

Late  in  the  same  month,  a  pamphlet  appeared,  containing  the 
Testimony  of  an  association  convened  at  Marlborough,  and  that 
of  a  number  of  ministers  in  the  county  of  Bristol.  These  were 
in  a  worse  spirit  than  any  that  had  been  previously  published. 
We  need  not  quote  from  them,  but  no  proof  has  been  found 
that  any  of  those  who  signed  them  had  ever  been  friends  of  the 
revival.  The  total  number  of  pastors  who  signed  the  various 
testimonies  to  which  we  have  referred  was  sixty-three.  "  Of 
these,  nine  are  known  to  have  been  early  friends  and  promoters 
of  the  revival,  and  it  is  probable  that  others  were  on  the  same 
side  ;  but  concerning  the  early  sentiments  of  the  greater  part 
of  the  sixty-three  there  is  no  proof,  while  it  is  certain  that  some 
of  them  were  opposers  from  the  beginning." 

In  the  mean  time,  Mr.  Whitefield's  friends  among  the  Boston 
ministers  did  not  waver.  Mr.  Prince,  Mr.  Webb,  Mr.  Foxcroft, 
and  Mr.  Gee  were  his  constant  advisers.  Mr.  Foxcroft  and  his 
colleague,  Dr.  Chauncy,  were  on  opposite  sides  in  the  contro- 
versy, but  their  personal  relations  do  not  seem  to  have  been 
disturbed  in  consequence.1      The  former  was  in  an  enfeebled 

1  When    Mr.   Foxcroft    died   in   1769,  ing  that  he  was  righteous  in  the  eye  of  a 

Dr.  Chauncy  said  of  him  in  his  funeral  strict  law,  he  accounted  himself  an  un- 

sermon  :  "  He  was  a  real  good  Christian ;  profitable  servant ;  fixing  his  dependence, 

a  partaker  of  the   Holy  Ghost ;  uniform  not  on  his  own  worthiness,  not  on  any 

in  his  walk  with  God  in  the  way  of  his  works    of    righteousness   which    he    had 

commandments,  though,  instead  of  trust-  done,  but  on  the  mercy  of  God  and  the 


55§  HISTORY  OF   THE    OLD   SOUTH   CHURCH. 

state  of  health,  as  the  result  of  an  attack  of  paralysis  nine  years 
before,  and  although  he  continued  to  preach  to  the  time  of  his 
death,  his  more  sturdy  associate  must  have  been  able  to  exer- 
cise a  predominating  influence  in  the  affairs  of  their  parish.  The 
latter  succeeded  in  keeping  Mr.  Whitefield  out  of  his  pulpit, 
when  it  was  proposed  to  ask  him  to  preach  the  Thursday 
Lecture.  Mr.  Prince  wrote  to  Dr.  Chauncy  on  Wednesday, 
January  30,  1744-5  :  — 

I  desire  to  know  whether  you  judge  there  is  any  need  of  my  asking 
your  consent  to  my  inviting  a  minister  to  preach  my  Lecture  at  the 
Old  Brick.     In  answering  which  you  will  oblige 

Your  humble  servant. 

Dr.  Chauncy  replied  on  the  same  day :  — 

Rev.  Sir, 

In  answer  to  your  question,  I  would  ask  you  another,  viz.  whether 
you  would  express  a  suitable  regard  to  me,  and  some  others  who 
statedly  attend  the  Thursday  lecture,  and  are  united  with  you  in  carry- 
ing it  on,  to  ask  a  gentleman  to  preach  it,  whose  conduct  has  been 
such  (in  our  apprehentions)  that,  if  he  preaches,  you  know  we  cannot 
be  present,  but  must  be  obliged  to  tarry  at  home  ? 

Your  humble  servant. 

In  answer  to  which,  Mr.  Prince  immediately  wrote :  — 

Rev.  Sir, 

I  perceive  the  purport  of  your  letter  is,  that  if  I  got  Mr.  Whitefield 
to  preach,  that  you  and  some  others  are  of  such  a  separating  spirit 
that  you  will  not  attend  the  public  Lecture  :  which  I  am  sorry  to  see. 
In  such  a  Season  as  this,  should  you  not  rather  set  a  contrary  ex- 
ample, while  you  are  publickly  condemning  such  a  spirit  in  others  ? 
Mr.  Whitefield  will  hear  you,  but  you  will  not  hear  him.  Pray  who 
appears  most  for  separation  or  union  ?  Methinks  you  should  be  glad 
of  an  occasion  to  show  as  good  a  spirit  as  he.1 

Dr.  Chauncy  was  the  leader  of  the  opposition  in  Eastern 
Massachusetts.  He  was  an  able,  energetic,  and  strong-willed 
man,  but  he  was  also  cold  and  unimpressionable ;  and  it  is  not 
strange,  perhaps,  that  he  could  neither  appreciate  nor  under- 
stand the  burning  zeal  and  sacred  enthusiasm  which  marked  the 

atoning  blood  and  perfect  righteousness  x  [Mass.   Hist.    Collections,  vol.  xxxii. 

of  Jesus  Christ.     His  writings  evince  a  pp.   238,   239.      Mr.    Prince's   notes   are 

clearness  of  perception,  copiousness  of  preserved  in  copies  made  by  him  upon 

invention,  liveliness  of  imagination,  and  the  sheet  on  which  Dr.  Chauncy's  note 

soundness  of  judgment.     They  bear  tes-  was  written.     Many  of  the  words  are  in 

timony  also  to  his  unfeigned  piety."  an  abbreviated  form.] 


CHAUNCY  AND    WHITEFIELD.  559 

labors  of  Whitefield.  He  had  published,  several  months  before, 
"  Seasonable  Thoughts  on  the  State  of  Religion,"  in  which 
there  was  no  single  word  of  satisfaction  at  or  sympathy  with 
the  deep  work  of  grace  which  had  pervaded  the  land,  which 
had  quickened  the  religious  sense  of  the  people,  and  which  had 
gathered  tens  of  thousands  into  the  membership  of  the  churches. 
In  all  that  had  taken  place,  he  could  discern  nothing  to  com- 
mend, but  everything  to  criticise.  He  did  not  discriminate 
between  the  general  impressiveness  and  solemnity  of  the  re- 
vival and  the  sporadic  cases  of  extravagance  which  appeared 
upon  its  surface.1  He  was  unable  to  recognize  in  Whitefield 
an  exceptional  man,  raised  up  and  endowed  by  Divine  Provi- 
dence, as  almost  everybody  now  admits,  to  do  an  exceptional 
work  ;  but  he  was  quick  to  detect  and  to  expose  his  limitations, 
and  to  magnify  the  mistakes  which  were  chargeable  to  his  youth 
and  temperament.2  For  him,  the  few  crude  generalizations  of 
the  journals  more  than  counterbalanced  the  marvellous  pulpit 
eloquence  which  in  England  moved  such  men  as  Garrick,  Ches- 
terfield, Lyttelton,  and  Pitt.3  Not  that  Whitefield  was  above 
criticism  ;  but  surely  there  was  something  in  him  to  admire 
and  to  commend.  Holyoke,  Appleton,  Eells,  and  others  had 
criticised  him,  but  they  had  done  so  with  a  certain  degree  of 
discrimination  and  appreciation.  Chauncy  alone,  among  the 
leading  men  on  that  side  in  and  about  Boston,  seems  to  have 
conceded  no  qualifying  conditions  and  to  have  refused  all  praise.4 

1  Dr.  Colman  said  :  "  We  have  seen  for  the  strictures  upon  the  colleges  and 
little   of    those   Extreams    or   supposed     the  ministers  generally. 

Blemishes  of  this  work  in   Boston,  but         3  "  Whitefield's  preaching  was  such  as 

much  of  the  blessed  Fruits  of  it  have  England  had  never  heard  before,  theatri- 

fallen  to  our  Share.     God  has  spoken  to  cal,  extravagant,  often  commonplace,  but 

us  in  a  more  soft  and  calm  Wind ;  and  hushing  all  criticism  by  its  intense  reality, 

we  have  neither  had  those  Outcries  and  its  earnestness  of  belief,  its  deep,  trem- 

Faintings  in  our  Assemblies,  which  have  ulous  sympathy  with   the   sin  and  sor- 

disturbed  the  Worship  in  many  Places ;  row   of   mankind.     It  was  no  common 

nor  yet  those  Manifestations  of  Joy  in-  enthusiast  who   could  wring  gold  from 

expressible  which  now  fill  some  of  our  the  close-fisted  Franklin  and  admiration 

Eastern  Parts."  —  Christian  History,  vol.  from  the  fastidious  Horace  Walpole,  or 

ii.  p.  3S6.  who  could  look  down  from  the  top  of  a 

2  Whitefield  said  of  himself,  in  a  letter  green  knoll  at  Kingswood  on  twenty 
dated  February  19 :  "  Some  unguarded  thousand  colliers,  grimy  from  the  Bristol 
expressions,  in  the  heat  of  less  experi-  coal-pits,  and  see  as  he  preached  the  tears 
enced  youth,  I  certainly  did  drop.  I  was  '  making  white  channels  down  their  black- 
too  precipitate  in  hearkening  to  and  pub-  ened  cheeks.'  "  —  Green's  Short  History, 
lishing   private  information,  and,  Peter-  p.  718. 

like,  cut  off  too  many  ears."     We  think         4  Of   Dr.    Chauncy,    Professor   Tyler 
that  Mr.  Tennent  was  largely  responsible     says,  "  He  was  a  man  of  leonine  heart, 


560 


HISTORY  OF  THE    OLD   SOUTH   CHURCH. 


Mr.  Whitefield  could  not  but  take  notice  of  charges  brought 
against  him  by  men  so  high  in  position  and  influence.  His  reply 
to  Dr.  Chauncy,  written  while  he  was  ill  at  Portsmouth,  now  ap- 
peared, with  a  "preface  to  the  reader,"  dated  January  18,  and 
five  days  later  he  finished  his  reply  to  the  faculty  of  Harvard 
College.  He  wrote  in  a  frank  and  manly  way,  and  evinced  a 
most  excellent  spirit  towards  those  who  had  criticised  him.  He 
made  explanations  and  concessions  on  certain  points,  and  de- 
fended himself  against  such  charges  as  he  felt  to  be  unjust  or 
untrue.1  He  did  not,  however,  satisfy  his  critics ;  and  it  was 
hardly  to  be  expected  that  he  should  do  so,  for  they  had  not 
formed  their  opinions  hastily  or  without  due  deliberation.  Dr. 
Chauncy  answered  for  himself,  and  Professor  Wigglesworth  for 
the  college.  In  February  the  faculty  of  Yale  College  published 
a  "  Declaration,"  sustaining  the  positions  taken  by  the  associa- 
tions in  Massachusetts  and  at  Harvard  College,  and  especially 
finding  fault  with  an  intention,  avowed  to  Mr.  Edwards,  of  bring- 
ing over  "  a  number  of  young  men  from  England  to  be  ordained 


of  strong,  cool  brain,  of  uncommon  moral 
strength.  He  bore  a  great  part  in  the 
intellectual  strife  of  the  Revolution  ;  but 
before  that  strife  was  opened  he  had 
moulded  deeply  the  thought  of  his  time, 
both  by  his  living  speech  and  by  his  pub- 
lications. These  were  mostly  sermons ; 
but  as  sermons  they  had  an  extraordinary 
sweep  of  topics,  from  early  piety  and  the 
lessons  of  affliction  to  earthquakes  in 
Spain,  murder,  religious  compulsion, 
Presbyterian  ordination,  legislative  knav- 
ery, the  encouragement  of  industry,  and 
the  capture  of  Cape  Breton. 

"  The  prevailing  trait  of  the  man  was 
intellectual  genuineness  in  all  things,  and 
utter  scorn  of  its  opposite  in  anything. 
He  had  a  massive,  logical,  remorseless 
understanding,  hardy  in  its  processes, 
and  unwilling  to  take  either  fact  or 
opinion  at  second  hand.  On  the  great 
themes  that  were  then  in  debate  among 
men,  he  put  himself  to  enormous  re- 
search. One  of  these  themes  was  the 
Episcopacy.  He  gave  four  years  of  hard 
reading  to  it,  first  in  the  Scriptures  and 
in  the  Fathers,  then  in  all  modern  books 
on  both  sides  of  the  controversy.  Other 
themes  were  the  doctrines  of  human  de- 
pravity,  retribution,  and  the   like.     He 


settled  himself  down  for  seven  years  to 
the  study  of  these  doctrines  in  the  New 
Testament,  especially  in  the  Epistles  of 
St.  Paul,  and  finally  in  all  other  books 
within  reach ;  and  he  thus  worked  his 
way  '  into  an  entirely  new  set  of  thoughts ' 
on  those  matters.  He  was  an  orthodox 
rationalist ;  and  he  stood  in  the  line  of 
that  intellectual  development  among  the 
clergy  of  New  England  which  at  a  later 
day  culminated  in  Unitarianism."  —  Hist. 
of  Am.  Lit.,  vol.  ii.  p.  200. 

1  His  kind  and  generous  spirit  was 
in  the  end  recognized  at  Cambridge.  In 
1764  he  solicited  donations  of  books  for 
the  college  library,  after  the  disastrous 
fire  there  ;  and  four  years  later,  President 
Holyoke  being  still  alive,  the  following 
minute  was  recorded  :  "  At  a  meeting  of 
the  President  and  Fellows  of  Harvard 
College,  August  22,  1768,  the  Rev.  G. 
Whitefield  having,  in  addition  to  his 
former  kindness  to  Harvard  College, 
lately  presented  to  the  library  a  new 
edition  of  his  Journals,  and  having  pro- 
cured large  benefactions  from  several 
benevolent  and  respectable  gentlemen  ; 
Voted,  that  the  thanks  of  the  Corporation 
be  given  to  Mr.  Whitefield,  for  these  in- 
stances of  candor  and  generosity." 


MR.    WHITEFIELD'S  POPULARITY.  561 

by  the  Tennents."  This  whole  painful  controversy  need  not  be 
detailed  in  these  pages.  Neither  side  was  wholly  right  or 
wholly  wrong ;  but  although  on  some  points  the  critics  were 
undoubtedly  right,  we  cannot  help  thinking  that  Mr.  Whitefield 
had  the  advantage  of  them  in  the  spirit  which  he  manifested.1 
The  popular  sympathies  were  certainly  with  him  ;  and  while  the 
war  of  pamphlets  was  waging  among  the  clergy,  he  was  preach- 
ing in  Boston  and  in  the  neighboring  towns  to  immense  con- 
gregations. He  was  urged  to  set  up  a  six-o'clock  morning 
lecture,  such  as  he  had  established  in  Scotland  a  few  months 
before.  He  complied  with  the  request,  and  a  small  room  was 
taken  for  the  purpose,  as  it  was  supposed  that  but  few  would 
attend.  On  the  first  morning,  however,  when  he  preached  from 
the  words,  "And  they  came  early  in  the  morning  to  hear  him," 
there  was  so  great  a  crowd  that  it  was  found  necessary,  for  the 
future,  to  have  recourse  to  one  of  the  largest  meeting-houses. 
"  The  streets  were  all  astir  on  those  dark  February  mornings 
with  the  eager,  punctual  hearers  who  were  going  to  the  lectures 
on  Genesis."  "  One  morning  the  crowd  was  too  dense  to  be 
penetrated,  and  he  was  obliged  to  go  in  at  the  window.  Imme- 
diately after  him  came  the  high  sheriff,  who  had  been  hostile  to 
the  '  new  lights,'  and  the  sight  of  whose  face,  as  it  appeared 
through  the  window,  almost  made  the  astonished  people  cry  out 
'  Is  Saul  also  among  the  prophets  ? '  "  2 

It  was  at  this  time  that  Mr.  Whitefield's  friends  in  Boston 
offered  to  build  for  him  "  the  largest  place  of  worship  ever  seen 
in  America,"  but  he  wisely  declined.  He  knew  that  he  was  not 
adapted  for  the  steady  duties  and  constant  routine  of  the  pas- 
toral work.  Nor  would  it  have  been  right  for  him  thus  to  enter 
into  competition  with  the  existing  churches,  and  with  the  able 

1   Cowper  has  done  justice  to  his  spirit  Like  him  he  labor'd,  and  like  him,  content 

in  lines  which,  we  think,  will  aptly  illus-  To  bear  il>  suffer'd  shame  where"er  he  went- 
trate  our  account  of  Whitefield's  visits         2  The  high  sheriff  here  referred  to  was 

to  New  England  :  —  Benjamin   Pollard.      Edward   Winslow, 

He  loved  the  world  that  hated  him  :  the  tear  who    had    held    this    position    for   many 

That  dropp'd  upon  his  Bible  was  sincere ;  years  was  promoted  to  the  bench  in 
Assail'd  by  scandal  and  the  tongue  of  strife,  Whitefield    wrote     to     a     friend, 

His  only  answer  was  a  blameless  life  :  ,-.  i  ,-       ,     ,     ^  u-rr        u       \.    a 

a   j  1,   .1   .  t       a      a  u    .u  .  .u       .u    j  _  February  6,   that   the   sheriff,  who   had 

And  he  that  forged,  and  he  that  threw  the  dart,  *  *•"«  ""'J    "»  _  » 

Had  each  a  brother's  interest  in  his  heart.  been  "foremost  in  persecuting  the  good 

Paul's  love  of  Christ,  and  steadiness  unbribed,  Mr.     Davenport,"     was     "  a     little     COn- 

Were  copied  close  in  him,  and  well  transcribed.  vinced."      Mr.  Pollard  discriminated,  no 

He  follow'd  Paul  -his  zeal  a  kindred  flame,  doub  between  Mr.  Davenport  and  Mr. 
His  apostolic  charirv  the  same.  _,        ,  ,      ,  , 

Like  him,  cross'd  cheerfully  tempestuous  seas,  Whitefield.     The  former  had   retracted 

Forsaking  country,  kindred,  friends  and  ease  ;  his  errors  six  months  before. 


562  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

and  faithful  men  who  were  serving  them  in  the  ministry.1 
Under  his  preaching,  during  this  visit,  there  were  "  movings  " 
and  "  meltings "  as  before,  and  there  were  some  interesting 
cases  of  conversion ;  but  there  was  no  revival,  in  the  technical 
sense  of  that  word.  "  People  heard,  and  were  affected,  but 
there  was  no  spreading  among  the  impenitent,  as  if  by  sym- 
pathy, or  by  a  simultaneous  impression  upon  all,  of  those  views 
which  constitute  conviction  of  sin.  Nor  ought  anything  else  to 
have  been  expected.  Both  ministers  and  people  were  thinking 
too  much  about  the  man,  to  profit  by  his  preaching."  The 
admissions  to  the  South  Church  in  1745  were  rather  below  the 
annual  average  number,  and  they  were  comparatively  few  during 
the  next  nine  or  ten  years. 

At  a  Meeting  of  the  Church  and  Congregation  Feb.  11.  1744-5 

Voted,  That  the  Honble  E.  Lewis,  A.  Stoddard,  Wm  Foye  T.  Cush- 
ing  and  Mr.  Ox.  Thacher,  be  a  Committee  to  examine  the  Accounts 
of  the  Committee  for  Repairs  ;  and  make  their  Report  as  soon  as 
may  be. 

Voted,  That  there  be  a  further  Tax  on  the  Pews  towards  defraying 
the  Charge  of  repairing  the  House  in  which  the  Rev.  Mr.  Prince  re- 
sides &c.  viz  £4.  on  each  floor-Pew,  £2.  on  the  front  Pews  in  the  Gal- 
lery, and  £1.  on  the  back  pews  in  said  Gallery  O.  Tenour. 

Voted,  That  Messrs.  Jer.  Belknap,  John  Symmes,  Ephrm.  Copeland 
and  David  Jeffries  be  a  Committee  to  collect  said  money,  And  that 
John  Hunt  Esq  be  continued  the  Treasurer.  Joseph  Sewall. 

Lord's  Day  Febr.  24  1744-5 

The  Deacons  were  allowed  to  spend  fifty  pounds  out  of  the  last 
Collection  for  Charitable  and  pious  uses  towards  the  relief  of  the 
Poop  of  this  Church  and  Congregation.  Joseph  Sewall. 

Four  days  later,  on  Thursday,  February  28,  a  day  of  prayer 
and  fasting  was  observed  throughout  the  province,  with  refer- 
ence to  the  expedition  then  preparing  for  the  capture  of  Cape 
Breton  and  its  fortified  city,  Louisburg.  In  1744,  the  war  be- 
tween England  and  France,  known  as  the  War  of  the  Austrian 
Succession,  was  entered  upon ;  the  first  knowledge  of  it  came 
to  the  people  of  New  England  through  the  capture  of  the  small 
English  garrison  at  Canso  by  the  French.  By  the  Peace  of 
Utrecht  in  1713,  the  island  of  Cape  Breton  had  been  made  over 
to  France.    Mr.  Prince,  who  was  in  England  at  the  time,  said  of 

1  In  Philadelphia,  he  was  offered  j£Soo  out  of  the  twelve,  if  he  would  become  a 
a  year,  and  liberty  to  travel  six  months     settled  minister  there. 


WILLIAM  PEPPERRELL.  563 

this  cession  :  "  All  true-hearted  Britons  who  knew  the  circum- 
stances of  the  island,  most  grievously  lamented  the  resigna- 
tion, as  full  of  teeming  mischief  to  the  British  trade,  wealth 
and  power,  and  as  one  of  the  most  fatal  acts  of  that  unhappy 
ministry,"  —  the  Tory  ministry  of  Harley  and  St.  John,  two 
men  described  by  Macaulay,  the  one  as  a  solemn  trifler,  the 
other  a  brilliant  knave.  Governor  Shirley,  prompted  by  "a 
bold,  energetic,  and  imaginative  adventurer,"  William  Vaughan, 
determined  to  attempt  the  recovery  of  this  island,  and  the  re- 
ligious excitement  yielded  for  the  time  to  the  interest  of  the 
community  in  the  fitting  out  of  the  expedition.  Mr.  Prince,  in 
his  Thanksgiving  Day  sermon,  preached  a  few  months  later, 
names,  among  the  Providential  steps  "which  led  us  to  the  ad- 
venturous enterprize,"  the  abundant  crops  of  the  previous  year, 
whereby  the  provinces  were  prepared  to  supply  so  great  an 
armament,  and  the  remarkably  favorable  state  of  the  weather. 
He  says  :  "  It  was  wonderful  also  to  see  that  during  those  two 
usually  stormy  months  of  February  and  March,  the  only  season 
for  our  preparation,  God  was  pleased  to  give  us  such  a  constant 
series  of  moderate  and  fair  weather,  as  in  that  time  of  the  year 
has  scarce  ever  been  known  among  us :  So  that  there  was 
scarcely  any  impediment  to  our  officers  going  about  and  enlist- 
ing, or  of  our  soldiers  in  marching,  or  our  vessels  in  fitting,  or 
our  coasters  in  bringing  us  provisions,  or  our  Committee  of 
War  in  their  various  preparations,  'till  all  were  ready  to  sail." 

The  command  of  the  expedition  was  entrusted  to  William 
Pepperrell.  He  was  a  warm  friend  of  Whitefield,  and  a  con- 
stant attendant  upon  his  ministrations  ; 1  and  he  went  to  the 
great  preacher  for  advice,  before  accepting  the  responsibilities 
of  the  appointment.  As  has  been  well  said,  Whitefield  showed  a 
knowledge  of  the  world  in  dealing  with  the  question,  cautioning 
Pepperrell  that,  if  he  should  fail,  the  blood  of  the  slain  would 
be  laid  to  his  charge,  while,  if  he  should  succeed,  he  would  be 
pursued  by  the  envy  of  the  living.2     He  accepted,  however,  and 

1  When  Mr.  Whitefield  landed  at  2  Whitefield  spoke  to  Pepperrell  with 
York,  in  October,  1744,  Mr.  Pepperrell  his  wonted  frankness  and  freedom,  when 
"  went  with  some  friends  in  his  own  he  said  "  that  he  did  not  indeed  think 
boat,"  to  bring  him  to  his  house  at  Ports-  the  scheme  proposed  for  taking  Louis- 
mouth,  but  he  was  not  well  enough  to  burg  very  promising,  and  that  the  eyes 
come.  It  was  at  the  house  of  Mr.  Jo-  of  all  would  be  upon  him.  If  he  did 
seph  Sherburne,  at  Portsmouth,  also  not  succeed,  the  widows  and  orphans  of 
spoken  of  in  the  text,  that  he  soon  after  the  slain  soldiers  would  be  like  lions 
had  the  illness  which  all  thought  would  robbed  of  their  whelps  ;  but  if  it  pleased 
prove  fatal.  God  to   give  him  success,   envy  would 


564  HISTORY  OF   THE   OLD   SOUTH  CHURCH. 

then  Mr.  Joseph  Sherburne,  one  of  the  commissaries,  came  to 
Mr.  Whitefield  to  say  that  unless  he  would  favor  the  expedition, 
"  serious  people  "  would  be  discouraged  from  enlisting,  and,  fur- 
ther, that  he  must  give  a  motto  for  his  flag.  To  this  Mr.  White- 
field  demurred,  but  at  length  yielded,  and  gave  them  Nil  despe- 
randum,  Christo  ducc.  As  soon  as  it  was  known  what  he  had 
done,  great  numbers  enlisted.  He  was  urged  to  go  as  a  chap- 
lain, but  declined.  Before  the  expedition  embarked,  the  officers 
asked  him  to  preach  to  them,  and  he  gave  them  a  sermon  on 
David  at  the  Cave  of  Adullam.  He  described  the  motley  band 
gathered  at  the  cave,  and  then  showed  how  distressed  sinners 
come  to  Jesus  Christ,  the  spiritual  David  ;  he  exhorted  the  sol- 
diers to  behave  like  the  soldiers  of  David,  and  the  officers  to 
act  like  David's  worthies,  and  added  that  if  they  did  he  doubted 
not  there  would  be  good  news  from  Cape  Breton. 

"  And  now,"  says  Mr.  Prince,  "  our  army  of  three  thousand 
land  soldiers,  with  all  kinds  of  stores  being  ready  to  sail  about 
the  20th  of  March,  in  about  a  hundred  vessels,  besides  five  hun- 
dred soldiers  more  sent  from  Connecticut,  and  three  hundred  and 
fifty  from  New  Hampshire,  —  we  had  almost  every  gloomy  pros- 
pect to  make  us  tremble.  For  our  inland  borders  were  now  left 
bare  of  a  great  part  of  their  strength,  by  the  listing  of  so  many 
of  their  able  men  voluntiers  in  the  expedition.  And  if  the  en- 
terprize  succeeded,  the  heavy  debt  would  almost  sink  us.  But 
if,  for  our  offences,  God  were  carrying  forth  a  great  part  of  the 
Flower  of  our  Country  to  be  destroy'd,  a  most  dismal  scene  of 
ruin  seem'd  to  follow !  .  .  .  The  hearts  of  many  of  the  wisest 
ashore  now  seem'd  to  fail.  Some  repented  they  had  voted  for 
it,  and  others  that  they  had  ever  promoted  it.  Some  judged  it 
best  after  all  for  every  man  to  go  home  ;  and  the  thoughtful 
among  us  were  in  great  perplexity.  But  yet  a  wonder  it  was  to 
see,  that  those  who  were  venturing  into  the  danger,  seem'd  to  be 
fullest  of  trust  in  God  and  courage.  Many  fill'd  their  vessels 
with  prayers  ;  and  asking  ours,  they  threw  themselves  into  the 
Divine  protection,  in  the  name  of  God  they  set  up  their  ban- 
ner, and  away  they  sail'd.  Pray  for  us,  and  we  '11  fight  for 
you  —  was  the  valiant  and  endearing  language  wherewith  they 
left  us." 

And  those  who  remained  at  home  did  pray  for  those  who  had 

endeavour  to  eclipse  his  glory.  He  had  but  if  Providence  really  sent  him,  he 
need,  therefore,  if  he  went,  to  go  with  a  would  find  his  strength  proportioned  to 
single  eye,  and  then  there  was  no  doubt,     the  day." 


THE  ATTACK  ON  LOUISBURG.  565 

gone.  Mr.  Prince  adds  :  "As  it  was  very  encouraging  to  think 
how  many  pious  and  prayerful  persons  were  embark'd  in  the 
cause,  which  we  accounted  the  cause  of  God  and  his  people  ;  it 
gave  further  ground  of  hope,  to  see  such  a  spirit  of  supplica- 
tion given  to  many  in  this  town  and  land  on  this  occasion.  For, 
besides  the  solemn  days  of  publick  and  general  prayer  ap- 
pointed by  these  three  Governments,  there  were  particular  days 
observed  in  several  congregations.  There  were  also  in  divers 
towns  religious  societies,  some  of  women  as  well  as  others  of 
men,  who  met  every  week,  more  privately  to  pray  for  the  pres- 
ervation and  success  of  their  dear  countrymen  :  And  I  have 
been  well  informed  of  their  extraordinary  fervency,  faith  and 
wrestlings,  as  so  many  Jacobs,  in  this  important  season.  Psalm 
cviii.  10-13,  was  usually  among  our  petitions."  1 

Colonel  Pepperrell  was  a  nephew  by  marriage  of  Dr.  Sewall,2 
and  several  of  the  officers  and  men  belonged  to  the  South 
Church  and  congregation.  Richard  Gridley,  who  distinguished 
himself  as  an  engineer  during  the  siege  ;  under  whose  super- 
vision the  fortifications  round  Lake  George  were  to  be  con- 
structed, a  few  years  later ;  who  was  to  be  by  the  side  of  Wolfe 
at  his  death  on  the  Plains  of  Abraham  ;  and  who,  still  later,  was 
to  render  eminent  service  to  his  country  at  Breed's  Hill,  and  in 
the  siege  of  Boston  at  Cambridge,  —  married  a  daughter  of  a 
South  Church  family,  Hannah  Deming,  and  (as  we  suppose) 
himself  became  a  member  in  1 75^- 

Mr.  Whitefield  preached  a  farewell  sermon  at  Mr.  Webb's,  on 
the  19th  of  June,  at  five  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  from  Eph.  vi. 
10-19,  and  soon  after  left  for  New  York  and  the  South.3     The 

1  "  Who  will  bring  me  into  the  strong  2  William  Pepperrell  married  (Febru- 
ary? who  will  lead  me  into  Edom?  ary  21,  17-2-3)  Mary,  eldest  daughter 
Wilt  not  thou,  O  God,  who  hast  cast  us  of  Grove  Hirst,  and  granddaughter  of 
off  ?   and   wilt  not  thou,  O  God,  go  forth  Judge  Sewall. 

with  our  hosts?  Give  us  help  from  Dr.  Colman,  of  Brattle  Street,  mar- 
trouble  :  for  vain  is  the  help  of  man.  ried  as  his  third  wife  (August  12,  1745) 
Through  God  we  shall  do  valiantly:  for  he  Mary,  sister  of  Colonel  Pepperrell,  and 
it  is  that  shall  tread  down  our  enemies."  widow  of  the  Hon.  John  Frost. 

May  2.  1745.    "The  Thursday  Lecture  3  Mr.  Whitefield  did  not  come  to  New 

was  turned  into  a  Fast  by  the  ministers  England  again  until  the  autumn  of  1747. 

on  account  of  Cape  Briton  Expedition  The   opposition  to  him  seems   then  to 

Mr.    Prince   began   with   prayer   at    ten  have  abated.     He  wrote :  "  The  flocking 

o'clock.      Mr.   Webb   preached.     P.   M.  and  power  that  attended  the  word,  was 

Mr.  Checkley    prayed    and    Dr.    Sewall  like  unto  that  seven  years  ago.     Weak 

preached.      Mr.    Welsteed   prayed  last,  as  I  was,  and  have  been,  I  was  enabled 

[added  later]  and   this   day   the    Grand  to    travel    eleven    hundred    miles   and 

Battery  at  Cape  Briton  was  delivered  up  preach  daily."     He  sailed  soon  after  for 

to  us."  —  John  Phillips,  MS.  Diary.  the  Bermudas. 


566  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

General  Association  of  Connecticut  had  just  declared  that  as 
he  had  been  "the  promoter  or  at  least  the  faulty  occasion"  of 
the  prevailing  errors  and  disorders,  it  would  not  be  advisable 
for  the  ministers  to  open  their  pulpits  to  him  during  "  his  prog- 
ress through  this  government,"  or  for  the  people  to  attend 
"upon  his  preaching  and  administrations."  x 

Intelligence  of  the  capture  of  Louisburg  reached  Boston 
about  break  of  day  on  the  3d  of  July.  Dr.  Chauncy,  writing 
on  the  4th  to  his  brother-in-law,  the  hero  of  the  hour,  said : 
"  The  people  of  Boston  before  sunrise  were  as  thick  about  the 
streets  as  on  election  day ;  and  a  pleasing  joy  visibly  sat  on  the 
countenance  of  every  one  you  met  with.  We  had  last  night  the 
finest  illumination  I  ever  beheld."  A  public  thanksgiving  was 
ordered ;  and  the  meeting-houses,  which  had  been  filled  with 
waiting  suppliants,  were  now  thronged  with  grateful  worship- 
pers. 

Lord's  Day  July  14.  1745. 

The  Brethren  of  the  church  and  Congregation  stay'd  and  Voted,  — 
That  there  be  a  collection  on  the  general  Thanksgiving  next  Thurs- 
day to  relieve  such  necessitous  Persons  of  this  Church  and  Congrega- 
tion whose  Husbands  or  other  Relatives  have  lost  or  ventured  their 
lives  in  the  Expedition  against  Cape  Breton  :  And  if  there  shall  be 
more  than  a  sufficiency  to  supply  These,  that  then  others  under  like 
circumstances  be  consider'd,  as  the  Brethren  of  the  Church  and  Con- 
gregation shall  determine.  Joseph  Sewall. 

General  Thanksgiving  for  the  Conquest  of  Cape  Breton  July  18, 

1745- 

Collected  one  hundred  and  thirty  pounds  for  the  use  above  said. 

Joseph  Sewall. 

Mr.  Prince  preached  from  the  text,  "This  is  the  Lord's  doing; 
it  is  marvellous  in  our  eyes."  In  the  application  of  his  subject 
he  reviewed  the  remarkable  steps,  twelve  in  number,  which  led 
"  to  the  adventurous  enterprize,"  and  "  the  more  surprizing 
steps  of  Providence  succeeding  therein  to  the  happy  accom- 
plishment," also  twelve  in  the  enumeration.  In  closing  his 
discourse,  which  was  one  subdued  and  devout  utterance  of  joy- 
ful praise,  he  said  :  "  May  this  happy  conquest  be  the  dawning 
earnest  of  our  Divine  Redeemer's  carrying  on  his  triumphs 
thro'  the  Northern  Regions  ;  till  he  extends  his  Empire  from 

1  The  General  Association  of  Con-  tor,  and  the  Rev.  Elnathan  Whitman 
necticut  met  at  Newington,  June  18.  scribe.  See  Walker's  Histo7y  of  the 
The  Rev.  Benjamin  Colton  was  mo&era-     First  Church  in  Hartford,  p.  307. 


THE   CAPTURE   OF  LOUISBURG.  567 

the  Eastern  to  the  Western  Sea,  and  from  the  River  of  Canada 
to  the  Ends  of  America."1 

The  news  of  the  victory  was  received  in  England  with  much 
rejoicing.  "  The  captured  standards  were  borne  in  triumph 
from  Kensington  Palace  to  the  City,  and  were  suspended  in  St. 
Paul's  Church,  amidst  the  roar  of  guns  and  kettle-drums,  and 
the  shouts  of  an  immense  multitude."  The  home  government 
assumed  the  whole  cost  of  the  expedition ;  General  Pepperrell 
was  created  a  baronet  of  the  United  Kingdom,  and  the  valuable 
services  of  Richard  Gridley  were  properly  recognized,  and  his 
future  promotion  assured.2 

At  a  Meeting  of  the  Brethren  of  the  Church  and  Congregation, 
Septr.  30.  1745. 

Voted,  as  follows,  That  the  Report  of  the  Committee  to  whom  was 
referred  the  Accounts  of  the  Repairs  of  the  Ministerial  Houses  &c 
exhibited  by  a  committee  appointed  to  have  the  oversight  and  direction 
thereof ;  and  also  the  Accounts  of  sundry  charges  exhibited  by  the 
Deacons ;  be  accepted. 

That  the  Gentlemen  present  subscribe  what  they  will  farther  give 
to  defray  the  charges  unpaid  of  repairing  the  Meeting  House  and  the 
Ministerial  Houses  ;  and  that  a  Committee  be  appointed  to  goe  to 
such  absent  Persons  of  the  Church  and  Congregation,  as  it  may  be 
thought  will  give  to  defray  such  Charges. 

That  Messrs.  Malachi  Salter  Junr  and  William  Taylor,  be  the  Com- 
mittee for  that  Service. 

That  John  Hunt  Esq.  Treasurer  be  impower'd  to  pay  to  the  several 
Persons  not  yet  paid  for  the  repairs  &c.  what  remains  due  to  them  ; 
and  also  the  charges  that  have  been  or  may  be  about  the  Well  at  the 
Revd.  Mr.  Prince's  House,  after  the  several  accounts  have  been  exam- 
ined and  allowed  by  the  Deacons. 

That  the  Hon.  Ezekiel  Lewis,  Anthony  Stoddard  and  Thomas 
Cushing  Esqrs  be  a  Committee  to  examine  the  Deacon's  Accounts. 

That  the  present  Seaters  are  continued  till  the  further  Order  of  this 
Society. 

That  it  is  expedient  and  necessary  that  the  Contributors  on  the 
Lord's  days  should  mark  the  money  they  put  into  the  Boxes,  that  it 
may  be  known  what  each  Person  doth  contribute. 

That  the  committee  for  the  time  being  for  ordering  and  regulating 
the  Pews  and  Seats  in  the  Meeting  House  be  impower'd  and  directed, 

1  This  sermon  was  published  in  Bos-  -  For  an  account  of  Richard  Gridley 

ton     and     in     London.      Dr.    Chauncy  and  his  public  services,  see  Oration  by 

preached  a  thanksgiving  sermon  on  the  D.  T.  V.  Huntoon,  at  the  unveiling  of  his 

same  day,  "  Marvellous  things  done  by  monument  at  Canton,   Mass.,    May   30, 

the  Right  Hand  and  Holy  Arm  of  God."  1877. 


568  HISTORY  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

that  when  any  Pew  or  part  of  one  be  hereafter  dispos'd  of  by  them  to 
any  Person,  to  make  it  a  condition  in  the  Tenure  thereof,  that  the 
Person  to  whom  the  same  shall  be  assign'd,  doe  pay  or  contribute 
weekly  for  the  support  of  the  worship  of  God  and  other  charges,  such 
summe  in  lawful  money  as  shall  be  agreed  upon  between  them  and  the 
party ;  and  shall  also  be  obliged  to  pay  their  proportionable  part  of 
such  sums  of  money  as  may  be  necessary  for  this  Society  to  raise  in 
order  to  defray  the  contingent  charges  that  may  arise  from  time  to 
time  :  Provided  that  no  whole  Pew  be  assign'd  to  any  Person  for  the 
future,,  unless  he  be  oblig'd  to  pay  weekly,  at  least  fifteen  pence  in 
lawful  money,  and  so  in  proportion  for  any  part  of  one ;  and  also  for 
Gallery-Pews  after  said  rate,  or  in  proportion  to  their  Cost  and  Value ; 
and  this  to  continue,  till  the  Church  and  Congregation  shall  alter  or 
order  otherwise.  Joseph  Sewall. 

Lord's  Day  Deer  i.  1745. 

The  Brethren  of  the  Church  and  Congregation  were  stay'd,  And 
Voted 

That  there  be  a  Collection  for  Charitable  and  pious  uses  on  the 
Anniversary  Thanksgiving,  next  Thursday,  Deer  5  Instant :  And  that 
the  rest  of  the  Congregation  be  notified  of  this  Vote,  and  desired  to 
assist  in  said  collection.  Joseph  Sewall. 

Anniversary  Thanksgiving  Deer  5.  1745. 

Collected.     Unappropriated       ....  163.  15.  6 

To  the  Charit.  and  Pious  Fund       .  5.  o.  o 

To  two  poor  Widows           .         .         .  2.  10.  o 

171.     5.  6 

Lord's  Day  Deer.  15.  1745 

The  Brethren  of  the  Church  and  Congregation  were  stay'd,  and 

Voted,  That  the  Deacons  be  empower'd  to  expend  one  hundred 
pounds  of  the  collection  for  Charitable  and  pious  uses,  for  the  relief 
of  the  Poor  of  this  Church  and  Congregation,  to  be  laid  out  in  Wood 
and  other  Necessaries  of  life. 

2.  That  twenty  pounds  of  said  collection  be  laid  out  in  Bibles  Cate- 
chisms and  other  books  of  piety ;  and  given  to  proper  Objects  of  such 
a  Charity.  Joseph  Sewall. 

The  Hon.  Thomas  dishing,  a  merchant,  and  speaker  of  the 
House  of  Representatives,  died  April  11,  1746,  aged  fifty-two.1 

1  He  was  born  in  Boston,  January  30,  after  completing  his  college  course.    Mr. 

1694.      His   father,   the    Hon.   Thomas  Prince  preached  a  funeral  sermon  from 

Gushing,  was  a  representative  and  coun-  the  words,  "  Help,  Lord,  for  the  godly 

cillor.     Samuel  Adams,  the  patriot,  was  man  ceaseth,  for  the  faithful  fail  from 

in   his   counting-room  for  a  short  time,  among  the  children  of  men." 


DEATH  OF   THOMAS  CUSHING.  569 

He  graduated  at  Harvard  College  in  171 1,  and  was  converted 
a  year  or  two  later.  He  "  applied  himself  to  merchandize,  not 
neglecting  the  occasional  study  of  the  English  history  and  polit- 
ical constitutions."  He  married  Mary,  youngest  daughter  of 
the  first  Edward  Bromfield,  and  this,  perhaps,  brought  him  to 
the  South  Church,  which  he  joined  in  1730.  "  He  was  distin- 
guished by  his  wealth,  his  abilities,  his  zeal  for  his  country's 
service,  his  integrity,  and  in  a  peculiar  manner  for  his  piety." 
The  revival  of  religion  in  Boston,  a  few  years  before  his  death, 
gave  him  great  delight,  although  he  was  grieved  at  the  impru- 
dence and  extremes  of  some  and  the  indiscriminate  opposition 
of  others.  Mr.  Prince  said  of  him  in  his  funeral  sermon :  "  I 
found  that  in  a  small,  relaxed  and  feeble  body,  there  dwelt  a 
great,  a  lively,  a  strong  and  well  composed  soul."  He  remarked 
to  a  friend,  when  conversing  on  the  responsibilities  of  public 
men  in  times  of  difficulty :  "  Men  may  be  a  long  while  great 
patriots  from  moral  or  political  principles ;  or  party  or  worldly 
interests ;  or  the  applause  or  esteem  of  others.  But  there  is 
nothing  like  the  special  grace  of  God,  a  believing  view  of  his 
present  eye  and  future  judgment,  and  an  interest  and  conscience 
wholly  subjected  to  him,  to  keep  men  steady  to  the  public  inter- 
est in  times  of  trial."  *  His  distinguished  son  of  the  same  name, 
who  graduated  at  Cambridge  in  1744,  with  Samuel  Welles, 
Jonathan  Mayhew,  Edward  Bass,  and  others,  joined  the  South 
Church  with  his  wife,  Deborah  Fletcher,  in  1755,  and  was  an 
active  member  until  his  death  in  1788. 

Two  years  after  the  death  of  Mr.  Cooper,  the  Brattle  Street 
Church  made  choice  of  his  son,  Mr.  Samuel  Cooper,  as  asso- 
ciate pastor.     Three  other  young  men,  John  Walley,2  William 

1  Mr.  Cushing  is  believed  to  have  been  that  parish  ;  and  any  one  so  preaching, 

the   author  of  a  pamphlet   of   sixty-six  coming  from  another  colony,  "foreigner 

pages,    printed    in     1744,    entitled    "A  or  stranger,"  whether  a  regularly  ordained 

Seasonable  Plea  for  the  Liberty  of  Con-  minister  or  only  an  exhorter,  was  to  be 

science,  and  the  Right  of  private  Judg-  sent  out  of  the  jurisdiction  as  a  vagrant 

ment  in  Matters  of  Religion,  without  any  person,  and  if   he  returned  was   to   be 

Controll  from  human  Authority  —  being  put  under  bonds  for  ;£ioo  to  keep  the 

a  Letter  from  a  Gentleman  in  the  Massa-  peace. 

chusetts  Bay  to  his  friend  in  Connecticut."  2  John  Walley  was  the  third   of   the 

It  was  a  protest  against  an  enactment  name  and  lineage,  in  the  membership  of 

passed   in   Connecticut   in   1742,  with  a  the    South    Church.      He  graduated   at 

subsequent  amendment,  under  which  a  Cambridge  in    1734,  and  was  settled  at 

settled  minister  was  to  be  deprived  of  his  Ipswich,   in  the   South  Parish,  in    1747. 

ecclesiastical  rights,  if  he  went  beyond  his  He    was    a    nephew    of     Mrs.    Sewall. 

parish  limits  to  preach  in  another  parish,  Mr.   Samuel  Cooper  was   a  nephew  of 

except  by  invitation  of  the   minister  of  Dr.  Sewall. 


570  HISTORY  OF   THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

Vinal,  and  Samuel  Langdon,  had  preached  each  one  month  as 
candidates,  "  all  of  them,"  say  the  records  of  the  church,  "  to 
the  great  acceptance  and  esteem  both  of  the  pastor  and  the  con- 
gregation." It  was  natural  that  Dr.  Colman  should  express,  as 
he  did  publicly,  a  decided  preference  for  the  son  of  his  old  friend 
and  colleague,  and  that  a  majority  of  the  church  should  be  in 
favor  of  him,  also.  Mr.  Samuel  Cooper,  by  request,  preached  a 
sermon  on  the  6th  of  April,  in  which  he  gave  "  a  confession  of 
his  faith  to  the  general  satisfaction  of  the  audience,"  and  on  the 
2 1  st  of  May  he  was  ordained  by  a  council  representing  the 
churches  of  Boston,  Charlestown,  and  Cambridge.  In  arranging 
for  the  ordination,  the  church  voted,  "  That  in  case  the  reverend 
pastor,  Dr.  Colman,  should  find  himself  disabled  by  the  infirm- 
ities of  age  or  bodily  weakness  to  preside  in  the  proposed  ordi- 
nation, pray,  and  give  the  charge  with  the  imposition  of  the 
hands  of  the  Presbytery,  then  he  be  desired  to  request  the  Rev. 
Dr.  Sewall,  in  the  name  of  the  church,  to  preside  and  lead  in 
that  part  of  the  solemnity."  "This  service,"  says  Dr.  Lothrop, 
"he  subsequently  performed,"  and,  he  adds,  "this  shows,  at 
least,  what  our  church  at  that  time  thought  of  its  rights,  and  to 
what  a  limited  extent  it  considered  a  discretionary  power  at- 
tached to  the  council."  Dr.  Colman  preached  the  sermon,  as  he 
had  done  at  the  ordination  of  the  father  in  1716;  his  text  was 
Jer.  xxiii.  31,  32,  and  he  improved  the  occasion  to  rebuke  the 
separatists,  who  were  working  almost  incalculable  mischief  in 
many  of  the  churches.  He  expressed  the  wish  "  before  God, 
and  in*  his  fear,  that  those  among  ourselves  who  have  of  late 
years  taken  upon  themselves  to  go  about  exhorting  and  preach- 
ing, grossly  unfurnished  with  ministerial  gifts  and  knowledge, 
would  suffer  those  words  of  the  Lord  to  sink  deep  into  their 
hearts,  to  check  them  in  their  bold  career,  and  blind  censures  of 
many  faithful  pastors,  into  whose  folds  they  are  daily  breaking, 
and  because  of  the  mildness  of  our  spirits  towards  them,  seem 
to  grow  the  more  bold  and  fierce.  And  it  were  greatly  to  be 
wished  that  people  would  beware  of  such  straggling,  illiterate 
teachers,  and  avoid  them,  in  whatever  appearance  of  sheeps 
clothing  they  may  come."  1 

1  We  cannot  agree  with  Dr.  Palfrey  preacher,  from  the  time  when  his  fame 
and  Dr.  Lothrop  that  this  passage  was  first  reached  Boston.  The  letter  to  Mr. 
pointed  at  Whitefield,  or  that  it  indicates  Williams,  of  Lebanon,  upon  which  (to- 
a  change  of  feeling  towards  him.  We  gether  with  the  above  passage)  Dr.  Pal- 
find  no  evidence  that  Dr.  Colman  ever  frey  relies  to  show  that  a  change  had 
faltered  in  his  admiration  of  the  great  taken  place,  was  written  before  White- 


A    THANKSGIVING   SERMON. 


571 


The  war  spirit  was  again  prevalent  this  summer.  General 
Pepperrell  and  Admiral  Warren  arrived  in  June  from  the  scenes 
of  their  joint  triumph  in  Acadia,  and  were  welcomed  with  much 
enthusiasm.  Soon  after,  the  news  came  to  hand  of  the  victory- 
near  Culloden,  of  Frederick,  Duke  of  Cumberland,  over  the 
Young  Pretender,  and  "  a  Day  of  General  Thanksgiving  for  the 
Great  Deliverance"  was  observed  on  the  14th  of  August.  At  the 
South  Church,  Mr.  Prince  preached  an  historical  discourse  from 
Ezra  ix.  13,  14.  He  sketched  the  history  of  the  Stuarts  from 
the  marriage  of  Charles  I.  to  a  French  princess,  —  "  the  per- 
nicious fountain  of  almost  all  the  miseries  of  the  British  nations 
ever  since,"  —  to  the  Revolution  of  1688;  he  enumerated  the 
various  conspiracies  and  invasions  undertaken  subsequently,  in 
the  interest  of  the  Pretender ;  and  after  showing  what  the  result 
would  have  been  to  the  cause  of  religion  and  liberty,  if  any  of 
these  attempts  at  the  Crown  had  been  successful,  he  enlarged, 
as  he  had  done  the  year  before,  upon  some  of  "  the  signal  ap- 
pearances of  God  "  in  behalf  of  his  people.1 


field's  second  visit  to  Boston,  when  he  was 
heartily  welcomed  to  the  pulpit  and  the 
communion  table  at  Brattle  Street.  See 
Lothrop's  History  of  the  Church  in  Brat- 
tle Street  (1851),  pp.  69,  70. 

There  had  been  more  or  less  con- 
fusion at  Mr.  Webb's  under  one  or  two 
of  Mr.  Whitefield's  sermons,  in  con- 
sequence of  outcries  and  other  manifes- 
tations of  excitement ;  and  Dr.  Colman 
wrote  to  the  latter,  urging  him  to  dis- 
courage everything  of  the  kind,  and  in- 
timating that  such  scenes  would  be  more 
in  place  within  other  walls,  meaning, 
as  we  suppose,  the  assemblies  of  the 
separatists. 

1  To  show  how  evenly  balanced  the 
Protestant  and  Jacobite  parties  in  Eng- 
land were  in  1701,  Mr.  Prince  reminded 


Resistance  was  the  general  cry:  Dr. 
Sacheverel,  for  promoting  these  slavish 
doctrines,  and  arraigning  the  Revolution, 
was  almost  everywhere  extoll'd  to  the 
skies  ;  and  wherever  he  went,  applauded, 
crowded  and  almost  adored  by  the  mul- 
titude :  The  freeholders  in  the  counties 
and  corporations  mostly  chose  those 
into  the  Parliament  who  were  known  to 
be  Tories,  attach'd  to  the  Tory  ministry ; 
and  the  greater  part  of  the  then  clergy 
of  the  Church  of  England  joined  with 
them,  and  were  continually  crying  up 
Hereditary  Right,  Passive  Obedience, 
Non-Resistance  and  Down  with  the 
Whiggs  who  zealously  stood  up  for  the 
Revolution  and  Protestant  Succession." 
Macaulay  says  of  this  period :  "  A 
foolish  parson    had   preached  a  foolish 


his  hearers  that  the  vote  in  the  House  of     sermon   against   the   principles    of    the 


Commons  to  settle  the  descent  of  the 
Crown  was  determined  in  favor  of  the 
Protestant  succession  bv  the  casting  vote 
of  the  Speaker ;  and  he  added :  "  I  am 
an  eye-witness  to  the  following  instances 
—  That  when  the  Whiggish  ministry  in 
Queen  Ann's  Reign  in  1710,  were  turned 
out  and  the  Tory  came  into  their  places, 
the  stream  of  the  nation  appeared  plainly 
with  the  Jacobite  party :  Hereditary 
Right  and  Passive  Obedience  and  Non- 


Revolution.  The  wisest  members  of  the 
government  were  for  letting  the  man 
alone.  .  .  .  The  impeachment  was 
brought ;  the  doctor  was  convicted  ;  and 
the  accusers  were  ruined.  The  clergy 
came  to  the  rescue  of  the  persecuted 
clergyman.  The  country  gentlemen  came 
to  the  rescue  of  the  clergy.  A  display 
of  Tory  feelings,  such  as  England  had 
not  witnessed  since  the  closing  years  of 
Charles  the  Second's  reign,  appalled  the 


572  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

But  the  exultation  of  this  Thanksgiving  Day  was  speedily 
changed  into  anxious  fears  and  forebodings.  The  loss  of  Louis- 
burg  had  been  a  most  mortifying  blow  to  France,  and  it  was 
determined,  at  all  events,  to  recover  the  famous  fortress  and  to 
invade  New  England.  A  large  fleet  under  the  Duke  D'Anville, 
as  admiral  and  general,  was  despatched  from  Brest ;  this  was 
"the  greatest  and  most  powerful  armament  against  these  North- 
ern Colonies,  that  was  ever  sent  into  North  America  :  Having 
twenty  men  of  war,  a  hundred  transports,  about  eight  thousand 
disciplined  troops  with  veteran  officers,  and  vast  quantities  of 
provision,  powder,  shot,  arms,  cannon,  bombs  and  mortars,  suf- 
ficient to  take  the  strongest  places."1  The  fate  of  this  proud 
armada  was  most  tragic.  The  stars  in  their  courses  seem  to 
have  fought  against  it.  Coming  by  a  southern  route,  the  voy- 
age across  the  Atlantic  was  protracted  and  tedious ;  sickness 
attacked  the  troops,  and  as  the  vessels  approached  the  coast  of 
Nova  Scotia,  they  were  scattered,  and  some  of  them  broken,  by 
heavy  gales.  Fogs  were  then  encountered ;  and  it  was  not 
until  the  12th  of  September  that  the  Duke  entered  the  port  of 
rendezvous,  Chebucto,  to  be  met  there  by  a  fraction  only  of  his 
command.  "  Finding  his  few  ships  so  shattered,  so  many  men 
dead,  so  many  sickly,  and  no  more  of  his  fleet  come  in,  he  sunk 
into  discouragement,  and  September  15  died,"  having  taken 
poison,  as  is  supposed.  On  the  following  day,  the  rear-admiral 
arrived,  with  five  ships  of  the  line  and  twenty-seven  of  the  fleet, 
but  in  such  a  condition  that  the  troops  had  to  be  landed  and 
the  vessels  repaired.  The  vice-admiral,  Estournell,  "in  con- 
sideration of  the  deplorable  case  they  were  in,  proposed  to 
return  to  France  to  save  the  rest  of  the  men ; "  but  he  was 
overruled  by  a  council  of  war,  and  on  the  morning  of  the  19th, 
he  was  "  found  in  his  apartment,  fallen  upon  his  sword."  The 
chief  command  now  devolved  on  the  rear-admiral,  Jonquire,  who, 
with  his  officers,  determined  to  make  an  attack  on  Annapolis, 
and  then  perhaps  on  some  place  on  this  coast,  before  returning 

ministers  and  gave  boldness  to  the  of  Boston,  when  passing  through  a  still 
Queen.  She  turned  out  the  Whigs,  more  terrible  trial.  John  Kneeland  ad- 
called  Harley  and  St.  John  to  power,  vertised,  July  7,  1774,  an  extract  from  it, 
and  dissolved  the  Parliament.  The  "  reprinted  at  this  Time  with  a  View  to 
elections  went  strongly  against  the  late  encourage  the  People  of  God  to  put  their 
government."  —  Essays,  vol.  iii.  p.  130.  Trust  in  Him,  and  to  call  upon  his  Name, 
1  See  Mr.  Prince's  Thanksgiving  Ser-  under  the  severe  and  Keen  Distresses 
mon  preached  November  27,  1746.  This  now  taking  place  in  Boston  and  Charles- 
sermon  was  recalled  by  the  next  genera-  town,  by  the  rigorous  Execution  of  the 
tion  for  the  encouragement  of  the  people  Boston  Port  Bill." 


"MR.    THOMAS  PRINCE  LOQUITUR?  573 

home.  They  had  given  up  the  idea  of  attempting  Louisburg, 
and  on  the  13th  of  October,  with  about  forty  sail,  they  took  their 
departure  from  Chebucto.  Their  appearance  before  Boston  was 
expected  daily.  Richard  Gridley,  under  the  direction  of  Gov- 
ernor Shirley,  had  been  engaged  on  the  harbor  defences  ;  and 
several  thousand  men  with  arms,  from  the  surrounding  country, 
some  of  them  coming  from  as  far  as  Brookfield,  were  assembled 
for  the  defence  of  the  town.  At  this  supreme  moment  the 
people  crowded  their  meeting-houses,  as  was  their  habit  at  such 
times  ;  and  what  took  place  at  the  Old  South,  on  a  solemn  day 
of  prayer,  has  found  a  permanent  record  in  the  sermons  of  the 
theologian  and  among  the  ballads  of  the  poet.  "  While  Mr. 
Prince  was  officiating  on  this  fast  day,  and  praying  most  fer- 
vently to  God  to  avert  the  dreaded  calamity,  a  sudden  gust  of 
wind  arose  (the  day  had  till  now  been  perfectly  clear  and  calm) 
so  violent  as  to  cause  a  clattering  of  the  windows.  The  rev- 
erend pastor  paused  in  his  prayer,  and,  looking  round  upon  the 
congregation  with  a  countenance  of  hope,  he  again  commenced, 
and  with  great  devotional  ardor  supplicated  the  Almighty  to 
cause  that  wind  to  frustrate  the  object  of  our  enemies,  and  save 
the  country  from  conquest  and  popery.  A  tempest  ensued,  in 
which  the  greater  part  of  the  French  fleet  was  wrecked  on  the 
coast  of  Nova  Scotia."  1 

President  Dwight,  of  Yale  College,  when  preaching  on  prayer, 
thus  referred  to  this  event :  "  I  am  bound,  as  an  inhabitant  of 
New  England,  to  declare  that  were  there  no  other  instances  to 
be  found  in  any  other  country,  the  blessings  communicated  to 
this  would  furnish  ample  satisfaction  concerning  this  subject 
to  every  sober,  much  more  to  every  pious  man.  Among  these, 
the  destruction  of  the  French  armament  under  the  Duke 
D'Anville,  in  the  year  1746,  ought  to  be  remembered  with  grati- 
tude and  admiration  by  every  inhabitant  of  this  country."  Long- 
fellow has  put  these  words  into  the  mouth  of  Mr.  Prince  :  — 

A  fleet  with  flags  arrayed 

Sailed  from  the  port  of  Brest, 
And  the  Admiral's  ship  displayed 

The  signal :  "  Steer  southwest." 
For  this  Admiral  D'Anville 

Had  sworn  by  cross  and  crown 

1  Dr.    Wisner   quotes   this   statement  and  Mrs.  Mason,  well-known  aged  mem- 

from  the  Columbian  Centinel,  1821  ;  and  bers  of  the  South  Church,  give  substan- 

he  says  that  he  was  told  by  Mrs.  Hunt-  tially  the  same  account  of  Mr.  Prince's 

ington  that  she  had  heard  Mrs.  Waters  praying  on  this  fast  day. 


574  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

To  ravage  with  fire  and  steel 
Our  helpless  Boston  Town. 

There  were  rumors  in  the  street, 

In  the  houses  there  was  fear 
Of  the  coming  of  the  fleet, 

And  the  danger  hovering  near. 
And  while  from  mouth  to  mouth 

Spread  the  tidings  of  dismay, 
I  stood  in  the  Old  South, 

Saying  humbly  :  "  Let  us  pray ! 

"  O  Lord  !  we  would  not  advise ; 

But  if  in  thy  Providence 
A  tempest  should  arise 

To  drive  the  French  Fleet  hence, 
And  scatter  it  far  and  wide, 

Or  sink  it  in  the  sea, 
We  should  be  satisfied, 

And  thine  the  glory  be." 

This  was  the  prayer  I  made, 

For  my  soul  was  all  on  flame, 
And  even  as  I  prayed 

The  answering  tempest  came ; 
It  came  with  a  mighty  power, 

Shaking  the  windows  and  walls, 
And  tolling  the  bell  in  the  tower, 

As  it  tolls  at  funerals. 

The  lightning  suddenly 

Unsheathed  its  flaming  sword, 
And  I  cried :  "  Stand  still,  and  see 

The  salvation  of  the  Lord !  " 
The  heavens  were  black  with  cloud, 

The  sea  was  white  with  hail, 
And  ever  more  fierce  and  loud 

Blew  the  October  gale. 

The  fleet  it  overtook, 

And  the  broad  sails  in  the  van 
Like  the  tents  of  Cushan  shook, 

Or  the  curtains  of  Midian. 
Down  on  the  reeling  decks 

Crash'd  the  o'erwhelming  seas ; 
Ah,  never  were  there  wrecks 

So  pitiful  as  these ! 

Like  a  potter's  vessel  broke 

The  great  ships  of  the  line  ; 
They  were  carried  away  as  a  smoke, 

Or  sank  like  lead  in  the  brine. 
O  Lord !  before  thy  path 

They  vanished  and  ceased  to  be, 
When  thou  didst  walk  in  wrath 

With  thine  horses  through  the  sea ! 


MR.   PRINCE'S  ACCOUNT.  575 

Mr.  Prince,  in  his  Thanksgiving  Sermon  six  weeks  later,  thus 
speaks  of  the  day  of  fasting  and  what  followed  :  — 

The  same  day,  viz.  Thursday  October  16,  is  kept  the  day  of  general 
fasting  and  prayer  throughout  the  churches  in  this  Province,  on  this 
great  emergency,  And  that  very  night  ensuing,  the  glorious  God 
entirely  baffled  all  their  purposes,  and  put  a  total  end  to  their  mis- 
chievous enterprize.  He  mightily  arose,  and  wrought  a  full  salvation 
for  us.  He  sent  a  more  furious  storm  of  wind  and  rain  and  hail,  than 
ever,  [the  fleet  had  encountered  a  heavy  storm  near  Sable  Island  the 
day  before]  —  which  held  to  the  next  day  noon,  —  which  they  could 
not  stand  before,  —  which  so  dispersed  and  broke  them,  they  could 
never  get  together  again  :  And  several  ships  were  so  crazy,  and  weakly 
handled,  that  'tis  apprehended  by  our  dismissed  captives,  who  were  in 
the  same  storm,  that  some  were  overset,  some  others  foundered  and 
sunk  in  the  mighty  waters  :  And  the  remaining  men  of  war  in  view,  so 
shattered  and  discouraged,  that  they  determined  for  the  West  India 
Islands,  and  sent  their  Nova  Scotia  pilots  home,  with  orders  to  their 
French  and  Indian  army  who  had  marched  to  Annapolis  to  leave  their 
enterprize  and  get  away.  The  scattered  remnants,  it  seems  most 
likely,  are  gone  back  to  France,  abased  and  confounded. 

In  the  midst  of  all  this  excitement,  the  church  was  consider- 
ing the  question  of  discipline,  and  inquiring  how  it  might  raise 
the  standard  of  Christian  living  in  its  membership.  One  result 
was  the  appointment  of  a  standing  committee,  some  of  whose 
functions  were  to  be  similar  to  those  of  the  church  committee 
of  the  present  day. 

At  a  Church  Meeting  July  14.  1746. 

Whereas  there  has  been  a  Proposal  made  for  the  revival  of  our 
Church-Discipline,  and  for  assisting  the  Pastors  in  the  Exercise  there- 
of, and  in  other  Emergencies, 

Voted,  That  there  be  a  Committee  chosen  to  take  this  Matter  into 
their  mature  Consideration,  and  make  Report  to  the  Church  on  Mon- 
day August  4.  next  at  10  a-clock  A.  M. 

Voted,  That  the  Honble  John  Osborne,  Ez.  Lewis,  Josiah  Willard, 
Anthony  Stoddard  Samuel  Welles  Esqs.  and  the  Deacons,  together 
with  our  Pastors,  be  the  said  Committee.  Joseph  Sewall. 

Augt.  4.  The  Meeting  was  so  thin  that  we  further  adjourned  it  to 
the  10th  instant. 

Lord's  Day  Augt  10.  1746. 

The  Church  stay'd  :  the  Report  of  the  Committee  was  read  and 
accepted,  and  is  as  follows ;  viz. 

The  Committee  chosen  by  the  South  Church  in  Boston,  July  14. 


576  HISTORY  OF   THE    OLD   SOUTH  CHURCH. 

1746,  to  consider  the  Proposal  made  for  the  revival  of  our  Church- 
Discipline  ;  Report  as  follows  ; 

Whereas  the  Watch  and  Discipline  of  this  Church  have  been  too 
much  neglected ;  We  purpose  by  the  help  of  God,  more  carefully  to 
attend  our  duty  in  watching  over  one  another  in  love,  and  with  a  Spirit 
of  meekness,  agreeable  to  our  solemn  Covenant-Engagements  : 

And  whereas  there  may  difficulties  arise  relating  to  our  Discipline, 
and  help  be  needed,  either  in  a  more  private  way  of  healing  offences, 
or  in  preparing  matters  for  the  Cognizance  of  the  Church  where  it  may 
be  necessary,  and  in  other  Emergencies ; 

It  is  Proposed,  that  there  be  a  Committee  chosen  from  among  our 
Brethren  to  advise  with  our  Pastors  and  be  helpful  to  them  in  the 
matters  above  said :  The  said  Committee  to  consist  of  five  Persons, 
and  to  be  chosen  annually. 

Voted,  That  the  Church  proceed  to  the  choice  of  said  committee, 
Lord's  Day  Augt.  24.  Instant,  after  the  public-Exercises  P.  M.  and 
that  the  choice  be  made  by  written  Votes. 

Lord's  Day  Augt  24.  1746. 

The  Hon.  Ezekiel  Lewis,  Josiah  Willard,  Deacon  Henchman  and 
Mr.  Edward  Bromfield,  were  chosen  by  written  votes. 

The  Lord's  Day  following,  Augt.  31.  Coll.  Winslow  was  chosen  by 
written  votes.  Joseph  Sewall 

Lord's  Day  Novr  16.  1746 

The  Brethren  of  the  Church  and  Congregation  were  stay'd,  and 
Voted 

That  there  be  a  Collection  for  Charitable  and  pious  Uses  on  the 
Anniversary  Thanksgiving  next,  Novr  27.  Instant :  And  that  the  Rest 
of  the  Congregation  be  notified  of  this  Vote,  and  desired  to  assist  in 
said  Collection  Joseph  Sewall 

Novr.  27.     Public  Thanksgiving, 

Collected.     Unappropriated     .         .         .         .  £176.  16.  o 

Appropriated 

For  the  Charitable  and  Pious  Fund           .         .  £  21.    o.  o 
For  the  chh.  of  Tiverton,  towards   Mr.  Cam- 
bell's  support, £  14.    o.  o 

For  Mr.  Willoughby,1 13.    o.  o 

For  the  Widow  Simpson       .         .         .         .  3.  00.  o 

For  the  Widow  Holland             .         .         .         .  2.  10.  o 

For  the  Widow  Morse          .         .         .         .  2.  10.  o 


232.  16.  o 


1  [Francis  Willoughby,    grandson    of     — the  early  friend  of  the  South  Church, 
the  deputy  governor  of  the  same  name,     — was  born  September  28,  1672.      He 


11  THE  SALVATIONS   OF  GOD  IN  1746:'  $77 

Mr.  Prince  preached  the  sermon  on  this  occasion,  from  which 
we  have  already  quoted,  "The  Salvations  of  God  in  1746,"  — 
perhaps  the  most  celebrated  of  all  his  patriotic  utterances. 
His  text  was  Exodus  xiv.  13  :  "Stand  still,  and  see  the  salva- 
tion of  the  Lord."  The  opening  paragraph,  on  which  the  doc- 
trine of  the  sermon  was  founded,  and  to  which  the  historical 
passages  gave  ample  illustration,  was  as  follows  :  — 

The  existence  of  an  absolutely  perfect  Being,  which  we  call  the 
Deity,  unavoidably  infers  his  absolutely  perfect  Providence,  exactly 
answerable  to  the  absolute  perfection  of  his  nature.  For  as  his  un- 
derstanding is  absolutely  perfect,  it  must  needs  eternally  have  seen  all 
things  possible  to  be  and  come  to  pass,  both  by  his  influence  and  per- 
mission :  And  as,  out  of  all  these  possibilities,  his  absolutely  perfect 
wisdom  must  needs  select  those  to  come  into  existence  which  are 
fittest  (all  things  perfectly  considered)  to  be  effected  and  permitted; 
the  same  wisdom  will  eternally  direct  him,  both  in  creating,  support- 
ing, over-ruling  and  permitting,  in  a  perfect  correspondence  with  his 
absolutely  perfect  foresight. 

Lord's  Day,  Jan'y  11.  1746-7  The  Brethren  of  the  Church  and 
Congregation  stay'd  and  Voted, 

That  the  Deacons  be  empower'd  to  lay  out  one  hundred  and  fifty 
Pounds  of  the  collection  for  Charitable  and  pious  uses,  for  the  relief 
of  the  Poor  of  this  Church  and  Congregation,  in  Wood  and  other 
Necessaries  of  life. 

A  letter  was  then  read  from  the  Church  and  Society  in  Tiverton, 
asking  our  Charitable  assistance  towards  purchasing  Land  for  the  sup- 
port of  the  Ministry  among  them  : 

In  answer  to  which,  It  was  agreed  that  said  Letter  should  be  read 
before  the  Congregation  next  Lord's  Day  P.  M.  ;  and  that  such  as 
were  disposed,  should  be  desired  to  make  their  offerings  the  Lord's 
day  after,  with  their  weekly  contribution  : 

had  two  children   by  his  first  wife,  Be-  as    Fitch,   Edward    Hutchinson,    Jacob 

thiah   Gedney,   born   in    Salem,    before  Wendell,  Nathanael    Cunningham,  and 

1 7 10.     He   was   representative    in  1713.  others,  to  erect  a  market-house  on  land 

In  17 16,  he  married,  as  his  second  wife,  leased  from  Jonathan  Willis.   He  served 

Sarah,  daughter  of  the  Hon.  John  Wal-  as  clerk  of  the  market  at  the  South  End 

ley,   and    widow   of    Charles    Chauncy,  until  1737,  when  he  was  chosen  overseer 

merchant;  she  died  in   1726.     In   1733,  of    the    granary    (where     Park    Street 

when   three   market-places   were    estab-  Church  now  stands),  in  place  of  the  late 

lished  in  the  town,  Mr.  Willoughby  was  Jonathan  Williams.     He  held  this  office 

chosen  "  Clerk  of    the    Market   for  the  for  several  years  at  an  annual  salary  of 

Space  at  or  near  the  Great  Tree  at  the  ^100,  but,  as   we   suppose,  had  lost   it 

South  end  by  Mr.  Eliots."     In  1734  he  when  he  began  to  receive  aid  from  the 

was  placed  on  the  committee  with  Thom-  South  Church.] 


57^  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

The  Letter  was  read  accordingly,  Jany.  18,  — And  Jan'y  25.  1746-7, 
there  was  collected,  for  the  use  aforesaid  .         ^170.    o.    6 

Feby  1.  was  added  .         .         .         .         .  2.    o.    6 

Since  added        ......  6.  12.  10 


178.  13.  10 
Joseph  Sewall. 

Lord's  day  March  29.  1747. 

The  Brethren  of  the  Church  and  Congregation  stay'd  and  Voted, 
That  the  Deacons  expend  the  remainder  of  the  Collection  for  Char- 
itable and  pious  Uses  for  the  relief  of  the  Poor  of  this  Church  and 
Congregation,  in  Wood  and  other  Necessaries  of  life. 

Joseph  Sewall. 

There  is  no  record  of  the  collection  made  on  the  Anniversary- 
Fast  Day  in  the  spring  of  1747. 

Mr.  Jonathan  Mayhew  was  ordained  pastor  of  the  West 
Church  on  the  17th  of  June,  as  the  successor  of  Mr.  Hooper. 
This  church  and  its  first  minister  do  not  seem  to  have  been  in 
full  sympathy  with  the  other  churches  and  ministers  in  the 
town  ;  and  when  Mr.  Mayhew  was  settled  they  were  not  repre- 
sented in  the  proceedings.  The  ordination  was  to  take  place 
on  the  20th  of  May ;  but  of  the  five  churches  invited  to  be  in 
attendance  on  that  day,  —  Mr.  Mayhew's  at  Tisbury,  Mr.  Gay's 
at  Hingham,  Mr.  Appleton's  at  Cambridge,  the  First  Church, 
Boston,  and  the  Church  in  Brattle  Street,  Boston,  —  only  the 
Cambridge  and  Hingham  churches  were  represented.  Mr. 
Mayhew,  of  Tisbury,  was  no  doubt  detained  by  some  accident ; 
but  there  must  have  been  a  weighty  reason  for  the  declination 
of  the  two  Boston  churches  which  had  been  invited,  as  well  as 
for  the  non-invitation  of  the  other  churches  in  the  town.  Only 
two  churches  being  in  attendance,  not  "  the  major  part  of  those 
that  were  invited,  the  reverend  pastors  thought  it  advisable  not 
to  proceed,  and  advised  the  church  to  apply  to  other  churches." 
In  the  second  invitation  no  Boston  church  was  included  ;  to  the 
churches  of  Tisbury,  Hingham,  and  Cambridge  were  added 
those  of  Mr.  Hancock  at  Lexington,  Mr.  Smith  at  Weymouth, 
Mr.  Cotton  at  Newton,  Mr.  Cook  at  Sudbury,  Mr.  Cook  at  Me- 
notomy,  Mr.  Bryant  at  Braintree,  and  Mr.  Prescott  at  Salem 
Village,  all  of  which  accepted  and  attended  on  the  17th  of  June. 
Four  others  which  had  been  invited  did  not  attend.1     The  ser- 

1  The  churches  which  were  invited,  Williams  at  Watertown,  Mr.  Clarke  at 
but  did  not  appear,  were  those  of  Mr.     Salem  Village,  Mr.  Sparhawk  at   Salem, 


DR.    CHAUNCY  AND  MR.  MAYHEW.  S79 

mon  was  preached  by  Mr.  Gay,  of  Hingham  ;  the  charge  was 
given  by  the  Rev.  Experience  Mayhew,  the  venerable  father  of 
the  pastor-elect  ;  and  the  right  hand  of  fellowship  was  extended 
by  Mr.  Prescott,  of  Salem  Village. 

The  foregoing  list  of  names  is  interesting  as  showing  the  theo- 
logical divergence  which  at  this  time  existed  among  the  Con- 
gregational clergy  of  Massachusetts,  and  which  was  determined 
for  the  most  part  by  the  line  of  separation  drawn  in  the  White- 
field  controversy.  Mr.  Appleton  and  Mr.  Cotton  had  received 
Mr.  Whitefield  cordially  on  his  first  visit,  and  had  rejoiced  in 
the  great  revival  of  that  period  ;  but  they  had  been  frightened 
by  the  extravagances  of  those  who  had  come  after  him,  and  had 
now  taken  a  position  of  quasi  hostility  to  him.  Mr.  Hancock, 
Mr.  Gay,  and  Mr.  Smith,  from  the  first,  had  been  able  to  see 
nothing  in  the  revival  to  praise,  but  everything  to  deprecate. 
No  one  of  the  others,  unless  we  except  Mr.  Experience  May- 
hew,  had  ever  committed  himself  to  the  side  of  Mr.  Whitefield 
and  the  revival.  But  this  does  not  explain  the  absence  of  Dr. 
Chauncy,  and  other  pastors  in  Boston  who  were  more  or  less  in 
sympathy  with  him  ;  and  we  must  infer  either  that  it  was  under- 
stood that  the  churches  to  which  they  ministered  were  not  in 
accord  with  them  on  this  issue,  or  that  Mr.  Mayhew  held  certain 
opinions  which  it  was  known  that  they  could  not  approve.  Mr. 
Mayhew  did  not  accept  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  although, 
Dr.  Lowell  says,  in  the  faith  of  other  doctrines,  that  of  the 
atonement  among  them,  "  he  was  most  firm  and  steady."  On 
the  other  hand,  Dr.  Chauncy  was  probably  a  Trinitarian,  but  he 
rejected  the  doctrines  of  a  limited  atonement  and  reprobation.1 
Any  such  differences,  however,  did  not  long  keep  them  apart  from 
each  other,  or  from  their  brethren  ;  and  their  sturdy  indepen- 

and  Mr.  Rogers  at  Littleton.     We   have  the  doctrines  of  grace  as  revealed  in  the 

taken  our  facts  in  relation  to  Mr.  May-  Holy  Scriptures." 

hew's  ordination  from  Dr.  Lowell's  His-  Dr.     Frothingham,     writing     of     Dr. 

torical  Sermon,  December  31,  1820.  Chauncy's   theological   views,  does  not 

1  Dr.  Lowell  says  that  the  friends  who  affirm  positively  that  he  was  not  a  Trin- 

knew  Dr.  Mayhew  best  described  him  as  itarian.     His   words   are:    "As   to    the 

"a  man  of  real  piety  and  true  devotion,  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  though  the  sub- 

an   upright,   sincere    disciple    of    Jesus  ject  had  not  risen  into  controversy  in  his 

Christ."     "  He  was  not  an  advocate  for  day,T  have  always  supposed  that  he  was 

the  sentiments  of  Luther  or  Calvin,  but  non-Nicene  on  that  point.     Such  a  sup- 

for  primitive  Christianity,  a  zealous  con-  position  would  certainly  correspond  best 

tender  for  the  faith  once  delivered  to  the  with  the  general  complexion  of  his  reli- 

saints,   not   receiving    the    doctrines    of  gious  opinions."  —  Ellis's  History  of  the 

grace  as  taught  at  the  reformation,  but  First  Church,  p.  193. 


$8o  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD   SOUTH  CHURCH. 

dence  and  persistent  and  powerful  opposition  both  to  hierarchy 
and  monarchy,  in  the  years  then  approaching,  will  ever  be  re- 
membered in  New  England  in  the  history  of  religious  and  civil 
liberty. 

At  a  Meeting  of  the  Church  and  Congregation  July  6.  1747. 

Whereas  the  Church  and  Congregation  at  a  Meeting  May  5.  1740 
Voted  that  a  subscription  be  taken  in  order  to  raise  for  each  of  our 
Rev'd  Pastors,  nine  pounds  per  week  in  Bills  of  Credit,  composed 
with  silver  at  29  sh  per  ounce,  the  value  whereof  the  Deacons  have 
made  to  them  from  time  to  time  till  Novr  2.  last:  And  Whereas  the 
Necessaries  of  life  as  well  as  the  price  of  Silver,  are  now,  and  have 
been  for  some  months  past  so  advanced  that  fifteen  pounds  of  our 
present  Currency  will  not  purchase  more  than  nine  pounds  would,  at 
the  time  said  vote  was  pass'd  ;  Therefore  Voted 

That  the  Deacons  be  directed  to  make  good  to  each  of  our  Rev'd 
Pastors,  the  sum  of  fifteen  pounds  O.  Tenor,  per  week,  for  the  cur- 
rent year,  beginning  Novr.  1.  last,  and  that  the  Church  and  Congrega- 
tion be  notified  hereof,  the  next  Lord's  day,  and  desired  to  advance 
their  contributions  proportionably  for  this  purpose. 

The  Report  of  the  Committee  for  auditing  the  Deacons'  Accounts 
is  as  follows, 

"  The  Committee  to  whom  was  referr'd  the  Consideration  of  the 
Deacons'  Accounts,  having  had  the  perusal  of  their  account  belong- 
ing to  Church  and  Congregation,  have  maturely  consider'd  and  exam- 
in'd  the  same  from  Augt.  1722  to  the  31st  of  March  last;  and  Report 
that  they  find  a  Ballance  of  ninety  seven  pounds,  nineteen  shillings, 
Old  Tenor,  in  favour  of  the  Church  and  Congregation  then  remaining 
in  their  hands,  which  they  carry  to  a  new  Book  : 

Which  is  humbly  submitted  by  Eze.  Lewis 

Antho.  Stoddard." 

Boston,  May  20,  1747 

Voted  unanimously  to  accept  said  account.  Joseph  Sewall. 

When  Mr.  Mayhew  was  settled  at  the  West  Church  his  sal- 
ary was  fixed  at  fifteen  pounds  a  week,  old  tenor  ;  while  preach- 
ing as  a  candidate  he  had  received  eight  pounds  a  week.  There 
had  been  much  suffering  among  the  ministers  of  the  province 
because  of  the  fluctuating  nature  of  the  currency.  Dr.  Chauncy, 
in  his  Election  Sermon  in  1747,  dwelt  upon  the  injustice  of 
this  ;  and  the  rebuke  was  so  little  relished  by  the  legislature 
that  it  hesitated  about  publishing  the  sermon,  according  to 
custom.  At  about  the  same  time  he  and  Mr.  Foxcroft  addressed 
a  severe  letter  to  their  congregation,  asking  them  to  "  pitch 
upon  some  method  "  for  the  proper  supply  of  themselves  and 


DEATH   OF  DR.    COLMAN.  58 1 

families  with  the  necessaries  of  life.  It  was  referred  to  a  com- 
mittee for  consideration,  and  led  to  a  satisfactory  readjustment 
of  their  stipend.1  The  action  of  the  brethren  of  the  South 
Church,  July  6,  was  undoubtedly  prompted,  in  part  at  least,  by 
Dr.  Chauncy's  sermon. 

The  devoted  missionary,  David  Brainerd,  made  a  visit  to 
Boston  in  the  summer  of  1747,  staying  with  Mr.  Edward  Brom- 
field  at  his  house  in  Beacon  Street.2  He  was  most  cordially 
received  by  the  good  people  of  the  town  ;  but  he  was  in  the 
last  stages  of  consumption,  and  died  soon  after  at  Northampton. 
On  Sunday,  July  19,  he  worshipped  with  the  South  Church. 
He  wrote  in  his  journal :  "  I  was  just  able  to  attend  public  wor- 
ship, being  carried  to  the  house  of  God  in  a  chaise.  Heard  Dr. 
Sewall  preach  in  the  forenoon  ;  partook  of  the  Lord's  Supper 
at  this  time.  ...  In  the  afternoon,  heard  Mr.  Prince  preach.  I 
saw  more  of  God  in  the  wisdom  discovered  in  the  plan  of  man's 
redemption,  than  I  saw  of  any  other  of  his  perfections,  through 
the  whole  day."  On  the  following  day  he  bade  farewell  to  his 
kind  Boston  friends.3 

The  excellent  Dr.  Colman  died  August  29,  aged  seventy- 
three.  He  was  received  by  many  with  suspicion  and  coldness 
when  he  returned  to  his  native  town  at  the  beginning  of  the 
century  to  take  the  pulpit  at  Brattle  Street,  but  he  lived  down 
all  prejudice,  and  won  to  an  exceptional  degree  the  confidence 
and  affectionate  regard  of  the  whole  community.4      His  rela- 

1  Ellis's  History  of  the  First  Church,  and  he  appeared  very  ingenious,  observ- 
pp.  189,  190,  203,  204.  ant,   curious,   penetrating,   especially   in 

2  Mr.  Bromfield  built  the  first  house  in  works  of  nature,  in  mechanical  con- 
Beacon  Street,  at  or  near  what  is  now  trivances,  and  manual  operations,  which 
Freeman  Place.  (See  the  cut  at  the  increased  upon  his  studying  the  mathe- 
head  of  this  chapter.)  It  stood  very  matical  sciences,  as  also  in  searching 
high,  and  commanded  a  fine  view.  Here  into  the  truths  of  divine  revelation,  and 
the  third  Edward  Bromfield  was  born  in  into  the  nature  of  genuine  experimental 
1723,  and  died  in  1746.     He  joined  the  piety." 

South  Church  in  1741,  and  graduated  at  After  Mr.  Bromfield's  death,  his  man- 
Harvard  College  in  1742.  He  was  the  sion  was  bought  and  occupied  by  his 
first  person  in  America  to  make  a  micro-  son-in-law,  William  Phillips,  and  later 
scope,  grinding  and  polishing  his  own  it  was  occupied  by  his  great-grandson, 
lenses ;  and  if  he  had  lived,  he  would  Jonathan  Phillips.  See  Mem.  Hist,  of 
undoubtedly  have  achieved  great  dis-  Boston,  vol.  ii.  p.  521. 
tinction  in  science.  Mr.  Prince  said  of  3  Mr.  Brainerd's  ordination  sermon 
him :  "  From  his  childhood  he  was  was  preached  by  the  Rev.  Ebenezer 
thoughtful,  calm,  easy,  modest,  of  tender  Pemberton,  then  of  New  York,  after- 
affections,  dutiful  to  his  superiors,  and  ward  of  Boston. 

kind  to  all  about  him.     As  he  grew  up  *  Dr.    Lothrop   says  of   Dr.  Colman  : 

these  agreeable  qualities  ripened  in  him ;  "Firm    without    obstinacy,   conciliatory 


5§2  HISTORY  OF   THE    OLD   SOUTH  CHURCH. 

tions  with  the  ministers  of  the  South  Church  were  always 
intimate. 

The  South  Church  participated  in  the  services  of  ordination 
at  the  Old  North,  September  3,  1747,  when  the  Rev.  Samuel 
Checkley  was  installed  there  as  colleague  with  Mr.  Gee.  Mr. 
Checkley  was  son  of  the  first  minister  of  the  New  South,  and 
grandson  of  the  deacon  of  the  Old  South,  both  of  the  same 
name.  Dr.  Ware  says  that  he  was  distinguished  "for  a  peculiar 
sort  of  eloquence,  and  an  uncommon  felicity  in  the  devotional 
service  of  public  worship."     Mr.  Gee  died  in  1748. 

Lord's  Day  Septr.  20.  1747. 

The  Brethren  of  the  church  were  stayed  ;  and  by  written  votes 
chose  the  same  Committee,  whose  Names  are  mentioned  above  [see 
August  24,  1746]  for  the  year  ensuing.  Joseph  Sewall. 

Lord's  Day,  November  15.  1747.  p.  m. 

The  Brethren  of  the  Church  and  Congregation  stayed  and  Voted, 
That  there  be  a  Collection  for  Charitable  and  pious  uses  on  the 
Anniversary  Thanksgiving  next,  viz.  November  26.  current ;  and  that 
the  Rest  of  the  congregation  be  publickly  notified  of  this  vote  next 
Lord's  Day,  and  desired  to  assist  in  the  said  collection. 

Thomas  Prince. 

Public  Thanksgiving  Novr  26.  1747. 
Collected, 
For  the  Char,  and  Pious  Fund    . 
For  the  Rev.  Mr.  Cambell  of  Tiverton 
For  the  Widow  Morse         .... 
For  Mr.  Francis  Willoughby 
For  the  Widow  Holland     .... 
For  the  Widow  Thwing  .... 

For  the  Widow  Rouse         .... 

Unappropriated,  for  Char,  and  pious  uses 

Total 

To  which  are  added        ..... 

289.    9.  8 

without  compromise,  dignified  without  the  new  church,  and  carry  out  with 
pride  or  pretension,  a  polished  gentle-  mingled  wisdom,  firmness  and  gentle- 
man in  his  manners,  a  patient  student  ness  the  customs  and  principles  which  it 
and  thorough  scholar  in  his  learning,  had  adopted,  and  to  him  do  we  greatly 
enlarged,  penetrating,  comprehensive  in  owe  it,  that  the  most  important  of  these 
his  views  and  principles  as  a  man,  sin-  customs  and  principles  received  at  last 
cere,  benevolent,  devout  in  his  faith  and  the  approval  and  adoption  of  most  of  the 
feelings  as  a  Christian  and  a  pastor,  he  New  England  Congregational  churches. 
was  admirably  fitted  to  take  charge  of  —  Hist,  of  the  Ch.  in  Brattle  St.,  p.  97. 


£15- 

0. 

0 

6. 

0. 

0 

6. 

0. 

0 

4- 

0. 

0 

3- 

0. 

0 

2. 

0. 

0 

1. 

10. 

0 

37- 

10. 

0 

228. 

9- 

8 

265. 

19. 

8 

23- 

10. 

0 

ELECTION  OF  SEATERS.  583 

The  Brethren  of  the  Church  and  Congregation  were  stay'd,  Lords 
Day  Deer.  6.  1747. 

And  Voted,  1.  That  the  Deacons  be  empower'd  to  expend  two  hun- 
dred pounds  O.  T.  of  the  Collection  for  Charitable  and  pious  uses, 
for  the  relief  of  the  poor  in  this  Church  and  Congregation,  in  Wood 
and  other  Necessaries  of  life 

2.  That  twenty  Pounds  of  said  collection  be  laid  out  in  Bibles  and 
other  Books  of  Piety;  and  given  by  our  Pastors  to  proper  objects  of 
such  a  charity. 

At  a  Meeting  of  the  South  Church'  and  Congregation,  18  Tanv 
1747-8.  &  J     y 

Voted,  That  there  be  seven  Seaters  chosen  to  stand  for  one  year, 
and  until  further  order,  and  upon  counting  and  sorting  the  votes 
brought  in  for  this  purpose,  the  following  Persons  appear'd  to  be 
chosen  ;  viz.  Ezekiel  Lewis,  Edward  Winslow,  Joshua  Winslow,  Francis 
Borland  Esqrs.  Mr.  Timothy  Prout,  Mr.  Edward  Bromfield,  Thomas 
Hubbard  Esq. 

Voted,  That  the  said  Seaters  advance  seventy  five  per  cent  on  the 
prime  cost  of  such  Pews  as  they  shall  hereafter  dispose  of,  until  further 
order ;  the  advanced  sum  to  be  paid  to  the  last  Owner,  if  an  original 
Proprietor ;  or  otherwise  to  be  proportion'd  by  the  Seaters  between 
the  last  Owner  and  the  former  Owner  or  Owners. 

Voted,  That  twenty  pounds,  old  tenour,  per  week,  be  paid  to  each 
of  our  Rev'd  pastors  for  one  year  next  ensuing. 

Voted,  That  there  be  a  Committee  appointed  to  value  the  several 
Pews  and  seats  in  the  House,  and  consider  the  circumstances  of  the 
Proprietors  ;  and  make  report  what  is  reasonable  each  Person  or  Seat 
should  pay  weekly  for  support  of  the  Ministry:  And  that  a  subscrip- 
tion in  consequence  thereof  be  offered  to  the  several  Pew  holders  or 
other  Proprietors,  in  order  to  subject  themselves  and  their  seats  to 
such  tax. 

The  Committee  appointed  were  Messrs.  Lewis,  Oliver,  Hubbard, 
Eliot,  Walker,  Tyng  and  Traile.1 

1  [There  were  several  Scotch  families  silver,  books  on  history  and  divinity,  a 

in  the  South  Church,  among  them  those  pew  in  the  South  meeting-house,  and  a 

of   Bethune,  Vans,  Traill   and    Scollay.  note  of  hand  of  John  Groat  of  the  Ork- 

John  Traill,  with  his  wife  Mary,  entered  neys.     Mr.  Traill   had  no  children,  and 

the  membership  August  24,  1735.      He  one   half   of   the   property  went   to   his 

was  born  in  Westness,  in  the  island  of  nephews  and  nieces.     One  of  the  former 

Rowsay,  one  of  the  Orkneys,  February  was  Robert  Traill  ;     he   married   Mary 

5,  1694;  he  became  a  prosperous  busi-  Whipple  of    Portsmouth,    N.  H.    Their 

ness  man  in  Boston,  and  died  intestate,  daughter,  Mary,  married  Keith  Spence, 

in  the  autumn  of  1749.     His  widow  ad-  also  from  the  Orkneys;  and  their daugh- 

ministered  on  his  estate,  Abiel  Walley  ter,  Harriet  Brackett  Spence,  became  the 

and  Thomas  Hubbard  being  her  bonds-  wife,  in  1806,  of  the  Rev.  Charles  Lowell, 

men.     In  the  inventory  we  notice,  inter  for  more  than  fiftv  years  pastor  of  the 

aha,  four  hundred   ounces   of  wrought  West  Church,  Boston.] 


584  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

The  Meeting  was  then  adjourned  to  Monday  25.  Inst.  10  aclock 
A.M. 

Then  met  and  Voted, 

Voted,  That  Messrs.  Kneeland,  Cushing  and  Seth  Foster  be  desired 
to  wait  on  the  absent  Brethren  with  the  Assessment  and  Subscription 
prepared  by  the  Committee. 

Voted,  That  the  Deacons  be  desired  to  keep  an  account  of  the 
several  sums  contributed  for  the  support  of  the  Public  Worship,  by 
the  respective  Pewholders  or  others  who  shall  mark  the  same ;  that  it 
may  be  known  by  the  Church  and  Congregation  whenever  they  shall 
desire  it.  Joseph  Sewall. 

Lord's  Day  April  17.  1748. 

The  Brethren  of  the  Church  and  Congregation  were  stay'd,  and 
Voted  ; 

That  there  be  a  Collection  for  charitable  and  pious  uses  on  the 
Anniversary  Fast  next,  April  28.  Current ;  and  that  the  Rest  of  the 
Congregation  be  notified  of  this  vote  next  Lord's  day,  and  desired  to 
assist  in  said  collection. 

Lord's  Day,  April  17.  1748. 

The  Brethren  of  the  Church  were  stayed,  and  a  Letter  readd  from 
the  Church  in  Salem,  lately  under  the  pastoral  care  of  the  Rev'd  Mr. 
S.  Fiske,  now  of  the  Rev'd  Mr.  D.  Leavitt  testifying  against  the  mis- 
conduct of  their  Brethren  from  whom  we  had  withdrawn  communion, 
for  their  refusing  methods  of  peace  &c.  And  a  letter  from  said 
Brethren  acknowledging  their  offence,  and  asking  Forgiveness  and 
reconciliation. 

Upon  which  the  church  Voted  to  take  off  the  sentence  of  Non- 
Communion,  and  restore  those  Brethren  to  their  Charity.  And  a 
Letter  was  written  to  said  church  to  signify  the  same,  signed  by  the 
Pastors.1  Joseph  Sewall. 

Public  Fast  April  28,  1748. 
Collected. 
For  the  char,  and  pious  Fund 

Rev.  Mr.  Cambell 

Mr.  Willoughby     .         ... 

Widow  Arnold  ..... 


Unappropriated     . 


1  [This    was    the    Third    Church    in     in  the  pastorate   in    1745  by   the    Rev. 
Salem,  founded  in  1735  by  Mr.  Fisk  and     Dudley  Leavitt,  Harv.  Coll.  1739. 
his  adherents.     Mr.  Fisk  was  succeeded         Dr.  Ware  says :  "  It  is  not  until  Oc- 


•       5- 

0. 

0 

• 

4- 

0. 

0 

0 

• 

1. 

0. 

0 

19. 

0. 

0 

.  188. 

6. 

0 

207. 

6. 

0 

Joseph  Sewall, 

THE  SECOND   CHURCH  IN  IPSWICH.  585 

Lord's  Day  July  10.  1748. 

The  Brethren  of  the  Church  were  stayed,  and  a  Letter  readd  from 
the  Second  Church  in  Ipswich  desiring  our  Assistance  in  Council,  and 
Voted,  one  of  the  Deacons,  Messrs.  Thacher,  Loring  and  Eliot,  with 
our  Pastors,  or  one  of  them  were  chosen  to  goe  as  Messengers  from 
this  Church.  Joseph  Sewall. 

There  had  been  serious  trouble  in  the  Second  Church  of 
Ipswich  (now  Essex)  for  several  years.  In  1741  some  of  the 
members  became  disaffected  towards  their  minister,  the  Rev. 
Theophilus  Pickering,  because  of  his  want  of  interest  in  the 
revival.  In  1744  they  preferred  formal  charges  against  him  to 
the  church,  and  failing  to  obtain  satisfaction  they  withdrew 
from  its  communion  and  began  to  hold  religious  services  by 
themselves.  In  1746  the  Second  Church  called  an  ex  parte 
council  for  advice,  which  judged  that  the  "aggrieved  brethren  " 
had  received  harsh  treatment  in  certain  particulars,  but  it  found 
"no  just  cause  of  offence"  affecting  Mr.  Pickering's  orthodoxy 
and  ministerial  character.  The  conduct  of  the  brethren  in  with- 
drawing from  the  church,  setting  up  a  separate  meeting,  and 
inviting  persons  of  doubtful  character,  coming  to  them  in  a  dis- 
orderly manner,  to  teach  them  from  time  to  time,  was  pronounced 
unjustifiable;  although  "great  tenderness  and  even  long-suffer- 
ing "  were  recommended  to  the  church  in  its  dealing  with  them. 
Peace,  however,  could  not  be  restored  between  the  parties,  and 
the  separating  brethren  proceeded  to  the  formation  of  a  new 
church  —  the  Fourth  —  and  called  Mr.  John  Cleaveland,  who 
had  been  preaching  for  them  and  previously  to  the  Separatist 
Church  in  Boston,  to  settle  with  them  as  their  minister.  He 
was  ordained  February  25,  1747.  The  churches  which  assisted 
on  the  occasion  were  the  First  of  Ipswich,  and  the  Second  of 
Kittery,  delegates  from  other  churches  invited  being  detained 
by  the  inclemency  of  the  weather.  "  The  action  of  the  First 
Church  in  this  particular  was  resented  by  the  Second  Church, 
and  made  the  ground,  first,  of  an  offer  by  the  Second  Church 
to  call  a  mutual  council.  A  council  being  declined  by  the  First 
Church,  letters  subsequently  passed  between  the  churches, 
ending  with  an  admonition  to  the  former  from  the  Second 
Church.     To  this  admonitory  letter  the  First  Church  replied, 

tober,  1745,  that  I  find  a  letter  of  peni-  who  took  off  the  sentence  of  non-com- 
tent  acknowledgment,  entreating  to  be  munion,  with  the  express  exception  of 
restored  to  communion,  was  received  the  late  minister."  —  Two  Discourses, 
and  acted  upon  by  the  Old  North  Church,  1S21,  p.  52.] 


586  HISTORY  OF   THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

justifying  its  action,  whereupon  more  letters  followed,  and  finally 
a  call  was  made  by  the  Second  Church  upon  seven  churches  to 
second  their  admonition.  These  churches  failing  to  respond  at 
the  appointed  time,  the  call  was  revived  for  this  council  to  meet 
July  19,  1748;  when  six  of  the  seven  churches  called  appeared 
by  their  elders  and  delegates.  Upon  requesting  the  appearance 
of  the  separating  brethren,  and  the  representatives  of  the  First 
Church,  it  appeared  that  notice  had  not  been  regularly  given  to 
either,  and  though,  on  this  account,  a  formal  appearance  was 
declined,  not  only  the  pastor  of  the  First  Church  and  several 
of  its  members  were  present  before  the  council,  but  a  leading 
member  of  the  separating  congregation  was  admitted,  upon  his 
request  to  appear  in  a  private  capacity.  The  council  was  there- 
upon adjourned,  to  meet  on  the  26th  at  the  Old  South  Meeting- 
house in  Boston." 

On  reassembling  in  Boston,  the  council,  after  deliberation, 
agreed  upon  eight  articles  of  advice,  in  which  both  the  Second 
Church  and  the  separating  brethren  were  commended  in  some 
respects  and  condemned  in  others.  The  First  Church  was  en- 
treated to  revise  its  conduct  in  the  matter  of  the  ordination  ; 
the  separating  brethren  were  advised  to  consider  meekly  the 
censure  passed  upon  them,  and  the  Second  Church  was  re- 
minded "that  where  there  are  divisions  there  ought  to  be  great 
searching,  each  one  of  his  own  heart,"  and  was  exhorted  to 
behave  towards  the  separating  brethren  "  with  all  Christian 
moderation,  without  any  further  disciplinary  process  against 
them,  and  to  be  ready  to  permit  their  return,  if  they  should  so 
desire,  without  any  severe  demands  upon  them."  *    . 

The  First  Church  in  Ipswich  also  had  been  disturbed  and 
divided.  Its  senior  pastor,  the  Rev.  John  Rogers,  died  in  1745, 
and  in  the  following  year  Mr.  John  Walley  was  called  to  settle 
as  colleague  with  the  surviving  pastor,  the  Rev.  Nathaniel 
Rogers.  Mr.  Walley  was  not  willing  to  exchange  with  Mr. 
Cleaveland,  and  Mr.  Rogers  objected  to  him  on  this  account.2 

1  See  an  exhaustive  note  on  the  Ips-  and  esteem  him  to  be  a  sound  andjudi- 
wich  church  troubles,  by  Mr.  Abner  C.  cious  divine,  a  serious,  humble,  inward 
Goodell,  Jr.,  in  the  Arts  and  Resolves  of  Christian,  and  a  person  of  great  prudence 
the  Prov.  of  Mass.,  vol.  v.  pp.  533-537.  and  excellent  temper,  and  one  that  is  like 

2  Mr.  Josiah  Willard  wrote  to  Mr.  to  be  the  instrument  of  as  much  happi- 
Rogers  :  "  I  think  myself  obliged  to  let  ness  to  you  and  your  people,  if  he  should 
you  know  that  I  have  not  only  often  heard  settle  among  you,  as  any  man  I  know  of 
Mr.  Walley  preach,  but  have  a  very  inti-  in  the  world." 

mate  and  familiar  acquaintance  with  him,         Mr.  Walley  left  Ipswich,  because  of  his 


SENTENCE   OF  EXCOMMUNICATION.  587 

The  more  conservative  brethren  thereupon  withdrew,  the  Fifth 
or  South  Church  was  organized,  and  Mr.  Walley  was  ordained 
as  its  pastor  November  4,  1747. 

Nathanael  Wardel,  who  had  been  admonished  and  suspended 
in  1743,  for  disorderly  conduct  as  a  leader  in  the  separatist 
movement  of  that  year,  was  now  called  to  account  and  dealt 
with  for  breaches  of  the  moral  law. 

Lords  Day,  Aug.  14.  1748. 

The  Church  was  stay'd  P.  M.  and  considered  the  case  of  our  Brother 
Nathl  Wardel,  who  was  admonish'd  and  suspended  by  us  Dec.  25. 
1743,  for  several  hanous  sins:  But  instead  of  giving  Christian  satis- 
faction, it  has  been  represented  that  he  has  further  offended  by  re- 
peated acts  of  profane  swearing  and  excessive  drinking :  Accordingly 
the  Church  Voted  that  they  would  farther  hear  his  case  next  Tuesday 
at  10  oclock  A.  M.  and  D[eacon]  Henchman  and  Mr.  Bromfield  were 
desir'd  to  take  care  that  the  Witnesses  be  ready;  and  the  Pastors 
were  desired  to  warn  said  Wardel  of  the  meeting  and  require  his 
attendance. 

At  a  Meeting  of  the  Church  Augt  16.  1748 

After  Prayer  to  God,  and  hearing  the  Witnesses  Voted ; 

1.  That  Nathl.  Wardel  junr  has  been  frequently  guilty  of  profane 
cursing  and  swearing  when  in  drink  and  free  from  it. 

2.  That  said  Wardel  has  liv'd  in  a  course  of  the  sin  of  Drunkenness. 

3.  Nathl.  Wardel  junr.  having  refus'd  to  hear  the  Church,  and 
not  manifesting  any  repentance  upon  account  of  the  Crimes  for  which 
he  was  solemnly  admonish'd  and  suspended  Dec.  25.  1743;  And 
having  since  added  other  hainous  sins  to  them,  viz.  frequent  profane 
cursing  and  swearing,  and  a  course  of  Drunkenness  : 

We  apprehend  that  the  rule  of  God's  Word,  the  Honour  of  our 
Lord  Jesus,  and  the  Credit  of  our  holy  Profession  require  us  to  cast 
said  Wardel  out  of  the  Church ;  And  the  Pastors  are  desir'd  accord- 
ingly to  Pronounce  the  sentence  of  Excommunication  upon  him. 

4.  That  this  Solemn  Sentence  of  Excommunication  be  pronounced 
on  the  Lord's  Day  of  the  28th  Instant  P.  M.  before  the  Congrega- 
tion ;  and  that  said  Wardel  be  notified  of  it,  and  requir'd  to  be  pres- 
ent. 

Lord's  Day  Augt  28  1748 

The  Sentence  of  Excommunication  was  pronounced  before  the 
Congregation,  And  is  as  follows  ; 

ill  health,  in  1764.     "  Being  well  versed  order  of  the  General  Court  in  their  own 

in  the  French  language,  he   instructed  tongue.     After  he  left  his  people  at  Ips- 

the  French  neutrals  [brought  from  Aca-  wich,  he  preached  for  the  French  Hugue- 

dia]   who   were    located   at   Ipswich   by  nots  in  Boston."     (Felt.) 


588  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

Nathl.  Wardel  junr. 

Whereas  you  have  openly  enter'd  into  Covenant  with  God,  and 
with  this  Church,  and  have  broken  this  holy  Covenant ;  And  whereas 
when  you  had  been  solemnly  admonished  and  suspended  by  this 
Church  for  several  hainous  violations  of  God's  Law,  and  after  long 
waiting,  you  have  refused  to  hear  the  Church,  and  not  manifested  any 
repentance  ;  yea  have  added  to  these  offenses  the  aggravated  crimes  of 
profane  cursing  and  swearing,  often  repeated ;  and  a  course  of  drunk- 
enness : 

This  church  having  taken  your  case  into  their  serious  and  prayerful 
consideration,  and  after  a  fair  hearing  of  the  Witnesses,  came  gen- 
erally into  this  Vote,  viz. 

That  they  apprehend  that  the  rule  of  God's  Word,  the  Honour  of 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  and  the  Credit  of  their  Profession  requir'd 
them  to  cast  you  out  of  the  Church  : 

Accordingly,  We  the  Pastors  of  said  Church  doe  in  the  Name  of 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  and  with  the  concurrence  of  this  church,  Pro- 
nounce the  Sentence  of  Excommunication  upon  you,  and  Declare  you 
to  be  cut  off  and  put  away  from  the  communion  of  the  church  as  un- 
worthy of  the  Privileges  of  a  Church-Member,  and  that  you  are  not 
to  be  look'd  upon  and  trusted  as  one  belonging  to  the  visible  Church 
of  Christ ;  and  we  accordingly  require  the  Brethren,  in  the  Name  of 
our  Lord  Jesus,  to  withdraw  themselves  from  you  as  from  one  walk- 
ing disorderly,  and  that  they  doe  not  keep  company  with  you,  saving 
in  the  discharge  of  those  Duties  which  natural,  domestic,  or  Civil 
relations  require. 

And  this  awful  sentence  we  pass  upon  you  with  sorrow  of  heart, 
not  for  your  Destruction  ;  but  with  earnest  Prayer  to  our  glorious 
Lord,  who  has  appointed  this  ordinance  of  discipline,  that  He  would 
sanctify  it,  to  bring  you  to  serious  consideration  and  saving  repent- 
ance, that  we  may  have  the  joy  to  restore  you  with  a  spirit  of  meek- 
ness, and  that  your  soul  may  be  sav'd  in  the  day  of  the  Lord. 

At  the  same  time,  We  also  declare  to  you  from  the  word  of  God, 
that  if  you  add  to  your  other  Offences  the  Contempt  of  this  Ordi- 
nance of  Christ,  and  goe  on  obstinately  in  your  sins,  you  must  be  con- 
demned with  the  world,  when  the  Lord  Jesus  shall  be  reveal'd  from 
heaven,  with  His  mighty  Angels,  in  flaming  Fire,  taking  vengeance  on 
them  that  know  not  God,  and  that  obey  not  the  Gospel  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ :  who  shall  be  punish'd  with  everlasting  destruction  from 
the  Presence  of  the  Lord,  and  from  the  Glory  of  His  Power. 

May  God  prevent  this  of  His  infinite  mercy  in  Jesus  Christ  our 
Lord,  to  whom  be  Praise  and  Dominion  for  ever  and  ever,  Amen. 

Joseph  Sewall. 
Thomas  Prince. 


THE  REV.   ANDREW  CROSWELL.  589 

N.  B.  Said  Wardel  left  the  Assembly  while  the  sentence  of  Excom- 
munication was  pronounced.  Accordingly  it  was  voted  that  a  copy 
should  be  sent  and  deliver'd  to  him  in  writing,  which  was  done. 

Augt.  25  1748.     Lord's  Day. 

The  Brethren  of  the  church  were  stay'd,  and  a  letter  readd  sign'd 
Tho.  Fillebrown,  James  Davenport,  Nathl.  Procter,  desiring  our  assist- 
ance at  the  Instalment  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Crosswell.  Vote  was  in  the 
negative.  And  then  Voted  that  the  Hon  J.  Osborne,  E.  Lewis,  J.  Wil- 
lard  and  S.  Welles,  be  a  Committee  to  join  with  our  Pastors  in  draw- 
ing up  a  letter  to  signify  our  dissent  and  the  reasons  of  it. 

Oct.  2.  Said  letter  was  readd  and  Voted,  And  was  sent  accordingly 
to  the  New  gather'd  Church,  sign'd  by  the  Pastors  in  the  Name  of 
the  Church,  directed  to  the  committee  who  sign'd  their  letter.  And 
a  copy  of  said  letter  was  also  deliver'd  to  the  Moderator  of  the  coun- 
cil conven'd  for  the  Instalment  of  said  Mr.  Crosswell. 

The  last  two  entries  bring  us  again  to  the  dissensions  and 
divisions  which  came  after  the  visits  of  Mr.  Whitefield  and 
some  of  his  followers  to  New  England.  "On  the  17th  of  Feb- 
ruary, 1747-8  a  number  of  persons,  almost  all  of  whom  were 
members  of  other  churches,  thinking  it  for  the  glory  of  God  to 
be  a  distinct,  but  not  a  separate  church  (as  was  expressed  in 
several  letters  sent  for  dismissions)  did  after  solemn  fasting  and 
prayer  embody  into  a  church-state."  This  is  the  opening  sen- 
tence in  a  "  Narrative  of  the  Founding  and  Settling  of  the  New- 
gathered  [the  eleventh]  Congregational  Church  in  Boston," 
written  by  the  Rev.  Andrew  Croswell,  and  printed  in  1749. 
It  does  not  appear  that  any  churches  had  assisted  at  the  organ- 
ization of  the  new  society,  or  that  it  had  received  ecclesiastical 
recognition  of  any  kind.  Nor  does  it  appear  that  any  formal 
protests  had  been  entered  against  it  by  the  neighboring  churches 
before  the  time  fixed  for  installing  its  pastor-elect.  Had  its 
choice  fallen  upon  a  somewhat  different  man,  it  is  possible  that 
no  decided  opposition  would  have  developed  against  it  then. 
Mr.  Croswell  graduated  at  Harvard  College  in  1728,  and  was 
settled  for  several  years  at  Groton,  Connecticut.  On  the  first 
arrival  of  Mr.  Whitefield  in  New  England,  he  entered  with 
much  zeal  into  the  work  of  the  revival.  He  warmly  espoused 
the  cause  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Davenport,  as  against  the  ministers 
who  refused  to  admit  him  to  their  pulpits  :  and  he  defended  his 
courses,  after  he  himself  had  publicly  and  in  print  expressed  his 
sorrow  at  much  that  he  had  said  and  done.  Mr.  Croswell  was 
a  fair  representative  of  certain  men  and  women  to  be  found  in 


59°  HISTORY  OF   THE    OLD   SOUTH   CHURCH. 

the  churches  of  every  generation,  who  are  censorious  and  un- 
compromising in  their  judgment  upon  the  inconsistencies  and 
imperfections  of  their  fellow-members,  but  very  complacent  in 
their  estimate  of  their  own  religious  attainments  and  of  their 
own  standing  before  the  Lord  and  Master  of  all.  Such  people 
can  make  themselves  very  uncomfortable  to  their  associates, 
and  it  is  altogether  unsatisfactory  to  have  much  to  do  with 
them.  When  they  are  willing  to  go  off  by  themselves,  and  or- 
ganize a  church  of  their  own,  it  seems  to  us  that  the  churches 
can  well  afford  to  let  them  go  and  carry  out  their  own  ideas  in 
their  own  way.  Mr.  Croswell  was  not  strictly  what  was  called 
a  separatist  at  the  time,  but  he  was  so  much  of  a  controver- 
sialist and  such  a  fault-finder  that  he  was  always  antagonizing 
his  brother  ministers.  He  was  a  decided  Calvinist,  but  less 
severe  in  his  opinions  than  many  of  those  who  opposed  him. 
They  thought  that  his  tendencies  were  Antinomian,  while  he 
retorted  that  theirs  were  Arminian.  It  is  difficult  to  define  his 
position  with  any  degree  of  exactitude.  He  claimed  to  repre- 
sent Mr.  Whitefield,  but  ministers  like  Mr.  Edwards  and  Mr. 
Prince,  and  laymen  like  Mr.  Josiah  Willard,  were  opposed  to 
him.  David  Brainerd,  who  during  his  college  course  at  New 
Haven  had  come  under  Mr.  Davenport's  influence,  almost  with 
his  dying  breath  condemned  Mr.  Croswell's  attitude  towards 
the  ministers  and  churches. 

Mr.  Croswell  preached  for  several  months  to  the  little  church 
gathered  in  1743,  with  which  (as  we  suppose)  Mr.  Ward  el  was 
connected  for  a  time.  On  the  10th  of  December,  1746,  he  was 
invited  to  become  its  minister.  He  continued  to  preach  to  it, 
but  did  not  answer  its  call  until  December  2,  1747,  when  he 
declined  it  for  reasons  given,  as  follows  :  — 

1st.  Because  though  the  number  of  the  members  of  the  Church  was 
at  first  very  small,  a  considerable  part  have  already  turned  out  rigid 
Separatists.  2ndly.  and  principally,  because  there  is  a  vein  of  rigid 
Separation  running  through  the  Articles  ;  no  doubt,  the  general  laxness 
and  formality  in  the  churches  was  a  means  of  the  Brethren's  running 
into  the  other  extream.  However,  as  I  believe  the  Spirit  of  Christ  to 
be  a  Spirit  of  Union,  and  that  this  Spirit  will  not  accompany  any  Zeal 
which  is  not  countenanced  by  his  Word,  I  always  have  had  melan- 
cholly  apprehensions  and  presages  that  God  will  not  bless  you  as  a 
church,  though  I  hope  he  will  bless  your  persons  and  families.  .  .  . 
So  I  can  truly  say,  that  if  there  were  a  number  who  would  assent  to 
such  articles  as  I  think  agreable  to  Scripture,  and  would  unite  into  a 


MR.    CROSWELVS  INSTALLATION.  591 

Body,  desiring  me  to  preach  the  glorious  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  to 
them,  and  to  take  the  oversight  of  them  :  Things  would  look  with  a 
very  encouraging  aspect,  and  I  should  not  dare  to  answer  them  in  the 
negative. 

The  members  of  the  little  church  felt  aggrieved  at  this  an- 
swer. They  complained  of  the  long  delay  ;  they  said  that  Mr. 
Crosvvell  had  had  their  Church  Articles  in  his  hands  for  revis- 
ion, and  they  had  expressed  their  willingness  to  accept  any 
changes  recommended  by  him  ;  and  they  protested  against  his 
evident  purpose  to  create  a  division  among  them,  and  to  draw 
away  some  of  their  number  after  himself.  They  were  desirous 
that  the  brethren  who  were  forming  a  second  "  new  gathered 
church  "  should  unite  with  them,  and  that  Mr.  Croswell  should 
be  the  pastor ;  but  the  latter  was  not  willing,  and  he  closed  his 
ministry  with  what,  in  order  to  discriminate,  we  must  call  the 
church  of  1743,  on  the  20th  of  March,  1748.  On  the  30th  of 
the  next  September,  Mr.  Ephraim  Clark  was  ordained  to  the 
pastoral  office  in  this  church,  with  the  imposition  of  hands, 
"  three  churches  being  met  in  Council  by  their  pastors  and  del- 
egates, and  assisting  in  the  work."  We  know  nothing  whatever 
of  this  council,  and  nothing  of  the  further  history  of  the  church, 
except  that  Mr.  Clark  was  preaching  to  it  three  years  later.1 

Only  two  of  the  Boston  churches  were  invited  to  assist  at 
the  installation  of  Mr.  Croswell  as  pastor  of  the  church  gath- 
ered in  1748.  Of  these,  one  was  the  South  Church;  the  other 
we  do  not  know.  Only  four  churches  were  represented  in  the 
proceedings :  the  First  Church,  Plymouth,  the  Rev.  Nathaniel 
Leonard,  pastor  ;  the  Fourth  Church,  Bridgewater,  the  Rev. 
John  Porter,  pastor  ;  the  Second  Church,  Plymouth,  the  Rev. 
Jonathan  Ellis,  pastor  ;  and  the  Church  in  Middleborough,  the 
Rev.  Sylvanus  Conant,  pastor.  Mr.  Leonard,  Mr.  Porter,  and 
Mr.  Ellis  signed  the  "Testimony"  of  July  7,  1743.  Mr.  Conant 
was  settled  as  the  successor  of  the  Rev.  Peter  Thacher,  in 
I745-2 

1  In  the  Congregational  Library,  Bos-  2  Mr.  Thacher   died   April   22,    1744. 

ton,  we  find  "  A   Discourse  on  Justifica-  The  Rev.  Sylvanus  Conant,  Harv.  Coll. 

tion  by  Grace  :  Being  the  substance  of  1740,  began  his  ministry  at  Middlebor- 

two  Sermons  delivered  to  the  new  gath-  ough    September   9,  1744,    and  was  or- 

ered  Congregational  Church    of   Christ  dained  March  28,  1745.     "  He  continued 

in  Boston,  By  Ephraim  Clark,  Pastor  of  his   ministry,  at   first,  at  the   house   of 

the  said  Church.    Boston  1751."    A  Nar-  Madam    Thacher,    and    after    the   new 

rative  is  appended,  from  which  we  have  meeting  house  was  built  (which  was  the 

gained  most  of  the  information  given  in  same  year)  in  that  house  till  his  death, 

the  text.  which  was  of  the  small-pox,  Dec.  8, 1777." 


592  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

There  were  three  courses  open  to  the  South  Church,  when 
invited  to  assist  at  this  installation.  The  first  was  to  be  pres- 
ent, and  to  participate  in  proceedings  of  which  its  judgment  did 
not  approve,  in  a  compliant  spirit  of  easy-going  good  nature. 
The  second  was  to  be  present,  and  to  spoil  the  proceedings  by 
an  unseemly  interference  and  dissent.1  The  third  was  to  decline 
the  invitation,  and  to  communicate  its  reasons  for  so  doing  in 
writing.  We  might  be  sure  beforehand  that  the  church  would 
choose  the  last  of  the  three,  as  it  did  ;  and  it  selected  some  of  its 
wisest  and  most  influential  lay  members  to  unite  with  its  pastors 
in  drawing  up  its  letter,  which  was  addressed  to  Messrs.  Thomas 
Fillebrown,  James  Davenport,  and  Nathaniel  Procter,2  and  was 
as  follows  :  — 

Brethren, 

We  have  received  yours  of  the  29th  of  August  last,  desiring  our 
assistance  at  the  Rev  Mr.  Crosswell's  instalment. 

We  send  these  to  give  you  the  Reasons  why  we  decline  answering 
your  Request. 

1.  It  seems  to  us  that  your  leaving  the  Ministers  and  Churches  in 
this  Town,  which  you  belonged  to,  is  from  such  a  Disaffection  to  them 
as  is  unjustifiable. 

2.  Though  we  would  be  very  tender  of  the  Rights  of  Conscience, 
yet  inasmuch  as  there  are  other  Congregational  Churches  in  Town,  who 
have  pious  and  orthodox  Ministers,  where  you  might  be  conveniently 
accommodated,  we  cannot  see  any  just  reason  for  such  a  Multiplica- 
tion of  Churches  ;  but  judge  it  hath  an  unhappy  Tendency  to  crumble 
them  into  small  Societies,  and  hinder  their  Christian  Union  and  Com- 
munion. 

3.  We  apprehend  that  Mr.  Crosswell  hath  given  just  Matter  of 
Offence  to  these  Churches,  and  their  Pastors,  and  vented  some  dan- 
gerous Errors,  without  publishing  any  Retraction.  Thus  in  a  pam- 
phlet entitled  A  Reply  to  the  Declaration  of  a  number  of  the  associated 
Ministers  in  Boston  and  Charlestown  ;  Mr.  Crosswell  hath  justified  the 

1  "  To  which  end  we  find  reason  also  and  not  with  a  Noise,  Wrath  and  Bitter- 
to  add  our  Testimony  against  all  Indecen-  ness,  Disagreeable  to  such  a  Solemnity." 
cy  and  Irregularity  in  the  Management  —  A  Seasonable  Testimony  to  Good  Or* 
of  a  Publick  Dissent  from  and  Opposi-  der  in  the  Churches,  by  Inc.  Mather,  p.  18. 
tion  unto  the  Ordination  or  Instalment  -  The  only  other  members  of  the 
of  a  Pastor  over  a  Flock,  whensoever  church  known  to  us  are  William  Hick- 
there  may  be  Occasion  for  so  Melan-  ling  and  Thomas  Handasyde  Peck.  Mr. 
cholly  an  Action,  which  rarely  happens.  Procter  became  a  member  of  the  Second 
.  .  .  Christianity  requires  that  this  be  Church,  August  16,  1730,  and  Mr.  Hick- 
done,  when  it  becomes  Necessary,  with  ling  of  the  South  Church,  January  17, 
much  Modesty  and  Calmness,  Meekness  1730-31.  The  latter,  a  "noted  distiller," 
and  Gravity,  Wisdom  and  Seriousness;  died  December  10,  1774. 


PROTEST  OF  THE  SOUTH  CHURCH.  593 

Rev.  Mr.  Davenport's  disorderly  Conduct,  and  injuriously  treated  said 
Ministers  for  bearing  their  faithful  and  seasonable  Testimony  against 
those  Disorders,  which  Mr.  Davenport  himself,  hath  since  publickly 
condemned  and  retracted  ;  Mr.  Crosswell  hath  also  published  a  Reply 
to  a  Book  of  the  late  Reverend  and  Excellent  Mr.  Dickinson,  entitled 
A  Display  of  God's  Special  Grace,  attested  by  Seven  Ministers  of  Boston  : x 
In  which  Reply,  are  contained  such  offensive  Passages  as  these  fol- 
lowing, "  telling  how  to  come  to  Christ,  however  specious  it  may  look, 
is  indeed  and  in  Truth,  stopping  Sinners  from  coming  at  all."   Page  7. 

"  That  Manifestation,  or  a  Persuasion  of  our  Justified  Estate  is 
essential  to  the  Exercise  of  saving  Faith."     Page  11. 

"  That  when  Men  do  exercise  true  saving  Faith,  they  are  always 
sensible  of  it."     Page  12. 

Again  Mr.  Crosswell  blames  said  Ministers  for  holding  "  that  Per- 
sons must  find  out  their  Justification  by  their  Sanctification,"  and  for 
holding  that  "  if  Persons  maintain  a  Course  of  vital  and  true  Holi- 
ness, they  need  not  doubt  but  they  are  the  Children  of  God."  Page 
12,  13. 

He  charges  said  Ministers  in  joining  with  Arminians  in  the  same 
dreadful  Work  of  stopping  Souls  from  coming  to  Christ ;  and  saith 
that  the  said  Ministers  do  in  effect,  tell  close  Hypocrites  that  they  are 
travelling  apace  to  Heaven,  though  God  knows  they  are  going  down 
to  Hell.     Page  14,  15. 

He  further  saith  that  the  Doctrine  of  Men's  finding  out  their  Justi- 
fication by  their  Sanctification,  would  be  likely  to  fix  such  as  are  en- 
quiring what  they  shall  do  to  be  saved,  upon  a  sandy  Foundation. 
Page  16.  And  that  said  Ministers  have  done  what  will  be  a  Means 
of  damning  many  Thousands  of  Souls,  unless  the  infinite  Mercy 
of  God  prevent.     Page  18. 

He  further  declares  as  follows,  "  I  have  heard  much  of  your  humble 
doubting  Christians,  but  I  never  saw  one  yet,  nor  did  any  one  else 
ever  see  one ;  they  are  meer  Chimeras  in  Religion,  certain  imaginary 
Monsters  that  never  were  nor  indeed  can  be."  Page  20.  "That  a 
Believer  in  the  dark  can't  repent  of  one  of  the  Sins  which  he  daily 
commits."     Page  22. 

We  might  mention  other  Expressions  which  Mr.   Crosswell  hath 

1  [The  seven  ministers  were  Dr.  Col-  Boston  pastors,  "as  containing  doctrines 

man,  Dr.  Sewall,  Mr.  Prince,  Mr.  Webb,  that  are  most  dangerous  and  destructive 

Mr.    Cooper,    Mr.    Foxcroft,    and    Mr.  to  the  souls  of  men."     Mr.  Pomroy  was 

Gee.     A  preface,   dated   New   London,  arrested  in  May,  1742,  with  Mr.  Daven- 

Conn.,  November  5,  1742,  is  signed  by  port,  and  taken  to  Hartford,  to  answer 

Timothy  Allen,  Andrew  Croswell,  Tim-  to  the  charge  of  collecting  assemblies  of 

othy  Symmes,  and  John  Curtis,   and   in  people,  mostly  children  and  youth,  and 

it    is  quoted    the    opinion    of    Eleazer  under  the  pretence  of  religious  exercises, 

Wheelock   and    Benjamin    Pomroy,    in  inflaming  them  with  doctrines  subversive 

condemnation  of  the  book  issued  by  the  of  all  law  and  order.] 


594  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

published  in  this  and  other  Pamphlets,  which  are  grievous  to  us,  and 
many  godly  People  which  have  read  them ;  but  we  forbear,  and  it  is 
with  Sorrow  that  we  have  been  obliged  to  recite  these,  not  only  as  a 
Reason  of  our  present  Conduct,  but  as  a  Means,  if  God  please,  both 
to  awaken  Mr.  Crosswell  to  a  serious  Consideration  and  Retractation 
of  them,  and  of  warning  you  against  them 

4.  From  the  before  mentioned  offensive  and  dangerous  Passages, 
we  can't  but  be  greatly  concerned  for  you,  in  proposing  to  sit  under 
his  Ministry,  unless  proper  Satisfaction  be  given,  and  are  afraid  of  his 
leading  you  both  into  greater  Disaffection  to  pious  and  orthodox  Min- 
isters, and  into  such  Opinions  as  may  endanger  your  Souls. 

On  which  Accounts  also,  we  can't  comply  with  your  Request,  in 
assisting  his  Settlement  with  you,  but  earnestly  pray  that  the  God  of 
all  Light  and  Grace  would  open  his  and  your  Eyes,  and  lead  you  into 
the  Paths  of  Truth  and  Righteousness  and  Peace,  through  Jesus 
Christ,  to  whom  be  glory  forever,     Amen. 

We  are  your  Brethren  in  the  Bonds  of  the  Gospel 

Joseph  Sewall    )  Pastors  of  the  South 
Thomas  Prince  )     Church  in  Boston 
In  the  Name  and  at  the  Desire  of  the  Church. 

"  The  South  Church,"  says  Mr.  Croswell,  in  his  Narrative 
from  which  we  take  the  correspondence,  "  seemed  to  be  set  upon 
making  sure  work ; "  and,  on  the  5th  of  October,  it  sent  Dea- 
cons Henchman  and  Hubbard  with  a  copy  of  this  letter  super- 
scribed to  the  Reverend  Moderator  of  the  installing  council, 
Mr.  Leonard.  "  This  being  read  before  the  Council,"  adds  Mr. 
Croswell,  "  I  was  desired  to  speak  to  it ;  which  I  did  for  an 
hour  or  more  :  during  a  great  part  of  which  time  I  did  not  rec- 
ollect that  the  cause  I  was  pleading  concerned  me ;  nor  do  I 
remember  that  my  will  was  ever  so  long  a  time,  and  so  entirely 
swallowed  up  in  the  Will  of  God."  He  denied  that  he  was  con- 
trolled by  any  spirit  of  separatism,  and  insisted  that  the  passages 
quoted  from  his  writings  should  be  taken  in  the  connection  in 
which  they  were  written.  The  council  adjourned  to  the  next 
day,  to  enable  him  to  reduce  his  remarks  to  writing,  and  he  was 
then  inducted  into  the  pastoral  office. 

The  council  sent  a  communication  to  the  South  Church, 
justifying  its  action  on  the  ground  that  the  new  church  was  not 
gathered  in  a  spirit  of  separation,  that  its  articles  and  covenant 
were  in  harmony  with  Congregational  usage,  and  that  no  charges 
had  been  brought  against  the  moral  character  of  Mr.  Croswell 
or  any  of  the  members.  The  committee  sent  the  following  reply 
to  the  letter  which  had  been  addressed  to  it  :  — 


MR.    CROS  WELL'S  REPLY.  595 

Reverend  and  Beloved 

The  two  first  articles  of  your  Letter  relate  to  us  only  and  not  to  our 
Minister:  To  which  we  would  reply,  that  our  leaving  the  other  Min- 
isters and  coming  together  into  a  Church-State,  was  not  for  such  Dis- 
affection as  you  seem  to  imagine,  but  for  our  better  Edification,  and 
also,  that  we,  being  professed  friends  of  the  present  Reformation, 
might  have  a  pulpit  open  to  receive  Mr.  Whitefield,  and  others  whom 
we  look  upon  to  be  the  zealous  and  faithful  Ministers  of  Jesus  Christ, 
who  are  so  commonly  shut  out  of  other  pulpits. 

To  the  Rev.  Messrs.  Joseph  Sewall  and  Thomas  Prince,  Pastors  of 
the  South  Church  in  Boston,  to  be  communicated  to  said  church 

Thomas  Fillebrown,  \ 
James  Davenport,        >    Committee 
Nathaniel  Procter    ) 
In  the  Name  and  at  the  Desire  of  the  Church. 

Mr.  Croswell  also  sent  a  letter,  from  which  we  quote  the  open- 
ing paragraphs :  — 

My  Fathers  and  Brethren, 

The  great  freedom  you  have  lately  taken  with  my  name  and  char- 
acter in  representing  me,  by  a  Letter  to  my  People,  and  to  an  Eccle- 
siastical Council,  as  a  minister  very  dangerous  to  the  souls  of  men, 
whereby  you  did  what  lay  in  your  power,  to  stop  my  mouth  from 
preaching  the  glorious  Gospel  of  the  blessed  God  ;  will  at  least,  ex- 
cuse the  freedom  I  take  in  writing  you  this  letter. 

As  soon  as  I  heard  you  were  taking  counsel  together  against  me, 
by  your  committee,  I  went  and  told  Jesus :  I  poured  out  my  com- 
plaints before  him,  I  showed  before  him  my  trouble;  and  was  enabled 
so  entirely  to  put  over  my  cause  into  his  hands,  that  from  that  time, 
though  I  was  not  thoughtless,  I  was  no  more  distressed  about  the 
event,  than  if  I  had  only  heard  you  were  consulting  together  against 
some  other  man,  whom  I  knew  nothing  of. 

However,  though  I  stayed  myself  upon  my  God,  and  was  kept  in 
perfect  peace  ;  it  was  my  constant  cry  at  the  Throne  of  Grace,  that  I 
might  learn  all  those  lessons  which  I  ought  to  learn  from  such  an  ex- 
traordinary proceedure  against  me ;  and  particularly  that  I  might  be 
brought  so  low,  that  whereinsoever  I  was  blameworthy,  I  might  be 
willing  to  confess  and  to  give  glory  to  God.  God  heard  this  prayer  — 
and  accordingly,  when  I  answered  for  myself,  I  did  not  perceive  the 
least  disposition  to  hide  or  cover,  but  owned  I  had  been  out  of  the 
way  ;  and  that  many  expressions  in  my  pamphlets  were  too  sarcastical 
and  cutting,  and  had  cut  me  since  a  great  many  times.  Nay,  I  took  a 
sweet  pleasure  in  making  these  confessions ;  because  by  bearing  tes- 
timony against  myself,  I  bore  testimony  for  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

And  from  the  same  principle,  I  trust,  of  magnifying  Christ,  whatever 


596  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

it  costs  me,  I  now  declare,  that  if  you  will  take  the  pains  to  shew  me 
the  particular  passages  in  my  books,  which  you  apprehend,  bear  too 
hard  upon  ministers  in  general,  or  Boston  ministers  in  particular; 
wherein  the  word  of  God  appears  against  me,  I  will  give  you  a  written, 
or,  if  you  please  a  printed  recantation. 

But  this  very  principle  which  makes  me  with  delight,  condemn  my- 
self for  every  word  I  have  printed,  which  don't  savour  of  a  gospel- 
spirit,  keeps  me  from  condemning  myself  for  any  doctrines,  because  I 
verily  believe  them  to  be  the  truths  of  the  gospel. 

He  goes  on  to  explain  and  defend  his  views  on  justification 
and  sanctification,  and,  before  he  closes,  administers  this  rebuke 
to  the  South  Church  and  its  ministers  :  — 

Nay,  let  me  leave  this  one  word  with  you  to  think  upon,  viz.  That 
you  cannot  reasonably  expect  much  of  the  presence  of  Christ  in  your 
assemblies,  while  Mr.  Whitefield  and  other  godly  Ministers,  who  occa- 
sionally come  to  Boston,  are  industriously  kept  out. 

Mr.  Croswell's  disappointment  and  irritation,  in  view  of  the 
opposition  which  he  met  on  his  removal  to  Boston,  should  be 
accepted,  perhaps,  as  an  excuse  for  this  unjust  remark  ;  for  he 
must  have  known  that  Dr.  Sewall  and  Mr.  Prince  had  been  from 
the  first  among  the  warmest  and  most  valued  friends  and  ad- 
visers of  Mr.  Whitefield.  Dr.  Sewall,  in  the  annual  conven- 
tion of  1743,  had  led  the  minority  in  calling  for  a  proper  rec- 
ognition in  the  "  Testimony  "  of  the  recent  revival  ;  and  Mr. 
Prince,  in  his  writings  in  the  Christian  History,  has  preserved 
for  all  time  the  most  accurate  and  sympathetic  record  we  have 
of  the  work  of  grace  of  that  period  in  the  various  churches  of 
New  England.  That  the  South  Church  was  one  of  the  only  two 
churches  in  the  town  invited  to  the  installation  shows  that  its 
attitude  was  regarded  as  not  unfriendly  to  the  general  religious 
movement  which  the  new  church  was  supposed  to  represent. 
The  trouble  was  that  its  pastors  and  their  brother  ministers 
discriminated  between  Mr.  Whitefield  and  many  of  those  who 
followed  him  and  who  shared  his  zeal  but  not  his  power.  It  is 
very  doubtful  whether  any  organized  opposition  would  have  met 
the  great  revivalist  on  his  second  visit  to  New  England  had  it 
not  been  for  these  men,  towards  whose  extravagances  he  was 
himself  only  too  lenient.1     It  is  a  question  whether  even  Mr. 

1  Mr.  Whitefield  wrote  to  Dr.  Colman,  lest  I  should  divert  people's  minds  from 

September  24,  1742  :  "  I  go  on  preaching  the  simplicity  of  the  gospel.    I  have  often 

the  cross  and  the  Redeemer,  and  desire  found  that  opposing,  instead  of  hurting, 

to  say  as  little  as  possible  about  others,  makes  erroneous  people  more  consider. 


COUNCIL  AT  MED  FIELD. 


597 


Tennent's  coming  to  Boston,  which  was  at  Mr.  Whitefield's 
suggestion,  was  an  unmixed  good  ;  certainly,  Mr.  Davenport's 
coming  was  an  unmixed  evil. 

It  does  not  appear  that  the  South  Church  and  its  ministers 
replied  to  any  of  these  communications  ;  they  had  accomplished 
their  object,  which  was  to  protest,  and  not  to  enter  into  a  con- 
troversy. The  new  church  bought  the  Huguenot  Meeting- 
House,  in  School  Street,1  and  continued  in  existence  until  the 
death  of  Mr.  Croswell,  in  1785. 

Octr.  16.  1748.     Lord's  Day. 

The  Brethren  were  stay'd,  And  the  Hon.  John  Osborne,  Ezekiel 
Lewis,  Josiah  Willard  Esqrs  Deacon  Hubbard  and  Mr.  Edward  Brom- 
field  were  chosen  to  be  the  Committee  for  the  year  ensuing. 

Joseph  Sewall. 

Lord's  Day,  Octr.  23.  1748 

Church  stay'd.  Letter  read  from  the  Church  in  Medfield,  desiring 
our  Assistance  in  Council.  Granted,  and  one  of  the  Deacons,  and 
Messrs  Thomas  Paine  and  Andrew  Eliot  were  chosen  as  Messengers.2 


able.  This  made  me  wish  the  Boston 
ministers  would  not  say  so  much  about 
the  exhorters.  It  will  only  set  the  peo- 
ple more  upon  following  them." 

1  The  French  Protestant  church,  in 
January,  1704-5,  bought  of  James 
Mears,  hatter  (a  member  of  the  South 
Church),  a  piece  of  land  in  School  House 
Lane,  now  School  Street,  and  ten  or 
eleven  years  later  a  small  brick  meeting- 
house was  erected  on  it.  This  is  the 
property  which  was  sold  to  Mr.  Cros- 
well's  congregation.  Subsequently,  it 
passed  into  the  hands  of  the  Roman 
Catholics,  and  mass  was  said  there  for 
the  first  time  November  2,  17SS.  See 
Memorial  History  of  Boston,  vol.  ii.  pp. 

253.  254- 

2  [The  Rev.  Jonathan  Townsend, 
Harv.  Coll.  1741,  was  ordained  as  the 
successor  of  Mr.  Baxter,  October  23, 
1745.  There  was  some  dissatisfaction 
with  the  selection,  "  which  grew  into  a 
permanent  disaffection."  In  1746,  "sev- 
eral dissatisfied  brethren  asked  to  be 
dismissed  to  the  second  church  in 
Wrentham.  This  was  refused,  and  they 
then  asked  that  a  council  be  called   to 


adjust  the  differences  between  them  and 
the  church.  This  was  also  refused.  It 
seems  that  these  brethren  had  charged 
that  the  church  had  broken  covenant  in 
regard  to  discipline,  but  in  what  par- 
ticulars is  not  known."  In  1747,  "  the 
church  voted  that  those  who  have  charged 
the  church  with  a  breach  of  covenant 
should  come  no  more  to  the  communion 
till  satisfaction  was  made  for  the  injury 
done  by  the  charge.  This  was  defined, 
by  vote,  to  mean  exclusion  from  sitting 
at  the  Lord's  table,  and  taking  any  part 
in  church  action."  In  1748,  "  the  num- 
ber of  dissatisfied  church  members  was 
increasing,  and  the  church  finally  voted 
to  call  a  council.  Some  matters  in  dis- 
pute had  been  laid  before  the  council 
called  at  the  time  of  Mr.  Townsend's 
ordination.  The  church  now  did  not 
wish  to  have  those  matters  reopened. 
As  a  result  of  the  council,  the  platform 
of  church  discipline  agreed  upon  at 
Cambridge  in  1648  was  accepted;  and 
one  of  the  disaffected,  William  Plimpton, 
was  received  back  to  fellowship."  — 
Tilden's  History  of  the  Town  of  Medfield, 
pp.  136-138.] 


598  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

Lord's  Day,  Novr  13.  1748 

The  Brethren  of  the  Church  and  Congregation  were  stayed ;  and 
Voted, 

1.  That  the  Deacons  be  empower 'd  to  expend  the  whole  of  the  last 
Collection  which  is  not  appropriated,  for  the  relief  of  the  poor  of  this 
Church  and  Congregation. 

2.  That  there  be  a  Collection  for  Charitable  and  pious  uses,  on  the 
Anniversary  Thanksgiving  Nov.  24  current ;  and  that  the  Rest  of  the 
Congregation  be  notified  of  this  Vote  next  Lord's  Day,  and  desir'd  to 
assist  in  said  Collection.  J.  Sewall. 

Lord's  Day  Nov.  20.  Church  stay'd.  Letter  read  from  the  East 
Precinct  in  Attleborough  desiring  our  Assistance  in  the  Gathering  of 
a  church  there,  and  in  ordaining  Mr.  Peter  Thacher  Pastor.  Granted, 
and  Messrs  Oxenbridge  Thacher  and  Joseph  Jackson  were  chosen 
Messengers.  Joseph  Sewall. 

The  East  Church,  Attleborough,  was  organized  November 
30.  Mr.  Thacher,  who  had  been  preaching  statedly  to  the  con- 
gregation for  five  years,  was  eldest  son  of  the  Rev.  Peter 
Thacher,  of  Middleborough,  and  a  great-grandson  of  the  Rev. 
Thomas  Thacher.  His  mother  was  a  sister  of  Mr.  Prince.  Mr. 
Oxenbridge  Thacher  was  an  uncle  of  the  pastor-elect ;  he  was 
a  graduate  of  Harvard  College,  in  the  class  of  1698,  had  been  a 
preacher,  and  later  was  a  prominent  citizen  of  Boston,  select- 
man and  representative. 

Public  Thanksgiving  Novr  24.  1748 
Collected 
To  the  pious  and  Charitable  Fund 
Rev.  Mr.  Spencer  ...... 

Mr.  White  of  Nantucket      .... 

Minister  of  Freetown       .... 

Widow  Arnold     ...... 

Widows  Thwing  and  Rouse     . 

Unappropriated        ..... 

Since  added 
To  the  Rev.  Mr.  Cambell  of  Tiverton 
Mr.  Brett  of  Freetown 

Lord's  Day  March  12.  1748-9 

The  Brethren  of  the  Church  and  Congregation  were  stayed ;  and 
Voted, 


*IO. 

0. 

0 

10. 

0. 

0 

5- 

0. 

0 

1. 

0. 

0 

2 

0 

3- 

0. 

0 

31- 

0. 

0 

229. 

12. 

8 

260. 

12. 

8 

10. 

0 

10. 

0 

A   DAY  OF  PRAYER.  599 

That  the  Deacons  be  empower'd  to  expend  the  whole  of  the  last  un- 
appropriated Collection,  for  the  relief  of  the  poor  of  this  church  and 
congregation  ;  which  they  apprehend  will  be  sufficient  till  the  next 
Fall :  And  whereas  it  was  necessary  that  sundry  repairs  should  be 
made  on  the  Meeting-House  and  Fences,  and  on  the  Ministerial 
House  in  which  Dr.  Sewall  dwells,  to  the  amount  of  about  ^"400. 
O.  T., 

Voted  That  there  be  a  Collection  on  the  Anniversary  Fast,  March 
23,  Instant,  P.  M.  towards  defraying  said  charges ;  and  that  the  Rest 
of  the  Congregation  be  notified  of  this  Vote  next  Lord's  Day,  and 
desir'd  to  assist  in  said  Collection.  J.  Sewall. 

March  19  1748-9  Lord's  Day. 

The  Church  was  stayed  ;  And  James  Bow,  negro,  was  admonish'd 
and  suspended  from  the  communion  of  this  Church  upon  account  of 
a  course  of  gross  Lying,  Promise  Breaking,  and  fraudulent  Dealing. 

Joseph  Sewall. 

Anniversary  Fast  March  23  1748-9 

Collected  for  the  uses  aforesaid  [March  12]  £186.  7.  11 

Lord's  Day  April  16.  1749 

The  church  was  stayed,  and  the  following  Proposal  was  made  and 
generally  agreed  to  ;  viz  : 

Having  taken  into  serious  consideration  the  lamentable  decay  of 
the  Power  of  Godliness,  and  our  own  unfruitfulness  under  the  means 
of  Grace  ; 

Voted,  that  Tuesday  the  second  of  May  next,  be  observed  by  us  as 
a  Day  of  Prayer  with  Fasting,  to  humble  ourselves  before  God,  and 
seek  to  Him  to  revive  His  work  among  us  and  His  people  by  pouring 
out  His  Spirit  from  on  High  upon  us  and  our  offspring ;  And  that  the 
Congregation  be  notified  and  be  desired  to  join  with  us  in  the  religious 
exercises  of  said  Day. 

The  second  of  May  (1749)  was  accordingly  observed  by  us  as  a  Day 
of  Prayer  with  Fasting.  Joseph  Sewall. 

The  admissions  to  the  church  had  been  very  few  for  several 
years,  nor  was  there  much  advance  in  the  number  until  1756. 

At  a  Meeting  of  the  Church  and  Congregation,  May  22  1749, 
Voted,  That  Messrs.  Oliver,  Walker  and  Cushing  be  a  Committee 
to  receive  from  the  Deacons  an  account  of  the  weekly  contributions 
since  the  subscription  of  the  Pew  holders  Jan  13.  1747,  for  the  support 
of  the  public- Worship,  and  make  report  to  the  Church  and  Congrega- 
tion of  any  deficiency  in  the  Payment  of  said  subscription :  And 
whereas,  the  sum  of  ^737.  O.  T.  is  now  wanted  to  lay  in  Wood  for  the 
Rev'd  Ministers,  and  to  repair  the  Meeting  House ;  that  said  Com- 
mittee make  an  assessment  of  said  sum  upon  the  said  deficient  per- 


600  HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 

sons,  and  the  remainders  on  the  several  Pewholders  and  others  in 
the  same  proportion  as  the  former  assessment  was  made  both  upon 
their  Pews  and  Persons,  or  as  near  as  may  be,  and  offer  the  same  at 
the  Adjournment  of  this  meeting,  with  the  Preamble  of  a  Subscription  ; 
that  each  person  may  give  his  consent  to  the  Payment  of  the  sum 
assess'd  upon  him. 

Voted,  The  same  allowance  to  the  Ministers  [twenty  pounds,  old 
tenor,  a  week]  for  another  year  compleat. 

Voted,  That  the  Deacons  be  impowered  to  receive  the  Sum  of 
^500.  O.  T.  left  to  the  poor  of  the  Church  and  Congregation  by  Mr. 
Nath.  Cunningham  deceas'd,  and  give  a  full  discharge,  with  the 
acknowledgments  of  this  Church  and  Congregation  for  so  generous  a 
Benefaction. 

Voted,  That  the  Committee  of  Seaters  be  impowered  to  make  a 
suitable  number  of  Wall-Pews  in  the  lower  Gallery,  at  the  West  End 
of  the  Meeting  House,  to  set  a  price  upon  them,  and  a  weekly  tax 
as  a  condition  of  the  Proprietors  holding  the  same. 

"Voted,  That  20/s  O.  T.  per  week,  be  allow'd  the  sexton  for  the  year 
ensuing. 

Adjourned. 

July  10.  1749 

Voted  —  That  Messrs.  Ox.  Thacher  Esq.  T.  Paine,  J.  Prince  and 
W.  Taylor,  be  a  Committee  to  wait  upon  the  absent  Brethren  with  the 
subscription  prepar'd  and  now  laid  before  the  Church  and  Congrega- 
tion, in  order  to  raise  the  sum  of  ^700.  O.  T.  for  purchasing  Wood, 
repairing  the  Meeting  House,  and  discharging  debts  already  contracted 
for  the  service  of  the  Society ;  and  that  the  said  Committee  take  with 
them  the  list  of  such  of  the  Brethren  as  are  by  the  Deacons  rendred 
deficient  in  their  contributions,  and  labor  to  collect  the  deficiency  of 
such  as  shall  appear  to  them  to  be  in  arrears  ;  and  pay  the  money  col- 
lected into  the  Hands  of  the  Deacons,  to  be  applied  to  the  uses  afore- 
said. 

And  that  Col.  Winslow  and  Mr.  Foster  be  desired  to  advise  and 
assist  in  repairing  the  Meeting  House.  J.  Sewall. 

On  the  24th  of  August  a  general  thanksgiving  was  observed 
throughout  the  province,  "  for  the  extraordinary  reviving  rains, 
after  the  most  distressing  drought  which  have  [sic]  been  known 
among  us  in  the  memory  of  any  living."  Mr.  Prince  preached 
from  Psalm  cvii.  33-35,  on  the  Natural  and  Moral  Govern- 
ment and  Agency  of  God  in  Droughts  and  Rains.  This  sermon 
was  printed,  and  passed  through  two  or  three  editions,  one  of 
which  was  inscribed  to  the  Royal  Society.  We  quote  two  or 
three  paragraphs  :  — 


THE  DROUGHT  OF  174Q.  601 

Let  us  remember  how  greatly  he  distressed  us  in  the  late  most  ex- 
traordinary long,  extream,  destroying  Drought,  and  in  many  Places 
Swarms  of  various  Sorts  of  Insects  devouring  all  before  them.  I 
have  met  with  none  that  remembers  the  like  Distress.  The  first  Crop 
of  Hay  which  was  our  chief,  yea  with  many  the  sole  Dependance,  to 
support  the  Cattle  for  our  five  Months  foddering  Season,  so  far  cut 
off ;  that  most  of  the  people  had  but  a  Fourth  Part,  many  but  a  Fifth, 
many  but  a  Tenth  of  what  they  us'd  to  mow ;  and  many  none  at  all, 
being  oblig'd  to  turn  their  Cattle  into  their  only  mowing  Ground  to 
keep  them  from  perishing :  And  how  affecting  was  it  to  see  them 
empty,  pining  and  go  lowing  about  for  want  of  Food ;  their  Owners 
pittying,  but  unable  to  help  them.  .  .  . 

Let  us  never  forget  our  great  Extremity,  our  growing  Difficulties, 
our  threatning  Dangers ;  our  affecting  Prospect  of  loosing  half  our 
Stocks  ;  being  oblig'd  to  send  not  only  five  Hundred  Miles  to  Pensyl- 
vania,  but  even  to  England  above  three  Thousand,  neither  of  which 
was  ever  done  before,  for  Hay,  to  save  some  of  our  Cattle  alive ;  — 
Yea  the  Prospect  of  more  distressing  Want  of  Bread  for  Ourselves 
and  Children  ;  neither  having  it,  nor  wherewith  to  purchase  it. 

Let  us  remember  how  awful  the  Displeasure  of  God  appeared ;  and 
how  we  humbled  ourselves  before  Him,  fasted,  confess'd  our  Sins,  and 
cried  for  Mercy.  Thursday  June  15,  was  our  Day  of  general  Fasting 
and  Prayer  throughout  the  Province 

And  now  behold  in  what  a  wonderous  Manner,  he  has  heard  and 
answered ;  given  us  gentle  and  moderate  Showers,  almost  every  other 
Day,  with  most  suitable  Intervals  of  warm  Weather,  revived  many  of 
those  Fruits  of  the  Earth  which  seemed  irrecoverable,  causing  them 
surprizingly  to  flourish,  that  we  are  like  them  that  Dream ;  destroying 
the  devouring  Insects,  and  even  giving  the  Hopes  of  a  plenteous 
Harvest ! 

Lord's  Day,  Sept.  10  and  by  Adjournment,  Sept.  24.  1749 
The  Brethren  of  the  Church  stayed,  And  the  Hon.  Josiah  Willard, 
Deacon  Hubbard,  Oxenbridge  Thacher  Esqrs  Mr.  Hugh  Vans  and 
Mr.  Jonathan  Loring,  were  chosen  to  be  the  Committee  for  the  year 
ensuing.  Joseph  Sewall. 

Lord's  Day  Octr.  1,  1749. 

The  Brethren  stayed,  when  a  Letter  was  communicated  from  the 
Church  in  Shrewsbury,  desiring  our  Assistance  in  Council.  Granted. 
Messengers  chosen,  One  of  the  Deacons  and  Mr.  Oxenbridge  Thacher.1 

J.  Sewall. 

1  [The  Rev.  Job  Cushing  was  minister  subject  of  church  discipline,  and  at  length 

of  Shrewsbury  at  this  time. .  There  had  a  council  was  called  to  harmonize  them, 

been  differences  of  opinion  among  the  Of  the  eight  churches  invited,  six  "  met 

members  there  for  many  years,  on  the  on  the  nth  of  October,   1749,  and,  on 


602 


HISTORY  OF  THE   OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH. 


Lord's  Day  Novr  5.  1749. 

The  Brethren  of  the  Church  and  Congregation  stayed,  and  Voted, 
That  there  be  a  Collection  for  Charitable  and  pious  uses  on  the 
Anniversary  Thanksgiving  Novr.   16.  Current:  and  that  the  Rest  of 
the  Congregation  be  notified  of  this  Vote  next  Lord's  Day,  and  be 
desir'd  to  assist  in  said  Collection.  J.  Sewall. 

Thanksgiving  Novr.  16.  1749. 

Collected 242.  11.  8 


the  evening  of  the  13th,  gave  a  result 
and  read  it  to  the  brethren.  It  was  left 
with  them,  and  on  the  30th  of  October 
the    church,    by    a    vote,  accepted   it." 


Nothing  further  respecting  the  proceed- 
ings of  this  council  can  be  gleaned  from 
the  record.  —  Ward's  Hist,  of  the  Town 
of  Shrewsbwy,^.  172.] 


*&.\ 


Date 

Due 

""Tf^JSW"1"" 

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^- 1— * 

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^^^^^^*>_ 

utw   .Biiinir 

<i 

9 

